Close-up on the Capital City’s Top of the Heap Golf Option

By Mike Dojc

 

With its 20^th Anniversary right around the bend Cobblestone Park has never looked better.

Golf course rankings are pretty much beauty pageants, except instead of a tiara and a sash the most manicured stunners take home a glittery stamp of approval from an august ratings body or magazine.

Since earning a top-30 places you can play in the state plaudit a couple years back—quite a doing for a landlocked Midlands course considering South Carolina boasts 187 miles of dimpled ball loving coastline and includes a pair of nationally known golfing Meccas in the Grand Strand and Hilton Head Island—Cobblestone is currently enjoying its welcome to the big leagues moment.    While always a draw regionally and in the immediate area, its now been seeing travelling golfers come on down from as far as West Virginia and Ohio.

The 27-hole P.B. Dye layout which opened in 1995 is the home roost of the South Carolina Gamecocks golf teams, an honor it shares with the Members Club at Woodcreek & Wildewood.   What vaults this golf beauty queen to the top of the leaderboard of Columbia area courses are its immaculate conditions, true rolling greens, and a mettle-testing layout that is spun out across a tract of spectacular pine and oak accented parkland.  With a brand new 28,000 sq/ft wedding ready clubhouse in the Colonial Revival architectural style with a grand balcony overlooking the closing green of the Black Nine, Cobblestone has never looked more championship ready.

 

True Gamecock fans should play their team colors by taking on the garnet and black nines for their round.  Black No. 2 is the famous peninsula green par-3 where according to head pro Tony Branham, only 40% of average golfers stay dry on their first go at it.

Another standout hole is No. 9 on the black course.  The par-5 presents golfers with a risk-reward decision right off the tee thanks to a split fairway.  “The high side on the left is the more conservative route,” explains Branham.  “The right fairway on the lower side is a little shorter but it gives you a forced carry over water on the second shot to get to the green in two.”

If you’re feeling your game could use a confidence bolstering elixir, the drink to order at the turn is the One Iron.  The vodka, cranberry, and Fresca concoction will not only cure your slice but can also add ten yards off the tee.

 

 

 

 

A card-carrying member of the leisure cognoscenti when Mike Dojc isn’t repairing impossibly large divots or alphabetizing his impressive ball marker collection, he’s slinging copy for a diverse range of editorial and corporate entities. Highlights of his client roster include Nike, Geico, Maxim, Metro News, Men’s Fashion, Huffington Post, Golf Canada, Fairways Magazine and many others.  He blogs at SlingingBirdies.com

 

 

 

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