These are times that try golfers' drivers. New courses are stretching across ZIP zones—John Daly is consulting on one that's set to top 8,000 yards (El Grande Hombre in Las Vegas)—and even courses built only five years ago are rethinking how far back the back tees should be.
Case in point: Semiprivate Cateechee Golf Club in Hartwell, Georgia, launched to strong reviews way back in 1998. But almost immediately, the 6,600-yard layout suffered from a bout of length envy. "The first thing people said when they played here was, 'You've got a nice little golf course,'" says director of operations Michael Cofer. "Our owner [local telecom baron Lee Barton] said, '"Nice" and "little" are two words I never want to hear again.'"
About four hundred yards, sixteen bunkers and one million dollars later, Cofer says, "this upgrade puts us where we could host a U.S. Amateur qualifier or a Georgia Amateur Championship."
We dare say they could dream even bigger. The course is both tight and long, with drop-offs on many fairways that make you wish you'd brought rappelling gear. The greens are large and amply defined, but with enough subtleties to incite angst in even the best rollers of the rock. Factor in a swanky, modern nine-million-dollar clubhouse, a new Southern regional cuisine restaurant and a setting thirteen miles from the interstate (and seventy-five years from the twenty-first century), and Cateechee is now a pearl in a sea of grits—and a mighty big pearl at that.
Greens Fees: $50-$60. Tee Times: 706-856-4653 or visit cateechee.com.
