Hickories at Streamsong, Modern Classic

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky to be able to play hickories at Streamsong in Polk County, Florida.  Streamsong opened up last month with two new courses the Red by Coore & Crenshaw and the Blue by Tom Doak and Renaissance Design Group.

Generally speaking, the courses are very good for hickories because the fairways are pretty firm and the green sites for the par 4's and par 5's generally provide wide openings to run the ball up onto the green. And from the right tees, there are no real carries except on a couple of par 3's.

For hickories, I played the Red at 2561 yards on the front from the Gold forward tees 1, 2, 3, 7 and the Silver tees on 4, 5, 6, 8, 9.  On the back, I played 2774 yards all from the Gold tees except for the 160 yard Biarritz par 3 over water.  The Gold tee was only 103 but from a poor angle for approaching a Biarritz green.  Fortunately, I hit my 25 degree Louisville Baffy to the middle of the 74 yard long green and two putted for a rare par on the back nine on the Red.

Even at 160, this Biarritz pales in length to the ninth at Yale which was built in 1926 toward the end of the hickory period.  Yale is one tough course for hickories.

The Red is quite playable from 5335 yards with hickories.  Because of the length on the back nine, there are not too many opportunities to mix and match tees like there is on the front nine.

The Blue provides more tee variety than the Red for hickories.

I played 2 Black tees, 1 & 5, One Silver tee, 6 and the rest, Gold tees for a front nine yardage of 2728.

On the back, I played Silver tees on 10, 13, 15 and Gold on the rest.  The back nine I played was 2867 yards for a total yardage of 5595.

Although, the Blue is longer that the Red, the opportunity to play various sets of tees makes it fun.

In summary, Streamsong provides two very good modern classics to play hickories.

The first hole on the Blue

A ranger moving slow groups

The Par 3 7th on the Blue. Just a smooth niblick from 98 yards.

Two walkers approaching 18 on the Blue.

The short 285 yard Blue 6th.

The gorgeous long uphill opener on the Red.

The drivable par 4 4th on the Red.

The Biarritz 16th on the Red from the tee.

The Biarritz from the back of the green.

The beautiful one shotter at the 6th on the Red.

The views, vistas and holes are quite stunning at Streamsong.  If someone wants to send you there as a present, jump on it!

Pictures courtesy of Joe Bausch, Mark Saltzman, True Links.