Canongate-on-White Oak (Private)
141 Clubview Drive, Newnan
770-251-6700; www.canongategolf.com
STAFF: Charlie Moller is the General Manager; Justin Japour is the Golf Professional.
PAR/YARDAGE: The Old Course plays to a par 72 with four sets of tees: Gold (6,891 yards); Blue (6,381); White (6,068); Red (5,259).
COURSE RATING/SLOPE: 72.3/130 (Gold); 70.2/125 (Blue); 68.4/118 (White); 68.9/116 (Red).
ABOUT THE COURSE: White Oak is among the original Canongate clubs, opening for play in 1986 with two more nines added a few years later. The Old Course has been the site of the Yamaha Georgia Women’s Open for 10 of the tournament’s 12 years, and will again host the event this month. Designed by the prolific and always professional Joe Lee along with Atlantan Rocky Roquemore, the Old Course is a very solid, very fair test of golf, with few frills and even fewer flaws. With relatively modest length and only a handful of holes with serious trouble, White Oak is conducive to some low scoring, which has been the case the past few years in the Georgia Women’s Open. But it’s also a layout that will make you earn what you get, with no gimme holes.
Because the 9th hole is in much closer proximity to the clubhouse than the 18th, the nines are reversed for tournament play, which has minimal impact on the players. With a few exceptions, the Old Course is quite generous off the tee, with only a few of the tree lines encroaching uncomfortably close to the fairways. Among the exceptions is the short par-4 17th (tournament No. 8), which offers one of the best scoring opportunities on the course, provided you hit it straight with your tee shot and display a deft touch with a wedge. The 17th is one of the few straightaway holes on the Old Course, with the mostly gentle doglegs not requiring a significant amount of power or positioning to set up the approach shots. Lee and Roquemore protect the pin positions on the mostly expansive and occasionally undulating greens with well-placed bunkers and the infrequent hazard. There are two excellent and potentially perilous par 4s (4 and 18), a picturesque, over-water par 3 (15), and a tempting risk/reward par 5 (5) that can be friendly to long and short hitters alike. An all-around quality layout that will produce a score that accurately reflects how well (or poorly) you played.