Seminole Golf Club
16th Green Seminole Golf Club
For someone that gets to Florida once a decade, playing all the great courses in the state is difficult. Particularly so when the courses are in remote areas of this large state. Seminole is on the ocean in the far southeast part. I had come to peace with the fact that I would never play what many call Donald Ross’s finest work, Seminole. Then the invitation from a friend came in.
“We will meet Tuesday at 12:30 for lunch, play 18 in the afternoon, 36 on Wednesday and 18 on Thursday,” he said. A dream trip. It seems that after playing a great course you want another crack at it. I would have four chances to figure out how to play this gem.
I make my way down the long narrow road that also serves as access for an adjacent residential area. Ten foot high oleanders keep the course hidden from the outside world. I creep around the corner into the gravel parking lot.
There is nothing ostentatious about Seminole. Gravel parking lot, modest clubhouse, no attendants swarming those arriving. I change shoes in the parking lot, give my clubs to the only outside services person and head to the patio for lunch.
Once a club not welcoming to the outside world, the attitude has changed. With the televised skins game featuring PGA Tour players during the pandemic, and hosting the Walker Cup Match on May 8th and 9th, 2021, the world finally will see this fabulous course.
After a brief warm up I stand on the first tee. I am struck by how flat the course is. There are a few palm trees and no punitive rough. Sandy waste areas appear to outline many of the fairways. Bunkers define the flow of the holes.
The course is minimalist to an extreme. Other than tee markers, flagsticks and rakes there is nothing else on the course. There are no benches, ball washers, directional markers, above ground waste cans, rest rooms. There is one spot for water on each nine, well out of play and partially hidden in the bushes. It’s a clean look that is refreshing.
The only refreshment stand is after hole nine, located on the lower level of the clubhouse.
While the first hole appears benign, we learn quickly that this course is going to be about iron shots into the greens, being on the correct side of the hole and judging distance control.
“By the time we finish four rounds you will appreciate the precision required on each hole,” my host says to me. How prophetic that was.
Rumor has it that during a regrassing project over 50 years ago many of the humps, bumps and rolls disappeared. However, what remains are 18 of the most demanding green complexes I have seen. A ball hit to the wrong side of the hole location can trickle off into a bunker or 50 yards down a slope into a waste area.
Often a drive to the wrong side of the fairway will leave a shot requiring such distance control and accuracy that even the finest players are challenged.
Local knowledge is important. Knowing where the deep section of the green is or where not to have the ball land can mean the difference between par and double bogey. The superior caddies take care of the knowledge component.
The sand based greens are firm and fast, maybe the fastest I have ever played.
A forty foot high sand dune runs along the far side of the course. Another is along the ocean side. Ross uses the dunes brilliantly. What appears from the first tee to be a flat course with little interesting topography is anything but.
Thirteen holes use the dunes. While the sandy waste areas in the flat are firm sand, off the fairway the dunes sand is sink your feet in soft. This leaves a wayward shot into the dunes sand all but unplayable, plugged after missing the fairway.
The holes that do not use the dunes have challenging green complexes with false fronts, tight bunkering and greens sloping in all directions.
Water flows in and out of ponds in the middle of the property. With firm fairways and little rough a ball heading toward the water will not stop, no matter how much pleading the player exerts.
Holes run in every direction. No back and forth here. This generates interesting challenges because the wind blows nearly constantly and from day to day in every direction.
Famously, Ben Hogan would spend time at Seminole preparing for the Masters. Just like Augusta National, Seminole demands strategic positioning off the tee with accurate iron shots to the greens.
Rumor has it that his favorite hole was the sixth, an uphill par four to a well bunkered green running diagonally away from the player. The green is somewhat remindful of the 12th at Augusta, with the carry required to the right portion of the green longer than the left.
Tipping out at 7320, the challenge for all players is to hit the ball high enough to hold the firm, fast, elevated greens, while controlling the distance to the correct position on the green.
Modern architecture features wide fairways. Players want to find their ball. However, the great courses have always had wide fairways. Augusta National, Pine Valley, Sand Hills, to name a few. The fairways are generous at Seminole.
Starting at the second hole the course moves up and around the major sand dune on the course. The holes are challenging, bunkers deep and the greens severe. The teeth of the course are the holes on and around the dunes.
Ross gives the player a breather on the flat holes 8-10, until going back up the dune at numbers 11 thru 14. The course finishes with the challenging 16th green, terrific short down hill par three 17th and fun shortish par 4, 18th.
Not that the breather holes are easy. An errant shot to a green can quickly turn into a double bogey or worse.
One of the most difficult holes to build is a great uphill par three. Having a green with character visible from the tee, along with creative bunkering, is rarely seen.
The 13th is just such a par 3. Another green that diagonally moves away from the player, two large bunkers ominously await the errant shot that hangs to the right.
Not to be missed at Seminole is the locker room. It’s as large an open locker room as I have ever seen. Jack Burke and Jimmy Demerit patterned some aspects of the locker room at Champions Golf Club in Houston after Seminole, as have other clubs.
With ceilings 25’ high or higher, the winners of the club tournaments are painted on the large wooden plaques around the room. It is a room filled with character and history. The floor creeks under the carpet as I walk, gazing up at the names on the wall.
Nearly 100 years old, it has wooden lockers around the perimeter, with a large comfortable seating area in the middle. I think about the great players listed on the walls above, walking the same floors.
Another highlight of Seminole is the golf staff, headed by the dean of PGA Professionals in the US. Bob Ford has trained and had many of his assistants be selected to be head professionals at some of the finest courses in the country. The sincere attitude and level of service provided adds to the enjoyment of a day at Seminole.
It was a thrill to see and play Seminole. I owe my host a big debt of gratitude for inviting me. I would love to go back again. While we caught two great days with little wind in the morning, typically it blows around 20 mph or stronger.
“I couldn’t keep my hat on my head the last time I was here,” said my friend. The wind, the firm and lightning fast green complexes make Seminole what it is, a great course that is difficult.
It was a special trip to see Seminole. I would love to go back again in A Life In Golf.
17th Green Seminole Golf Club
