The late great architect Mike Stranz never followed convention. It’s no surprise, then, that the side project spawned by his most iconoclastic work defies some of its own conventions.
At Tobacco Road Golf Course in the North Carolina Sandhills, owner Mark Stewart announced the construction of a Matchbox. Matchbox is a 12-hole par-3 course that winds through the trees near the 12th and 13th fairways in Stranz’s stunning funhouse layout. Like its larger sibling course, the new course sits on family land that was once used as a gravel pit, and its booty piles and sand ridges provided untouchable raw material for Stranz’s imagination when the main course opened in 1998.
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Short courses are ubiquitous these days, with an increasing number of resorts and per diem facilities across the country. But Tobacco Road puts a twist on this trend.
Matchbox is made with artificial grass that blends into the natural landscape, eliminating the need to remove tree canopies to gain sunlight, allowing for more stable conditions. It also features a combination of real sand and artificial bunkers.
Stewart, who spoke with Golf by phone Tuesday, said the approach is consistent with the outside-the-box thinking that Strantz brought to the original course. “I’m sure he’ll be happy,” Stewart said. “It’s consistent with his whole heretical approach.”
Matchbox is designed by Carlton Marshall Golf Design, whose principals Justin Carlton and Kris Marshall specialize in artificial turf projects. Another key player is Mark White, a former Stranz disciple and one of Tobacco Road’s original shapers.
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Strantz himself died of cancer in 2005 at the age of 50, but since then he has forged a unique path. The Ohio native trained under Tom Fazio before going out on his own and earning critical acclaim with his first solo project, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in South Carolina and nearby True Blue. Next came Tobacco Road. The course was a wild statement piece that baffled some critics but captivated many fans. As time went on, the latter camp only grew, with Tobacco Road emerging as an essential Sandhills play, a quirky complement to the area’s more classic designs.
Part of Matchbox’s route plays along ponds that even Tobacco Road regulars don’t know exist. Stewart said he and Stranz discussed playing the par 3 during the initial design stages, but it never made it into the final wiring.
The hole itself cuts the outline of Tobacco Road’s mini-me and is sewn into a 5-acre plot with about 40 feet of elevation change. Number 3 is played as a 60-yard blind shot from an elevated tee. Number 7 requires a 40-yard carry over the cove. No. 9 is intended to convey the spirit of an opening that unfolds in front of a large course that plays over two large mounds.
Stewart said he had been eyeing the par-3 section for more than 20 years and had been thinking about what to do with it for a long time. And there was no doubt the name he had in mind all along. The matchbox suggests a cigarette (a match for lighting a fire), but it also alludes to a game of golf, winking at the intimate scale of the matchbox car. “I’ve had that name in mind for years,” he told GOLF.
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Matchbox will be available to play in August. Green fees and other details will be posted on the course site.
The post Tobacco Road, the quirky design darling, adds new courses (with a twist) appeared first on Golf.
