Bay Creek (Palmer Course)
I am still a little baffled by the Virginia state slogan, “Virginia is for Lovers”, but I do know that there are plenty of great golf courses to love in Virginia. On a recent trip driving home from our condo in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, it was necessary to make a 500 mile out of the way side trip to complete all the Top 100 courses in Virginia. When deciding to embark on this adventure of playing all of the courses that have ever been rated in Golf Digest’s Top 100 Public courses, I only had access to the rankings from 2005 forward. I knew that the magazine started publishing a separate list for the public courses in 2003 but I could never locate this original list. When discussing this with Marc Guertin, the Head PGA Professional at Caledonia in Pawley’s Island, his eyes lit up, went into his office and came out with a copy of the May, 2003 issue of Golf Digest. Since Caledonia was included in this first rankings, the previous pro had kept a copy of this issue. This was like finding a buried treasure for me as now I knew that we had a complete list of every course ever ranked.
This revelation was both a positive and a negative. I now had access to all the courses ever rated, but I also found out that there were 16 courses ranked on this initial 2003 list that have never been included since. The key to playing the 16 new courses was location. I was very lucky again as in studying the 16, I found that Diablo Grande Legends West in California was now closed permanently due to drought conditions, Kemper Lakes and Yale were now private and no longer had public access, four courses I had already played, four more were close by and could be played with a day trip and five were near other courses that could be included in already planned future trips. That left just one, Bay Creek Palmer (#86 Last Ranked in 2003), which is located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Which brings me back to the 500 mile out of the way side trip. It is not every wife that would agree to adding seven hours to an already 12 hour trip just to play one golf course, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, Marilyn loves golf and experiencing new courses as much as I do. What is even more amazing about my special wife, she would only be able to ride along as she had broken a bone in her foot a few weeks earlier and would not be able to play.
Bay Creek is near Cape Charles, VA just a few miles off the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. It is a very nice real estate development that sits quietly on the Chesapeake Bay. The golf club consists of two courses, the Palmer and the Nicklaus, so you can see that they did not cut corners when building this club. We only took the time to play the 2003 ranked Palmer course but it was worth the extra drive. After having lunch in their lovely clubhouse, we thoroughly enjoyed the Palmer course as the holes wound from open rolling space to those cut through woodlands to some hard by the beach and the bay. The conditioning was very good, pace of play was excellent and the staff was very friendly and helpful. They reserve one course each day until 11:30 for the members so we had to wait for an afternoon tee time the day we were there but this was not an inconvenience for us and our travel plans. The course is very enjoyable to play but has many steep faced bunkers much like many of the Tom Fazio courses I have played. We are all taught to enter a bunker on the low side to do as little damage to the sand as possible, but one fairway bunker that captured me had no low point. It was steep faced all the way around so you just picked a side and then tried to repair the deep footprints on the side when finished. Although no longer a Top 100 in America, Bay Creek Palmer is an outstanding course that would be enjoyable to play repeatedly if you were a member. This resort is certainly worth experiencing if you are driving down the Eastern Shore.
Another Virginia course that I would like to discuss in this post is the Highlands Course at Primland Resort (#28 in Current Rankings). Marilyn and I played Primland one year ago on a much shorter side trip and it is a spectacular setting. This resort is near Meadows of Dan, Virginia and sits atop one of the higher mountains in this area of southwest Virginia. Once off the highway, it is a six mile winding drive to the top of the ridge and the resort. A very friendly staff is there to greet you and the hotel/clubhouse is quite stunning. When playing this course, the views are magnificent and the conditioning is excellent. The holes are fairly secluded from on another which leads to a peaceful four hours on the golf course. Overall, you are given fairly wide fairways for your tee shots, but if your drive is too much off line, it is time to drop another ball as it is either too steep a drop off or too much foliage to tackle. The greens are very interesting and fair but the topography of this setting makes reading them a challenge for flatlanders like us. Donald Steele built a real gem in this somewhat out of the way location, but like many top rated courses, it is more than worth the effort. They have many other outdoor activities available to their guests, but playing the Highlands Course at Primland has to rank as the number one activity of any guest. I agree with the Golf Digest raters that this course is certainly worthy of it current Top 100 status. I have earlier described our trip to Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia and the playing of their outstanding Cascades course. I will discuss the other five Virginia Top 100 courses in a later post that will recall our 2014 Mid Atlantic golf trip. With eight courses that are currently in the Top 100 or have been in the past, you can see that Virginia is definitely for golf lovers.
Share This:
