A Golf Pro’s Take on the OBX Golf Experience
Each year, before their own busy golf season swings into high gear, a group of incognito club pros from a rival Atlantic Coast golf destination head to the Outer Banks to experience something, well, refreshingly different. While one would think that that would prefer their change-of-pace escape to be somewhere in the North Carolina mountains or to the famed Pinehurst region, they stubbornly say, “nu uh.” They prefer to stay loyal their coastal counterpart.
Why? For one, the folks of the Outer Banks golf scene are apparently overly welcoming. Two, what the region provides is a somewhat more elevated experience than one might think. And three, it’s an easy drive for them to reach their destination.
“The ones [golf courses] on the island down there are definitely different,” said pro No. 1. “Sea Scape [Golf Links in Kitty Hawk], for instance, has elevation changes you don’t expect so close to the ocean. Where we come from, everything is so flat.”
Pro No. 2 put his own spin on the situation.
“Twenty five feet above sea level? For us, that’s mountain golf [enough],” he said. “Also, there are times where if you go into the dunes or into the wilds at Nags Head [Golf Links], you may come out bleeding. It’s quite the adventure. That course, by the way, is the longest 6,000-yard layout you’ll ever play.”
As many PGA golf professionals holding positions at busy golf facilities across the nation would admit, they often don’t get the chance to play a lot of golf at their own facilities due to time demands and course responsibilities. Consequently, they often look forward to getting way from their own professional confines and head to their favorite spots to play golf and, in this case, do some surf fishing.
“I’ll tell you what, I probably play more golf in four days there than the rest of the year here,” said Pro No. 1. “We don’t play a lot of golf before we go, so at first there’s always a good few rounds where everyone seems to hit some stupid shots, especially after a Bud Light lunch. But eventually, there is usually a couple good rounds mixed in there.”
In addition to the terrain variations of the Outer Banks, the pros also suggested a difference in wind impacts (as previously revealed by the Wright Brothers, Ohio natives who strategically chose the Kitty Hawk winds to help launch them into aviation history).
“I think the wind is different down there too,” said pro No. 2.
No. 1 agreed with, “When you are on the island courses, that’s true for sure.”
Overall, though the pros speak highly of the virtues of their own golf facilities, they cherish the different look and feel OBX golf courses provide.
“It’s just different,” concluded No. 1. “Views of the ocean from some tee boxes are available down there where we have to take our families to the beach to see it. Getting away, it’s just fun. It’s a great time. And of course we enjoy all the [so called] friends we have made down there. One of the superintendents actually joked with us by saying ‘I heard you PGA guys were coming down here so we double cut and rolled the greens.’”
Pro No. 2 chimed in with laugh, “He did that so when you put the ball down on the green the wind would blow it off the carpet!”
As for the yearly magnetic pull of Outer Banks golf to its fairways, No. 1 concluded, “All the courses down there are good, all are unique. I like everything about all of them.”
