The Fan's Corner

with Greg Duff: 06/28/01

Maggie Valley presents challenges

With this in mind, I have decided to write my first review of one of our area courses.

Last week, a friend of mine asked me to play with him after work at Maggie Valley Country Club. Of course I said yes and we met to play twilight round with another friend.

Maggie Valley is a place of mixed of emotions for me. I was married on the balcony overlooking the first tee (it would have been on the first tee if not for the rain), but I have never played a decent round of golf there. I think part of the reason is because there is such a dichotomy between the two nines. The front is relatively flat, while the back either plays up hill or down.

The first two holes on the front side are good warm-up holes: short par 4s with very little trouble to get you off on the wrong foot. The green on Number 2 can be a monster if the pin is set on the lower tier and you hit up on top.

The first challenge on the front side comes at Number 3, a long par 4 with a sharp dogleg left. The option is there to cut the corner, but if you hit a little short or two far left you are in the creek or out of bounds. Short hitters like me try to hit in the middle leaving a long iron or fairway wood into a small green surrounded by sand traps. I always say I should just put a six on the scorecard before I even tee off because that is usually the result. On this evening I bogeyed the hole, which felt like a birdie.

The rest of the front nine is pretty nondescript: Two par 5s, one of which is reachable in two; two par 4s, including one that is drivable for long hitters and two par 3s. It is the par 3s that make the front side interesting, mainly because they are a challenge that come at the end of the first nine.

Number 7 plays every bit of 210 yards from the white tees. In all the years I have been playing Maggie Valley, I cannot remember being on the seventh green in one. This is another hole where bogey is a good score.

The folks at Maggie Valley have changed Number 9 in the year since I last played there. It used to be a short hole requiring anywhere from an 8-iron to a pitching wedge to an elevated green. They have moved the tee across the creek so it now plays around 165 yards, again uphill. I like the change although the result on this evening was the same as it usually was from the old layout. I hit it short and on the fringe. After a lousy chip I knocked in a 35-foot bomb for par ending the front side on a good note.

Now came the back nine, a layout I consider one of the most challenging in Western North Carolina. The par 4 10th is a relatively straight hole that runs along side the driving range. A good drive leaves you a mid-iron into a postage stamp green that is much tougher to putt than it looks.

The green on the sharp dogleg number 11 is a harbinger for things to come. Like number 2, it is two-tiered but is so elevated from the fairway it is difficult to see the pin placement from down below. A shot to the tier where the pin is not located is a guaranteed three-putt.

After negotiating the 12th hole, a short par 3 measuring less than 100 yards, you come to what used to be the toughest hole in this area. I say this because at 410 yards, all uphill, it used to be par 4. They mercifully changed it to a par 5 a few years ago and now I actually have a chance for a par. On this occasion, I did par it and was in relatively good spirits for this point in the round. The next holes are a par 4 and 3, both playing downhill to greens that run away from you. A par on both holes is a good score because of the difficulty of the greens. I missed short putts on each hole for bogey but still felt good about the round I was playing.

Then we came to Number 16. The 16th hole at Maggie Valley would be your normal par 4 on a mountain course if it were not for the green. I hit a decent tee shot in the middle of the fairway and then hit my only slice of the day into the woods that line the right side of the hole. After knocking my way through the tees onto the green I was faced with a 30-footer, which I played six feet above the hole. I got a little frisky with it, and it rolled down the slope leaving myself a 10-footer up hill.

What came next I have never experienced in golf nor ever want to again. I made a good putt that lipped out and then, in my horror, rolled back down to me leaving me virtually the same putt again. I hit it again, this time past the hole, where it miraculously stayed leaving me a downhill one-footer that I somehow made.

All I can say about that green is whoever made the pin placement that day must have awaked in one very bad mood. The only thing that green was missing was the smiling clown on top of the cup.

As we were about to tee off on 17, Mother Nature intervened with threatening skies and lightning in very close proximity. I like to play golf, but I was not about to do a Lee Trevino with 14 lighting rods strapped to my back.

What we missed were a short par 4 that is one of the most challenging around and a par 5 that has been redesigned to bring the creek that crosses the fairway more into play. It was probably a good thing we didn't play these holes. After the adventure I had on the 16th green, I wasn't much in the mood.

All in all though, Maggie Valley is a good test of golf and an excellent example of golf in the mountains. It is for this reason a favorite of summer visitors and locals alike.

Back to Sports: 06/28/01.