The Rose Golf Club: Part II
Alex Elias
Courtesy of Sean Metcalf
Designed by Tripp Davis in collaboration with Owners Dimitri and Nick Cassini (Member of the 2001 Walker Cup Team), and two-time Masters Champion Bubba Watson, and PGA TOUR winners Brendon Todd and Chris Kirk, The Rose opened last week.
“We all wanted long views, and the property really accentuates this with just enough roll across the landscape to make it interesting, but the dips don’t really hide much,” said Davis. “It is different from almost any course I have played, other than maybe Shinnecock [Hills] and some links courses like [Royal] Dornoch.”
With long views across the entire golf course, golfers can see multiple holes from several points on the property, and from the fifth green, one of the furthest points from the clubhouse, the clubhouse can be seen.
“The views are important to the experience, but as important is how they give almost every full shot a large sense of scale—it feels big, which can help and hurt a player as they try to get a feel for the shot,” said Davis. “It can free golfers up or be a bit intimidating. It can make a wide fairway feel narrow at times, and it can make greens feel smaller from the perspective you are playing an approach from.”
Although the topography promotes firm and fast conditions, Davis designed the golf course to reward thoughtful play.
“We definitely want the golf course to play firm, but we will have to keep a gauge on how fast. Too fast on a rolling site can be too much at times, not allowing balls to stay in fairways. We want it to be more about skill and strategy and not so much about luck,” said Davis. “How we accomplished the strategic character is a lot of detail, but the fundamentals were to create a course where the more aggressive lines are regularly tested with smaller margins for error, while we created more conservative options with wider margins for error.”
Just as Davis and the Cassini brothers wanted long views and firm-and-fast conditions, and the land yielded just that, so too did it with the closing stretch.
“We wanted a dramatic closing stretch, and the land allowed just that,” said Davis.
“We’re ecstatic with the entire golf course, but the closing stretch is really special,” said Dimitri. “Chris Kirk said last week, while playing with Tripp and me, that it is one of his favorite closing stretches he’s ever played.”
Beginning with the drivable Par-4 15th, followed by a highly strategic reachable Par-5, Hole 17 is a short Par-3, ranging from 100-145 yards, and Hole 18 is one of the toughest Par-4s on the course, with what will soon be one of the finest clubhouses in the country in the background.
“If you think about short Par-3s that force a wedge in your hand, they’re not something you see many examples of in the South. Many of the best ones are in the Northeast and out West,” said Dimitri. “17 on The Rose will be very exciting. Land the ball at the right yardage and on the right slope, and you’ll have a chance at birdie or a hole-in-one. Miss the well-protected green, and it’s a tough up-and-down.”
As for the green complexes, Davis stayed true to his design principles.
“I don’t agree with the mindset that you need severe greens to challenge better players,” said Davis. “The greens are relatively subtle at first glance, but there is a lot of change in the direction and degree of slope, as well as changes in the speed the ball will roll and roll out due to the slope—tough to match line and speed.”
Following his Quarterfinal Match at the U.S. Amateur, I spoke with Carter Loflin about The Rose.
“I think people are really going to like it. It’s a really good golf course. It’s challenging, but fairly open, and very playable for high and low handicappers.”
As Loflin mentioned that he appreciates the number of blind shots on the front nine, as he is working on committing to those shots better, Davis admitted that this is one example of where he had to understand the game of a scratch player and a 12-handicap.
“A lot of holes can play ‘blind’ depending on where you hit your drive, but every hole has a way to play it so it is not blind,” said Davis. “If you hit a 340-yard drive down the left side of the fairway on Nos. 5 and 6, you may not see the flag, but both holes have fairway up to about a 310-yard drive where you can see the green and the flag.”
“It’s one way we used design to not allow excessive length to be a dominant factor for better players.”
Courtesy of Annie Gannon Kaufman
The Downtown Club
In addition to the 32,000-square-foot world-class clubhouse, set to open in January, The Rose Golf Club also offers a 5,000-square-foot private club in the heart of downtown Athens. Located 10 minutes from the golf club, a private shuttle service runs back and forth between the two, allowing members to seamlessly move between them.
“The Downtown Club has become the cherry on top of the golf club,” said Dimitri.
