300 Clubhouse Drive, Milton; 770-343-9025; www.whitecolumnscountryclub.com
STAFF: Mitch Cook is the PGA Golf Professional; Cody Barden is the PGA Instructor
PAR/YARDAGE: White Columns plays to a par of 72 with four sets of tees: Gold (7,063 yards); Blue (6,517); White (6,015) and Red (5,087).
COURSE RATING/SLOPE: 74.0/140 (Gold); 71.5/132 (Blue); 68.8/125 (White); 70.4/124 (Red).
ABOUT THE COURSE: Once considered the premier daily fee course in metro Atlanta, White Columns converted to private status almost a decade ago, and compares very favorably to the metro area’s sizeable number of outstanding private courses. The superb Tom Fazio design provides all the elements you expect from one of his creations: ample fairways, well-positioned fairway bunkers best avoided, and large, undulating greens that will give your putter a real workout. With quite a few elevated tees, White Columns does not play its yardage, with length rarely a serious factor. The generous landing areas enable longer hitters to pull the driver on all but a handful of holes, but the fairway bunkers and occasionally tight tree lines will not treat off-target tee shots kindly. The real action begins with the approach shots, with the size and configuration of the putting surfaces requiring some precision to avoid long and difficult putts. By his
standards, Fazio’s green-side bunkering is relatively modest, with only a few carries over sand to the putting surfaces, which have lost a little of their contour since the course opened in the ‘90s, but are still a major part of White Columns’ manageable challenge. Fazio’s thoughtful and enjoyable design is a solid test for pros and low handicappers from the tips, but is definitely capable of yielding some quality score to both the scratch golfer as well as those whose average score is closer to 90. The key is avoiding big numbers on the handful of holes that have some length, trouble or both. Plenty of
scoring opportunities await, including two short and inviting par 5s (6 and 16), a very friendly and scenic par 3 (8) and a host of par 4s that measure under 400 yards from the tips. Holes 7 and 15 are a wonderful pair of short par 4s that offer completely different looks and challenges, but are balanced by several testy two-shotters, two of which are encountered late in the round (14 and 18). A gorgeous but demanding long, downhill par 3 (17) is part of one of the most entertaining finishing stretches of holes around.