Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
The new Finley Golf Course should be worth the wait.
It cost $13-plus million dollars, all paid by Rams Club donors from four gifts of $1 million each down to 17 gifts under $10,000. It was supposed to be ready by September 1, but looks like it will be a little later than that.
The two biggest changes will be cheered by both UNC golf teams, scratch players and low handicappers as well as weekend hackers. Both are a result of converting the old holes 10 and 11 into a private practice facility for the Tar Heels, which required adding two new holes to the old back nine.
The change eliminates the quirky first 11 holes on the east side of Finley Golf Course Road. The revised layout has a traditional nine holes on each side of the road for par 70. AND the old front nine is the new back and vice versa.
Turning holes 12 through 18 on the old backside into nine holes required utilizing open land by Love Golf Design, owned by ex-Tar Heels Davis Love and his brother Mark renovating Tom Fazio’s overall rebuild in the 1990s.
The new No. 1 tee is pushed way back and uses about two-thirds of the old No. 12 (par 3) fairway, one of three Par 3s on front side that is now a Par 34.
It is followed by a monstrous Par 4 of 495 yards with the tee box adjacent to the first green. Next to the No. 2 green is the tee for a new manageable Par 3 of 140 yards. No. 4 is on the old No. 13 par 5 and No. 14 par 3, converted to difficult par 4 sloping uphill, dogleg right to a heavily bunkered green. No. 5 is the old 15 along the pond and stretched out to 500 yards, behind which is the tee to another new Par 3 of 185 yards over the edge of the marsh. No. 7 is the old No. 16 par 4; No. 8 is the old No. 17 par 5; and No. 9 is the former finishing hole par 4.
The flipped back nine remains at par 36. The holes are basically in the same position as the old front nine with one alteration. The short Par 3 (old No. 5, new No. 14) has been extended to a more challenging Par 3 of 237 yards.
The biggest change with the putting greens has been replacing bent grass with a new strain of Bermuda that holds up better in the late hot summer months. Premium local courses such as Duke, Hope Valley and Old Chatham have all made the same move in recent years.
The greens have also received new underground drainage systems, and most of the numerous bunkers have been reconstructed.
“We had some serious catching up to do when it comes to the golf course and, most importantly, our facilities,” said men’s golf coach Andrew DiBitetto, whose team will now share with the women’s team a premier practice area and driving range where the “old” 10th and 11th holes used to be.
Featured image via UNC Men’s Golf on Twitter
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