Bridge from 2nd to 3rd Golf Holes

Upon leaving hole #2, the player first crosses a wooded, wetland tributary of Brice Creek. Briefly, as one drives or walks across a winding bridge over water and through the woods, there is no sign of civilization. Emerging from this pretty transit, the land rises to the 3rd hole tee complex, the first “big” hole on the course, and a challenging hole it is.

From the tee, the fairway rises away from the wetland just crossed, until it reaches its highest point, the desired landing area. Framed by bunkers right and left, the tee ball needs to be long and straight to avoid a certain lay-up on the second shot, because the wetland just left behind meanders back across the fairway between the landing area and the green. From the landing area, there is a clear view of both the wetland and the green, which is tucked over beside the trees on the right edge of one’s vision, with the center of the fairway taking a short, right turn about 90 yards past the wetland.

A tee ball short of the landing area will leave a blind layup to a down slope into the wetlands, a delicate shot, which will still leave some 175 yards to the green on the third shot. A good tee ball that reaches the landing area and avoids the bunkers will still leave a long second shot of between 150 and 180 yards to carry the wetland, leaving a short iron or wedge into the green–birdie suddently becomes possible. For the very long hitters tempted to go for the green in two, by cutting off the corner of the dogleg, the risk is high. There is a bunker guarding the right side of the fairway over the wetland, and there are trees in a low swale short and to the right of the green. The safe play is surely to hit for the middle of the fairway, over the wetland, short of the bunkers on the back left of the second shot landing area that provide a great visual frame for the long, second shot.

If the second shot has been a layup, one will do well to get close to the green with a long third shot. But if the wetland has been navigated in two, the player has a great look down at a good sized green, the back third of it rather flat, but elevated, and the balance gently sloping forward. Unless the pin is on the back, the green should hold the short approach shot well. This short third shot only need avoid the bunkers on the left to maximize the potential for a good score.

Hopefully, leaving hole number 2, the player is confident and scoring well. Starting with hole number 3, the course shows its teeth. Most players will be happy to leave with a par, but one missed shot, and the first high number of the day may well appear on the card.

Black: 565 Blue: 545 White: 526 Gold: 497 Red: 422

Kenneth M. Kirkman, Carolina Colours Developer

3rd Golf Hole View from Tee

A golf advisory committee for the Carolina Colours Golf Club has been formed. The purpose of the committee is to act as the primary liaison among the course developer and the club management on the one hand, and the club membership on the other. The committee will be consulted on all facets of golf club operation. It will also organize communications to members and organize volunteer projects.

The initial committee consists of the following:

Skip Zimmerman, Chair
Pat Gaulin
Jean Stoll
Fred Ohsol
Mike Wilson

Please let these folks know you appreciate their time and effort, and let them hear from all members any comments or suggestions you have. This group of Carolina Colours real estate owners and golf club members will help make golf at Carolina Colours Golf Club a great experience.

Teeing Off on the 2nd Hole

Standing on the tee of the 2nd hole of the Carolina Colours golf course, the green of this “little” hole is surrounded by trees right, left and rear.   The golf hole naturally drains towards a wetland in the woods behind the green, so the fairway slopes from tee to green, and from right to left,  with a long, low swale running left of the green, so that the tee shot comes into a green much lower in elevation than the tee.

Since most players will hit a short iron into this par 3, the challenge is precision off the tee, and proper reading of the green.  The green is some 37 paces long and, at its widest point towards the rear of the green,  about 23 paces across.  However, a front pin position will make the green quite narrow, with a deep bunker just to the left, while a rear pin position requires a much longer shot into a wide green, but one that slopes to the left, where the green will be hard to hold if the player goes pin seeking. Many a tee ball will run off the green into a rear left bunker or down into the drainage swale, well below the green, leaving a difficult pitch to the pin.

This pretty hole offers a birdie opportunity to players who don’t have great length off the tee, particularly if the grounds crew is kind with the day’s pin placement.  Even if the tee ball misses right a bit, par is realistic.  Go long or left, however, and par becomes a very good score.

Yardage from a mid distance placement of tees will be about:

Black:   163   Blue:   145    White:   134    Gold:  120   Red:  81

Kenneth M. Kirkman, Carolina Colours Developer

Golfer's Fairway View of 2nd Green

Golfer's View of 1st Hole from Tee

Standing on the slightly elevated tee complex for the 1st hole on the Carolina Colours Golf Course,  the player gets an initial impression that begins to convey what the golf experience at Carolina Colours is meant to be.   The fairway of this par 4 is framed with trees.  The green of this slight dog-leg left can be glimpsed through the trees.   The fairway gently rolls up to the preferred landing area, which is the highest point in the fairway.     The typical drive can be easily visualized by aiming at the midpoint between a large sand bunker on the left, guarding the dogleg, and a gentle mound on the right, at the corner.   While an exceptionally long hitter can try to shorten the hole by flying the dogleg, playing shot number two from the bunker or from the low, wooded area to its left,  will make par unlikely.

A good drive, to the center of the fairway, will leave a second shot of between 150 and 175 yards into the green, which is guarded left and right by sand bunkers, although a straight shot can be bounced onto the green if the drive has come up a bit short of ideal.   The green, which is more than 35 yards deep and about 30 yards wide, generally slopes from back to front, and there will be few flat putts awaiting the player’s birdie attempt.

A par on this opening hole will be a good score, but quite achievable.

Keeping in mind the extensive tee complex allows significant variations in yardage from day to day, a mid distance setup will allow a choice of teeing grounds as follows:

Black: 426 yards      Blue: 404 yards    White:   390 yards    Gold: 379 yards    Red: 303 yards

Kenneth Kirkman, Carolina Colours Developer

Golfer's View of 1st Green from Fairway

Fairway View to 9th Green and Social Pavilion

Weather in New Bern NC this week was less cooperative than during the previous week, so construction progress on the Carolina Colours Golf Course lagged behind schedule.  Hole 7 was sprigged, and hole 8 has seen its bunker (and what a bunker it is) finished, and it’s features sodded.   If it does not rain significantly this weekend, holes 8 and 9 will be sprigged early next week.

On the positive side, cart paths have now been paved on holes 1 through 12, and sodding on hole 10 is underway.

I rarely walk the course without seeing some Carolina Colours real estate owners strolling by, and without exception the feedback is positive as to the course design.  All the golfers among the owners at Carolina Colours  are looking forward to getting on the course, club in hand, which we expect to be in November.

Kenneth M. Kirkman, Developer

Irrigation, Bunkers, 4th Green

I have just finished two days of golf course construction inspections with Bill Love, our golf course architect. One of the reasons we enjoy working with Bill is he personally inspects all field work on the golf courses he designs.  Goals for Bill’s most recent visit included:

1. Field location of the fairway/out-of-play transition line which separates the fairway’s Bermuda grass from the out-of-play native grass.  The use of native grasses in out of play areas will create a variety of textures and colors against the manicured fairway grass.  Locating the transition lines requires visual talent along with an understanding of play options for each hole.  We flagged the transition line for golf holes 5,6,7,8 and 9.  Transition line flagging must be completed before grass planting can begin.
2. Field location of bunker sand fill lines. The same level of field detailing goes into locating the sand lines in the bunkers.  The quality of each bunker is critical as you prepare to hit your shot to the areas impacted by the bunkers’ locations as well as when you are next to the bunker, or even in the bunker.  This task involves painting a sand line in the bunker with orange spay paint, going to the most probable golf shot location to assess the sand line, going back to the bunker to adjust the sand line accordingly, then back again to the shot location to re-assess…  This process goes on until Bill feels completely comfortable with each bunker’s sand line.  Obviously, Bill is a perfectionist when it comes to the golf courses he designs.
3. Contour approvals of our two practice putting greens.  The putting greens look great and met with Bill’s approval.  Both practice greens will be great assets for course play preparation.

Needless to say, long hours were invested in the field with Bill.  But all goals were accomplished.  Bill will return the week of July 20th.  We are in the critical stages of grassing holes 1-9, fine tuning bunkers for holes 1-9 and final shaping holes 10-18.

Check in with us in a week or so for our update of Bill’s most next visit.

Kip Peregoy, Community and Golf Course Project Manager

Sodding, Sprigging and Filling Bunkers

Carolina Colours NC was blessed with good weather this week, so great progress was made on golf course construction.   By today’s end, all features (slopes around tees, greens, bunkers and drains) will be substantially sodded, and fairways and tees will be sprigged through hole 6.  By Wednesday next week, weather permitting, the entire front nine will be grassed, with sand in the bunkers, and cart paths paved.   All of New Bern NC can then watch the grass grow, awaiting the course opening.

This week also saw both putting greens shaped.  We have constructed a putting/chipping green by the Pavilion, and a putting green adjacent to the first tee, to keep players sharp as their tee time approaches.

We will post golf course construction progress each Friday.

Designed by Bill Love, past President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and Chairman of its Environmental Committee, “The Carolina Colours golf course will responsibly preserve the intimate relationship between course, land, waterways and wildlife habitats. Every golf course has a spirit of its own driven by the beauty of the land, the camaraderie of playing and the playability of everyone who steps out on it to play.”

William R Love, Golf Course Architect

During the early planning stages for the Carolina Colours Golf Course, the development team established several criteria for its golf course, all intended to make the golfing experience exceptional, and to enhance the value of its residential real estate.  These criteria included making the course aesthetically pleasing, enjoyable to play repeatedly, and challenging but fair to golfers of all ages and abilities.  Finally, these objectives had to be acheived by taking our exceptional land, and enhancing it, rather than creating something artificial on top of it.

To make the course attractive to the eye, our architect, Bill Love, designed the course to roll with the natural terrain, instead of creating mounds and other unnatural landscapes.  Not only are homes well buffered from the course, most holes were sited where homes are only  situated on, at most, one side of the fairway, while greens are frequently nestled among trees.  Brice Creek, natural wetlands and ponds are incorporated into the flow of the course, while winding bridges linking the uplands provide spectatular views of the natural areas throughout the nearly 250 acres of the course.  Finally, extensive bunkering has been carefully placed to accent the key course features, and to provide visual landmarks that frame the playing surfaces.

The playing objectives are acheived, in part, by one of the most extensive system of tees found in the coastal plain of the Carolinas.  Most holes feature 5 separate teeing areas, many of which are L shaped, allowing 30 yards or more of north/south and east/west variation from several different tees.  The result is that the course can play from 7000 yards to 5400 yards, and a particular tee can be situated to vary yardage by 300 or more yards day to day.    Combined with the diverse driving angles available from the width of the tees, the course will present a different challenge day to day.

In order to be sure that the course is fair and fun to play notwithstanding water, natural areas, changing elevations and extensive bunkering, wide and inviting bermudagrass fairways are being established, which complement good sized bent grass greens.  Our team knows that golfers don’t want to spend half their round hunting golf balls.  At Carolina Colours Golf Club, we expect your time will be spent hitting the ball, not searching for it.   Most players will not be putting for birdie on every hole, but if you select the proper tee for your game, your experience should be a pleasant one, and one that allows you to use all facets of a well rounded game.

Our Carolina Colours property owners are now daily walking the course, as grassing is taking place, and their feedback has been quite enthusiastic.   All are convinced that the Carolina Colours Golf Course will be not only the best in New Bern, NC, but in the entire region.

Kenneth M Kirkman, Carolina Colours Developer