Visiting Streamsong Black - First Impressions

Originally written in March  2018,  after a visit on March 1. I touched up and published (I have a number like this) apparently they post when you finish.

There are Phosphate mines as far as you can see in central Florida. I used to drive through these wastelands south of Lakeland, Florida on my way from the Palm Beaches to the Tampa Bay numerous times in my twenties.  Many times earlier in youth, I drew golf holes repeatedly as many of us geeks have done. These two acts were non-intersecting circles on my Venn Diagram.  Never would I have thought Golf of the type now at  Bowling Green/Fort Green/Fort Meade (where?), FL would come to pass and now with such variety since the long anticipated Hanse Wagner Black design has come to fruition.

The routings of Red and Blue were simultaneous with Doak and Coore each having a hand in the 36. Thus each contains holes put on the map by the other and vice versa. There are a few spots where the 350 acres get constrained and each routing suffers from crossovers (Blue) and lack of variety (Red), but the 300 acres used for the Black should have no such problem as much of what is there is created. Just the Black course is on as many acres and if range and seemingly little used short game areas are included, the total is over 500 acres. The course sits on more of a plateau from the parking lot although one drives to bag drop before parking it is till revelatory to walk up from the lot back to the bag stand.  De rigueur for Retail Golf (a pejorative in my book) there are swarms of generally smiling people to take your bag, park your car, direct you and probably carry you to your car after the round if you've had too many.  It always seems one is being pulled in so many directions, it is a mandatory aspect of American Golf I can do without, must be my ADHD/____ Spectrum Disorder at work. But it is less here ...

Running the gauntlet, one arrives at the simple very well-stocked pro shop one can get swag. It is on the left side of the structure as seen at the left. Check in almost seems unnecessary after being at the stand as they all know you are there. Still, its fun to look around. Adjacent is a pair of lavs masquerading as locker roomettes, a lovely bar and spot for some chow.  We went to the main clubhouse for a steak afterwards, so I have nothing to report on that part of the operations, but it must be good as F&B is quite well done at Streamsong.

It's pretty well-known that I go way back with Hanse Crew.  I've been very happy to see the recognition that Hanse has gotten for his renovation/restoration/re-interpretation/design rescue work with primary work recognition lagging well behind. I've often recommended such neglected designs as Rustic Canyon, Tallgrass, Applebrook, Inniscrone (Now a moot point) and even getting the Olympic job didn't do the trick.

Homage to the now lost tree on BGC 8

I voted with my wallet for Boston Golf Club, arguably his best design, clearly a much more interesting design than nearby Old Sandwich and even The Country Club. Hanse was reportedly recommended for the job when someone else passed. I had hopes that SS Black just might be the ticket.  It's different, Gil said that was what he wanted to do.

Massive scale should work as it could at Bethpage Black, although there the complete lack of understanding as to what width actually adds to architecture is lost with those 22-28 yard wide strips of Aquafresh toothpaste fairways,
Glacier Bunker lost in acres of Bluegrass rough as impenetrable as the tannins of a trophy $400 bottle of Napa Valley  Cabernet Sauvignon.

On a note of scale, Old Macdonald just sort of vanishes into that great plateau on which it sits, having been nearly burned free of gorse prior to construction. It does have a few hillocks, but I find the course gets lost in the scale. A similar finding is noted at SS Black. It probably works as a detriment at some point, there is no feeling of intimacy anywhere at SS Black, but it is easily the best routing at Streamsong.

 Four sets of tees are available as marked, but I suppose it would be most fun to just pick a spot on each hole and be set-up man for a day.9Post edit in 2022 - little did I know)   Our day was I hope an outlier for this report as a near 4-club wind came directly out of the West - completely incongruous with the slopes and orientation of green contours on too many holes. Neither of the caddies could tell me how typical this wind was, my excellent caddie, I got an LPGA Tour caddie. For a Major Winner. Hailing from Aberdeen, Scotland. Great discussions were had. I the self-professed shunner of non-mandatory caddies hit the jackpot, this one long-term might even surpass Growler who I developed an actual player-caddie relationship with. One doesn't get that in retail golf. One gets a nanny, babysitter, most often cheerleader.

The Infamous Growler - Lynn - I love this man

 

A few sweeping views of the putting green and the Neo-Modern Clubhouse, straight from the Hamptons it struck me in a positive way.

First Hole
Par 5
573/508/466/420

Second Hole

Par 4

361/326/309/276

A very fun hole, easy to read the simple strategy of Tee left as close as possible to the bunker to create the angle opening up essentially the full green to access. There are other spots for other pins, but a left tee shot near to the sand provides the length of the green to you and maximum width. One of the less contoured greens.

From the tee

On the way, caddie to provide perspective

Adjacent to bunker

Almost in bunker, in it would be an even better angle

Front left of green

Green dots determine the extent of "Putting surface" so one can mark and clean ball.  I never "had to" clean a ball on the green.

Third Hole 

Par 4

480/423/394/306

A banana shaped par 4 with a blind tee shot and a forced Barranca carry short of the massive green. In our wind this played direct to the wind and contours did not fight the wind. The general lay of this hole is very similar to Hole #4 at Appplebrook in Malvern, PA.

Transitional walkpaths of chipped wood, a really nice touch

A wetlands cross hazard short of the third, take it seriously

Back

Fourth Hole

Par 5

601/581/550/450

A hard, yet rather good Par 5 hole. I'm all for fives like this and in this part of the routing.  Centered over a wash the upper fairway is right there to tease you "Can I hit it THAT far?"

From fairway center, the windmill is your guide. There is a plaque on nine tee with quadrants and the days placement of the pin in the bowl.  NGLA used to have something similar when I first started going there (Hole 16) but I don't remember seeing it the last visit or two.

Some views of this extremely large punchbowl.

In the end, I tired a bit of tolerating the nonsense of the couple we were paired with and didn't photograph some holes. Next visit I should as several holes are extremely well done although the theme of greatly oversized greens is not my favorite.

Seventeenth Hole
Par 3
205/189/154/124

Playing downhill this green evokes the final Par 3 at Chambers Bay to me and it shares much of the playability and excitement. Firm putting surface coupled with a left to right runout makes this massively sized green challenging to navigate.

Eighteenth Hole
Par 5
586/530/495/431

The fifth par 5, too many and I don't care for this style of hole nor this exact hole. Bunkered right that one's reachable and beyond it is an abyss of phosphate mining origin. The green is at the far end and is benched against a dune - thus heading west, it spends the last few hours daily in the shade.

18th holes heading to sunset are a no-no as is a Par 5. No wonder there's no photos.

Personally I'd like to see fewer bunkers saving balls from emulating lemmings, just a line of red paint would do to speed the last and hasten the trip to the lovely clubhouse.

In the end a fine and unique addition to Streamsong and a fairly unique golf course and architectural design in Hanse/Wgner's oeuvre and the sport in general.