Lunchball
If Salvador Dali and Old Tom Morris dropped acid in a North Carolina sand pit, they might have hallucinated Tobacco Road. Built by the late, great artistic genius Mike Strantz on the site of a defunct quarry, this course is the absolute antithesis of ‘fair’ country club architecture. It is visual maximalism turned up to eleven—a sensory overload of blind shots, towering sand walls, and impossible-looking angles that are actually surprisingly playable once you conquer the intimidation factor. It is golf’s version of Alice in Wonderland, demanding you suspend your disbelief on the first tee and trust the madness.
While the scorecard yardage suggests a pushover, the mental tax here is incredibly high. Strantz moves the earth to create framing that dictates strategy, forcing players to choose between heroic carries and safe bailouts that might not be as safe as they appear. It is a polarizing masterpiece that rejects the beige neutrality of modern design in favor of something primal, emotional, and unapologetically fun. It isn’t just a round of golf; it is an adventure through the mind of a mad genius.
Comparison: 16th (Cantilever)
16th (Cantilever)
The Alps
Prestwick
Architectural Analysis
Strantz famously loved the quirk of Prestwick, and the 16th is a modern spiritual successor to the Alps, utilizing total blindness to instill fear in a short hole.