Thoughts on Streamsong

16th Red and 7th Blue

The drive in was an adventure. Without some seriously good directions, there is a chance you will never find the course. It quite literally is in the middle of nowhere.

I played the Red Course first and wished it were the other way around. The toughest stretch on the property, in my opinion, is the first five on the Red Course. Although I must say the 3^rd and 4^th were pretty cool holes. After that the course gets a little more fun until it becomes tough as nails from the 12 through 16. The Red was much harder than I expected a Coore and Crenshaw course to be with a lot of water and long grass in play. The shear length of the middle fours meant a lot of the par and a half holes were unreachable when played into the wind. I liked the Red, but I must admit I did not love it. There were some brilliant holes (3^rd, 4^th, 7^th, 14^th, 15^th, 16^th & 17^th) but the difficulty was tough for me to manage.

The second day was played over the Blue Course. The Blue begins with a friendly start and a number of mid length holes. I found the mixture, room and architectural approach (particularly to grassing) far more inviting. I flat out enjoyed the opening nine and felt there were many excellent holes (4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th). The back was still very good, highlighted by the awesome short four 13^th, but it was the front that really impressed me. I really liked the Blue and found it far more fun and enjoyable to play. I did not think the greens were over the top as some did and I found the surrounds always provided options to deal with most pins.

I don’t get this as a business.

It’s too far from anything else to attract a family. It’s great golf, but you do need to be at least a decent player for the Blue and a great player from the Red Course. So I found myself trying to get my head around this place. I realized the value is not as a business, but as an example of the ultimate reclamation project. Mosaic can point to a strip mining operation that has completely run its course and left behind something beautiful and elegant in its place. I don’t see this as being run for profit, but run to help with future approvals for other mining operations. And when you sit back and look at it from that end, we may not see the same business model, but it makes the place a stroke of genius.