John K. Moore

5 Minute Photo Edit with iPhone 11 Pro Max and Lightroom Mobile

2021-03-24T13:00:00.002-04:00

Today I'm doing a quick 5 minute edit of a photo I took on New Year's Eve in North Carolina's Fort Macon State Park. For this, I use an image that I captured using the native camera app on my iPhone 11 Pro Max and edited using Lightroom Mobile. Everything about the image from start to finish was done using the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

If you enjoy the content here, please subscribe to the channel and follow me in Instagram @jkmoore1120 Thanks for watching.

What All Great Photographers Do | Top 5 Landscape Photography and Backpacking Goals for 2021

2021-03-22T13:00:00.005-04:00

This one went up on YouTube back on January 3. I'm posting here a bit late. That's OK. These are my 5 photography goals for 2021.

Today I go on a bit of a trip around Croatan National Forest in Eastern North Carolina to talk about my top 5 photography and backpacking goals for 2021. Most of the goals are backpacking related...because those goals will get me out into nature to actually take the pictures. Apologies in advance since the total quality of this video isn't as good as I usually go since I had to edit using my phone. Thanks for watching.

Please like and subscribe on YouTube and also follow on Instagram @jkmoore1120

Landscape Photography at Pleasure House Point Virginia Beach, VA

2021-03-17T13:00:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, I took an evening walk at Pleasure House Point Nature Center in Virginia Beach. I got some really nice images that I'll post here but also a real desire to return to the area to find some more pictures.

Adventures with John & McCoy | Landscape Photography at Mount Rogers National Recreation Area

2021-03-15T13:00:00.002-04:00

In this video, my son and I hike to the top of Mount Rogers, taking plenty of photos along the way.

On YouTube, please like and Subscribe and on Instagram please follow me @jkmoore1120

WHY did I Never Go Here Before? | Photographing CAPE LOOKOUT Lighthouse and National Seashore

2021-03-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

In this video I take a look at the ten best pictures that I took at Cape Lookout National Seashore on my recent trip there. Photos range from tight shots of butterflies to wide shots of the dunes and the lighthouse.

I grew up in the same county as this fantastic beach and lighthouse but I'd never gone there until about a month ago. Boy, was I missing out. The beach is fantastic. The scenery is fantastic. The relative difficulty of getting to the beach keeps the crowds down. What a beautiful place. I certainly won't go another 30 years before I return here. Thanks for watching. Please follow along on Instagram @jkmoore1120

Tony Gunn -- Ohio Valley Wrestling Heavyweight Champion

2021-03-11T13:00:00.001-05:00

On this episode of Friday Evening's Undercard, we welcome our very first guest to the podcast. He's the Ohio Valley Wrestling Heavyweight Champion Tony Gunn.

In this episode, he talks about his fantastic match with Abyss on OVW Episode 1016. That episode can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_sdeJvZN8I Tony also talks about how he broke into the business 15 years ago, first trying to work with Memphis Championship Wrestling, when it was the WWE developmental territory, then trying to work with Ohio Valley Wrestling. Finally, he talks about the fantastic Ohio Valley Wrestling School. Information on the OVW School can be found here: ovwrestling.com If you want to reach out to Tony, whether to buy one of his t-shirts or other merchandise, or to compliment him on his stellar work in OVW, you can find him on multiple social media platforms: Instagram: @tonybgunn Twitter: @gunn_tony YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tgunn00ful Credits: Cold Open Theme: Soularflair "Industrial 2" Opening Theme: Soularflair "Cue 5" Tony Gunn Theme: Bryan Fox "The Best There Is" You can find more of his music at bryanfoxband.com #tonygunn #ohiovalleywrestling #prowrestling #heavyweightchampion #abyss

Do These Lenses Suck? | Canon EF 75-300 & 28-90 REAL WORLD REVIEW for FILM PHOTOGRAPHY

2021-03-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is a review of three Canon EF kit lenses. The Canon EF 28-90 f/4-5.6, EF 75-300 f/4-5.6, and EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 USM. These are the two most basic that Canon offers, plus the USM which is a very slight upgrade.

If you have these lenses, I think it's worthwhile to do this test on your own and see how it turns out. My view is that these lenses are quite nice from about 3 feet (1 meter) out to about 20-25 feet (3-4 meters) and then it's acceptable out at infinity or for objects more than 200 yards away or thereabouts. In between that distance, I find them to be very soft. Thanks for watching. Please follow along on Instagram @jkmoore1120

Friday Evening's Undercard Episode 1 | WrestleMania 3 Part 1

2021-03-09T13:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the PREMIERE episode of Friday Evening's Undercard. On this episode, your hosts Gentleman John and Electrifying Eric take a look back at WrestleMania 3. We discuss:

-The attendance of WrestleMania 3. Was it 93,173 as WWE states? Was it 78,000 as Dave Meltzer states? Was it something in between? -A quick look at other cards WWE ran at the Silverdome. -An analysis of how WWE worked TV matches and house show/big event matches using various talent. -Finally, we take a dive into the "Macho Man" Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat match that's been regarded as one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time? Do the hosts agree that it's one of the best ever? We'll be releasing weekly episodes. Please give us a like and subscribe. Credits: Cold Open Theme: Soularflair "Industrial 2" Opening Theme: Soularflair "Cue 5" #wrestlemania #wwe #prowrestling #wweraw #wrestling #hulkhogan #goldenage #silverdome #wwfgoldenera

SUNRISE and WATERFALL Photography in Shenandoah National Park

2021-03-08T13:00:00.005-05:00

In this video, I go on a journey through Shenandoah National Park. I go to South River Falls to photograph the sunrise. Then I make a quick stop to hike up the high point of the Shenandoah Wilderness Area, Spitler Hill. Finally, I hike down to Hazel Falls and get some cool pictures down there. Enjoy. Oh...also, please like, subscribe, and follow me on Instagram @jkmoore1120

Norfolk BLM757 Breonna Taylor March September 23, 2020

2021-03-06T13:00:00.002-05:00

Video and photographs from the September 23, 2020 Breonna Taylor march in downtown Norfolk, VA.

How I Edit Film Scans in Photoshop

2021-03-05T13:03:00.005-05:00

Waterfalls, Landscape Photography, and Silliness in Shenandoah National Park

2021-02-09T16:01:00.003-05:00

Today we're going to Shenandoah National Park to get some photos in the snow. I went up there on December 22 on a quick trip because I knew the snow would melt by the weekend after Christmas. I always enjoy going to Shenandoah and see some new stuff every time I go. Come along on this journey with me.

How I Edited My Best Photo of 2020 Using Photoshop

2021-02-03T21:58:00.004-05:00

In this video I walk through my editing process for the image I posted on Instagram today. This was a difficult image to process because a portion of the image was badly underexposed. I really like how the final product turned out and hope you'll come along with me on the editing journey. I took this image back in January of 2020...you remember, back before a raging disease shut down the world. This is from Jockey's Ridge State Park in North Carolina. For this I was using the Canon EOS Rebel K2 camera and the basic 28-90 kit lens. This is my favorite image of the year for 2020.

Nine Hole Course Ranking

2021-01-31T23:20:00.003-05:00

This started out as a Page but since I'm changing how those are set-up, I'm moving it to a regular post that I will update as I manage to play more nine hole courses.

Since I've played many nine hole courses lately, some of which have been very good, I'm doing a separate ranking of nine hole courses. For a book recently published giving a top 25 list for nine hole courses, click here. I don't agree with every ranking in the book, and I've spoke with the author about that. Anyway, here's my ranking.

1. Sweetens Cove (7)

2. Hooper (6)

3. Fundy (5)
4. Cascades (5)

5. Bellows Falls (5)

6. Skyway(4)

7. Kahuku (4)

8. Fenwick (4)

9. Tipton Oaks (Sand Greens) (3)

10. Hyatt Hills (3)
11. Midland CC (3)

12. Lambert's Point; NLE (3)

13. Northwoods (3)

14. Diablo Hills (3)

15. Green Acres (2)

16. Minerals (2)
17. Meadowbrook (1)

18. Fishhook (2)

19. Fletcher's Landing; NLE (1)

20. Pine Grove Springs; NLE (1)

21. Cantiague Park (1)

22. Galway (1)

Changing Directions

2021-01-31T23:16:00.000-05:00

When I started this blog, shockingly ten years ago, I started because I'd just been thrown off the GolfClubAtlas discussion forum because I posted too much. Strange, I thought forums were for posting. But I initially wanted to focus on how to make golf courses more affordable, looking at the blog address, I'm sure that's no surprise. However, since then I've diversified a bit. I started writing course reviews. I have a number of those although I haven't done one in a couple years. I've started a wrestling podcast. I've started a photography and backpacking YouTube page. With all that, I've ended up with a tremendous backlog of content. Course reviews for at least 10 or 15 really solid courses. Fifty podcast episodes. Thirteen photography and backpacking videos. So, starting this week, I'm going to be posting that back content. I'm not sure how much I will post, looking at both my older content and new content that I'll be putting out. But it's coming. I'll also be working on the website to have a dedicated home page and the pages tabs at the top will have listings for the content that's being published in the various categories. Thanks for the views and support since I started this page, it's much appreciated. I hope you'll continue to give support in all the categories I'm producing.

WWF Prime Time Wrestling April 13, 1987 | Friday Evening's Undercard Episode 5

2019-03-15T17:22:00.001-04:00

I've started a new project, doing some podcast work with an old friend talking about professional wrestling. I'll be coming back with more golf content, but also posting up some new podcast content. Hope you'll listen. This episode, as indicated in the title, covers the April 13, 1987 edition of WWF Prime Time Wrestling, with stars like Macho Man Randy Savage, Junkyard Dog, Demolition, The Hart Foundation, and many more being covered on the show.

WWF Prime Time Wrestling April 13, 1987 | Friday Evening's Undercard Episode 5

Public Courses from Macdonald School Designers

2018-11-06T05:19:00.000-05:00

Charles Blair Macdonald, Seth Raynor, and Charles Banks designed courses using what came to be called Template holes. Few of these courses exist and even fewer are open to the public. This is a list of all the public courses designed by those three, plus a few other courses designed to be tributes to the work of these designers.

CB Macdonald
Downers Grove Park District Golf Course, Downers Grove, IL (9 holes)
Greenbrier (Old White)

Seth Raynor
Greenbrier (Old White), White Sulphur Springs, WV
Hotchkiss School Golf Course, Lakeville, CT
Thousand Islands Country Club (Old), Wellesley Island, NY

Charles Banks
Francis Byrne Golf Course, West Orange, NJ
Hendricks Field Golf Course, Belleville, NJ
Hotchkiss School Golf Course, Lakeville, CT (9 holes)
Knoll Country Club (West), Parsippany, NJ (Limited Public Accessibility)

Of these, The Old White is by far the best.

Downers Grove is pretty much Macdonald in name only at this point, having most of the classic features stripped away according to reports.

Thousand Islands claims to be Raynor, but this is disputed by the Raynor Society.

Hotchkiss School has degraded over time, but still makes the Top 25 nine holes courses in Anthony Pioppi's book indicating its quality.

Francis Byrne is degraded but still has a number of excellent Template variations. The Road, Biarritz, Bottle, and Raynor Prize Dogleg holes are all stellar. There's also a Cape hole that could be incredible with a relatively inexpensive restoration. This course could be incredible with just an inexpensive restoration of original bunkering.

Bethpage (Black) - Farmingdale, NY

2018-10-20T03:57:00.000-04:00

This is a high quality course that deserves all the accolades that it gets. Always maintained in great condition, great variety, not much that hasn't been said about this course.

Variety of Design: Very good. The par 5s have great variety with two being close to reachable and one requiring two excellent shots to put in position to hit to the green. The par 3s also have solid variety, one being a long iron/hybrid, two with mid/long irons, and one short iron. The par 4s, while good holes, lack variety...they're all either long or longer. Directionally, 4 holes dogleg Right, 3 holes dogleg left, and 7 are straight, excluding par 3s. 7 out of 10

Flow of the Course: While no hole on the Black can be called easy, some are easier than others, some offer the opportunity to score, and some require the player to play conservative. The first two holes are relatively easy, 3 is difficult, 4 gives a birdie chance, 5 is extremely difficult, 6 and 7 offer birdie chances if one hits quality shots, the stretch from 8 to 12 are unrelenting, 13 and 14 offer scoring chances, 15-17 are difficult, and 18 offers a decent scoring chance to close out the round. 8 out of 10

Course Conditioning: Excellent. Fairways and greens are near perfect. 9.5 out of 10

Walkability: Course is walking-only. That said, the walk is not easy. There are some substantial hills, but the green-to-tee transitions are usually short. 6.5 out of 10

Atmosphere: Incredible. Everyone going to the tee feels a bit of anxiety and excitement. 9 out of 10.

Total: 79.5 out of 100

The Club at Viniterra - New Kent, VA

2018-10-14T11:30:00.000-04:00

This course is quality. I certainly think it's one of best courses designed by Rees Jones. The course has awesome scale, everything is very large. The course is very long, topping out over 7,600 yards from the longest markers (which aren't on the scorecard). This course never goes over the top, which is a criticism I've had of some of the ultra long courses on the RTJ Trail. That said...the lack of an "over-the-top" feature leads to holes very close in yardage. The par 4s range from 400 to 489, but only the lone 400 yard hole is less than 427 yards. The par 5s are also very tight in yardage range, 560, 570, 573, and 612. The par 3s do have decent variety. While I don't know the mandate given to Mr. Jones by the original owners, but it seems to me that greater variety could be obtained by taking two holes that are 489 and 429 and bumping one to 529 and dropping the other to 389; or making 444/427 into 504/367. This way, the total yardage can remain the same but the holes have much more variety in the yardages. Really though, while I have gone on about that for a while, it's not that big a deal. The course still has great feel and atmosphere. Definitely recommend playing here. 6 out of 10.

Holes of Note
Hole #2: Par 4, 489 yards
This hole is a solid dogleg to the right with a cluster of bunkers on the inside of the dogleg. The outside of the dogleg is wide open.

A look from the tee:

Looking from the fairway towards a green that sits nicely into the hill.

Hole 3: Par 4, 429 yards
This hole requires a great tee shot. There is a severe fall-off down the left side that will penalize anyone who misses there. The green also has a significant fall-off for shots going beyond the green. In my play of the hole, I proved both of these to be the case; this is a quality hole, it certainly doesn't forgive poor shots.

Hole 16: Par 3 167 yards
The best par 3 on the course, in my view, is also the shortest. The front is well defended by a huge bunker and there is a fall off beyond the green. Even though it is short, the hole requires a precise shot in order to make a good score.

The tee shot:

Rating
Variety of Design: Fair. I detailed this above. The par 4s are limited in distance variety with only 89 yards of difference between them. Par 5s are also limited with just 52 yards; also 3 of the 4 dogleg to the right. The par 3s have good variety since two of them have a large number of tee boxes, but for total yardage, only 43 yards difference. For direction, 5 holes dogleg right, 2 dogleg left, and 7 are straight, excluding par 3s. 6 out of 10

Flow of the Course: Very good. The course starts with a relatively easy par 5, goes to a hard par 4, a par 4 that requires a great tee shot, some ups and downs in the middle before a closing 3 hole stretch that can allow for a great finish. 7 out of 10

Course Conditions: Fairways were very, very good. Greens were as good as could be expected given the terrible weather that Virginia experienced during the summer. 7 out of 10

Walkability: Not very good. The course is routed on hill tops with some lowlands in between and would be extremely difficult to walk. 3 out of 10

Atmosphere: The course has a great feel. The overall atmosphere will improve once the new clubhouse is finished. 6 out of 10.

62 out of 100; certainly an elite public course.

Royal New Kent Restoration Recap #2 - Interview with Superintendent Mathieu LeCompte

2018-10-13T00:38:00.000-04:00

After my tour of Royal New Kent, the Superintendent, Mathieu LeCompte was very gracious with his time and participated in an email interview. I'll add some notes on some questions, anything I write will be noted with [Brackets].

1. How much Green space do you have?

We currently have just over 4 acres of greens which includes a small nursery green that was built at the golf maintenance facility during the greens renovation.

[The new greens are fantastic. In general, the greens here are very large. Some are 70 yards deep, others 60 yards wide. One green is roughly 13,000 square feet by my rough calculations. These are a truly impressive set of greens.]

2. How much Fairway space do you have?

We have roughly 50 acres of fairway.

[Same with the greens, Mike Strantz was known for scale. Some fairways are close to 100 yards wide in certain points.]

3. How many irrigation heads?

There are roughly 1500 irrigation heads on property. (Some of which have not run in quite some time)

4. What was the condition of the irrigation system when you took over in June? How much work has been done since then?

My first day on the job was spent replacing 20’ of a 12” main irrigation line with Willie [Downs, the site foreman] and a fellow Superintendent from down the road. Things could only go up from there I suppose. We have seen the typical pipe breaks and control issues of a 20 year old system but the club is scheduled to upgrade our central irrigation computer, satellite controllers, and several irrigation heads this fall. That will greatly reduce many of the issues that we have encountered this summer.

5. What was the most difficult part of growing in the new Champion greens?

Time was certainly the biggest challenge. When I began mid-June we had no grass on the greens, no equipment to prepare a surface onto which we could sprig, no control of a few of our greens’ irrigation heads, and no employees to help get us where we needed to be by mid-July.

[I was stunned by the quality of the greens in early October 2018. They were in absolutely fantastic condition. Mat and the staff did an incredible job with this.]

Thanks to several kind hearted superintendents, one of the best mechanics that I know who somehow pieced together what was left of the equipment left behind by previous owners, and a handful of individuals that had no golf experience but were up for a few 14+ hour days while restoring this property, we managed to have greens somewhat put together when the sprigs rolled into town.

6. Aside from being 10-12 inches tall, how healthy was the fairway turf when you took over?

The turf itself was relatively healthy. There was a fair amount of spring dead spot and a good amount of weeds but the grass plants that were here were tall, green, and happy.

7. Willie Downs told me that the drainage system was damaged. How much work is required for that to be fully functional?

The drainage system is certainly one of our big issues and sadly one that many recent golfers will remember. We are in the process of correcting 100+ drain breaks that have caused sink holes throughout our fairways and rough.

[In the previous video, large patches of high weeds, 3-4 feet tall in some cases, could be seen in the fairways. These weeds were growing in/around the malfunctioning drainage pipes. I saw one of the pipes that had been partially unearthed, one of the reasons for the malfunctions was that originally the pipes were laid down and simply bent upwards to the drain grate. This caused failures in the pipes over the years. As I was told, when they're rebuilt, it will be done with elbow joints in the ground rather than bending the pipe.]

8. I noticed some patches of zoysia encroachment in the fairways. What are your plans for that?

Both zoysia and bermudagrass have proven to provide outstanding playing surfaces for some of golf’s biggest events. At this point, we plan to maintain both grasses in our fairways, understanding that in any given microclimate one grass will prove itself better suited for healthy growth. Achieving full coverage of quality playing surfaces is our top priority.

9. Where would you like to see the course, in terms of turf health and maintenance, in one year?

I see the course in great playing condition by the time that we open in the spring of 2019 and continuously improving. If the guys of this maintenance team continue to put forth the effort and excitement that they have shown, this place will truly be something special.

Thanks for participating Mat. When I played the course 8 years ago, I found it to be an incredible place even then. That was with some already degraded conditions. With the money being spent to improve the course and the fantastic staff in place, I think this course will take a place among the elite courses in Virginia.

Royal New Kent Restoration Recap #1

2018-10-07T22:55:00.001-04:00

Trip to Vermont and New Hampshire

2018-06-02T22:49:00.001-04:00

Back a couple weeks ago, I finally worked out a time that Tony Pioppi and I could play. The capstone course of the day trip was Hooper, ranked the seventh best nine hole course in North America in Tony's book The Finest Nines, available here. From there, I found three other nine hole courses in close proximity to Hooper. One of them was discarded because of time constraints. On the day, we played Bellows Falls, Hooper, and Pine Grove Springs.

Bellows Falls was fantastic. Tony is vigorously researching as I write this to find out who designed the course. Whoever did the design knew what he or she was doing. The first two holes are incredible holes. I'm trying to remember if I've ever played two opening holes as good as these; I can say with certainty that the opening two at Bellows Falls are better than the opening two at Bethpage Black. The course could handle a bit of work, not even something a course architect would be needed for, just an expansion of mowing lines, a little tree thinning, and a good aeration/topdressing of the greens. That said, the course is stellar. Common statements during the round were "whoever designed this knew how to build golf holes" and "how has no one ever told me about this place?" It's not often that a true gem can be found by chance, but it certainly happened here. Full review forthcoming.

Hooper was the capstone course in the trip and did not disappoint. All the holes are good holes and the round works up and down, with easier shots followed by difficult shots. The opening par 5 is a fantastic hole. Well placed shots can give an excellent opportunity for birdie to start off the round. The holes have great variety, very long par 4s and short 54s, a good spread in yardage on the par 3s, and solid variety on the two 5s. This course was just purchased by a new owner, hopefully he can do some good work with the course. This is certainly a nine hole course worth a significant trip to see. Full review forthcoming.

Pine Grove Springs...Hole 1 and hole 9 are good holes with really good greens. The turf on the greens here was the best of the three courses we played. I don't want to write a mean-spirited review, so I'll just leave this one here.

Hooper was the best of the trip, but, in my opinion, not by a wide margin. Bellows Falls was very good. I asked Tony on the 8th tee if Bellows would be an honorable mention for his best 25 if it goes for a second addition or even in the top 25. I have not played all the courses, but I will say that I certainly think Bellows Falls is better than one of the courses on the list that I have played. Fantastic courses and a great trip. Oh, and the BBQ joint in Brattleboro, VT, Top of the Hill Grill, has decent pulled pork, good ribs, good brisket, and stellar scenery. Eat there. Great trip...Bellows Falls, Hooper, and Top of the Hill, I'd do that again.

Bethpage (Yellow) - Farmingdale, NY

2018-02-26T23:41:00.000-05:00

Easily the 3rd Best at Bethpage, which is a pretty good compliment give the quality of the Red and Black courses. It's not far behind the Red in terms of quality and far, far superior to the Blue or Green courses. The first hole is very wide off the tee and has a centerline bunker about 200 yards from the tee. I'd almost call this a Bottle hole, but the preferred angle to the green is from the wider side of the fairway rather than the narrow, more difficult side. The 5th hole is also very interesting in that the fairway slopes sharply from right to left at about 200 yards from the tee and then the green is elevated about 20 feet above the fairway. The 11th hole is a very cool short par 3, topping out at just over 300 yards, the fairway pinches in significantly at around the 200 yard point (note the abundance of hazards at 200 yards from the tee...the course was built in the early 20th century and has remained fairly original) and leads to a very good green. The highlight of the course, however, is the set of par 5s. It's not often that a course can be said to be highlighted by par 5s, but certainly that is the case here. Holes 7 and 17 both dogleg to the left, but they are far from the same hole. 7 plays downhill off the tee and level to the green. 17 plays through a valley, but the landing area for the fairway is at the same level as the tee. Both holes are fantastic and both right at the reachable in 2 range. The 10th hole is the other par 5 and is a real 3 shot hole. Both the tee shot and second shot must be played with precision to have a good 3rd shot. The hole is a double dogleg, playing right off the tee and then left back to the green. The green is on the same level as the fairway, but 50 yards short of the green leading up to the front edge, there exists a significant valley that can make the third shot very difficult. This is certainly not a hole where the second shot is just "another" shot to be blasted at. Overall, I'd actually say that this set of par 5s is the best set on all the courses at Bethpage (consider on the Red course, the 5th hole is incredible, but the 16th hole is, quite frankly, just bad. Then, on the Black course, the 4th hole is world class, and could be better, but 7 is very average and 14 is just a mundane slog). I love the Black course, but this course is really, really good.

Variety of Design: Par 5s have good variety in yardage, one is reachable in 2 with a decent drive, one is on the edge even with a good drive, the other is outside the range to be reached in two. Par 4s have relatively good variety, ranging from 429 to 313 in yardage from the back tees. The par 3s have less variety in yardage, only spanning 166 to 188 yards. For variety in direction, 4 holes dogleg right, 4 holes dogleg left, and 7 holes are straight. (That adds to more than 14 because the 10th hole is a double dogleg) Solid. 6 out of 10

Flow of the Course: Course flows well. Difficult holes are generally followed by holes where the player can have a bit of a break. No abrupt changes in the course. 6 out of 10

Course Conditioning: Solid. A few small patches here and there with bare spots. Overall, OK. 5 out of 10

Walkability: Easily walked. Has some small hills but nothing that would make for anything really difficult. 8 out of 10

Atmosphere: None. In fact, almost a negative number. Bethpage is very unique, but on busy days, the Yellow and Blue courses can be like zoos. 1 out of 10

Total Score: 55 out of 100. Easily the third best course at Bethpage and probably a better value for the money than the Red course for out of state visitors.

Course #250

2017-11-23T07:15:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I was able to play my 250th different course. I was fortunate to play at St. Catherine's Golf Club in Canada, which was also my first course outside the US. In keeping with the post that I made after #200, Let's look at some stats and interesting tidbits.

From Course 100 to Course 200 took less than 3 years, from 200 to 250 took 4 years and 9 months. So I'm playing new courses at a slower pace, several reasons for that.

Played 2 new courses in one day: 11
Played 3 new courses in one day: 2
Played 4 new courses in one day: 1 (no change, this is a difficult feat)

Colors: Silver, Emerald, Gold, Scarlet, //Red, Black, Blue, Green, White

Water features: Creek, Bay, Harbor, Brook, Lake, River, Bayou, Loch, //Spring

Land features: Park, Banks, Shoreline, Point, Hills, Landing, Farms, Ridge, Hollow, Meadow, Plantation, Farm, Mountain, Valley, Canyon, Trails, Dunes, Beach, Isle, Shores, Dunes, Pit, Forest, //Trail, Shore, Dale, Cove, Orchard

Plants and natural objects: Pine, Cypress, Rock, Palms, Stone, Sage, Azalea, Peach, Dogwood, Oak, //Magnolia, Marshwood, Cedar

Animals: Rockfish, Hummingbird, Eagle, Quail, Fox, Bear, Raptor, Rooster, Callippe, Horse, Moose, Fish, //Shark

21 States, 2 nations

Courses beginning with every letter in the alphabet other than X, Y, and Z. (No change)

Francis A. Byrne GC - West Orange, NJ

2017-11-21T23:13:00.000-05:00

This is a municipal course in Essex County, New Jersey. It is also designed by Charles Banks, making it one of the few golf courses that the average person can play designed by the Macdonald/Raynor/Banks crew. The course is not perfect and is certainly not National Golf Links or Fisher's Island. That said, it is easy to see what once was a tremendous golf course if you take the time to look. I've worked a bit with Anthony Pioppi, Executive Director of the Seth Raynor Society, to try and determine what template holes exist on the course. Years (scores of years, even) of degraded maintenance practices make this difficult. Indeed, the forward part of the Biarritz green was already in disuse as early as 1954 according to some old aerial photographs. So, a tentative listing of template holes:
1. Road (confirmed)
2. Biarritz (confirmed)
3. Punchbowl (partial, tentative)
4. Sahara (tentative, severely degraded)
5. Short (confirmed)
10. Bottle (tentative)
13. Cape (tentative, green only)
14. Eden (Confirmed)
15. Raynor dog-leg (tentative)
18. Home (Confirmed)

There are several other holes that I believe are likely template holes, but I can't yet place them certainly enough in a category to include them. With that, on to the ranking:

Variety of Design: The course has only one par 5 and it's the first hole, the Road. That hurts the course a bit. The par 3s have great variety, ranging from 235 to 140 yards. The par 4s range from 360 to 465 yards, so a fair variety in distance, but limited variety in direction. Of the 15 holes, 10 are straight, 3 work to the right, and 3 work to the left. The green sizes, while shrunken and degraded from their original sizes, all fit the shots required and work well. 7 out of 10

Flow of the Course: The course ebbs and flows through the round quite nicely. The start is difficult with the only par 5 followed by a very difficult par 3, but the course gives the player a break on the 3rd hole. The Short hole appears as the 5th hole and, while severely degraded from its original state, still mandates precision from the player. On the back nine, the holes alternate between difficult and moderate from 10 to 13, before playing the final par 3 and then 2 very difficult holes before coming out for a nice closing set in the 17th and 18th. 7 out of 10

Course Conditioning: Not very good. The fairways were reasonably smooth, but they were still spotty and were very damp. The greens were very soft and bumpy as well. The greens are maintained at slow speeds in an effort to improve pace of play; that should be commended. The course was just fair in condition. 4 out of 10

Walkability: The course can be walked very easily. There were a few significant hills, but one of the players in my group was in his 60s and was able to walk the course fine. There were a few slightly longer walks, but nothing major. 7 out of 10.

Atmosphere: None. It's a standard municipal course, not really the place to go expecting some cool vibe. Just pay the fee and go. And that's fine. 1 out of 10

Total: 58 out of 100. In my opinion, this is the best public golf courses I've played in New Jersey. I've played 3 courses in Gulfweed Magazine's Top 15 best in state (Neshanic Valley, Hominy Hill, and Galloping Hill). This course tops all of them by a pretty wide margin.

Pictures and a hole-by-hole look at the course will come shortly.