We woke to another stunning day at The Greenbrier. While I hit the gym, Steve went for a walk and checked out The Old White. He thought it looked rather challenging.

After breakfast we went for a drive to have a look at Oakhurst Links. Oakhurst Links is a historic golf course located at White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. It is a nine hole course conceived in 1884, in a design based upon traditional Scottish design elements. The first competition at Oakhurst was held in 1888.

Located on the grounds is course developer Russell W. Montague’s home which served as the Oakhurst Links Clubhouse. It was built about 1880, and is a two story “I house” plan dwelling with sparse Colonial Revival stylistic elements. The property was operated as a golf course until 1912, when the property reverted to pasture.

Lewis Keller purchased the property in 1959 but it wasn’t until 1994 that a restoration effort was launched for the course. The National Hickory Championship has been played at Oakhurst since 1998. Modern players typically dress in period clothes and use hickory-shafted clubs and gutta-percha balls driven from tees fashioned from sand as was done before the wooden tee was invented.

The course struggled financially and Lewis Keller tried to find a buyer with no luck. Just before the bank foreclosed, Jim Justice the owner of The Greenbrier Resort purchased the property and added it to The Greenbrier fold. They have continued with the tradition of playing with hickory clubs and gutta-percha balls which you can hire.

We saw a couple dressed up playing a round – apparently the guy owns his own hickory shafted golf clubs. It was quite cool to see. We had a chat to the guy in the shop and he said it is really hard to play with these type of clubs. Just makes you appreciate how good these guys were back in the day. Bubba Watson holds the course record at Oakhurst Links – a 2 under 35. Apparently he gets really frustrated as the ball goes straight – for those of you who know Bubba Watson’s style you will know he hits everywhere but straight on purpose : )

This afternoon we played the Meadows course which is another picturesque course. This course originally designed by Alexander H. Findlay and opened in 1910. It was known as The Lakeside until 1999 when it re opened after being completely redesigned by Robert Cupp.

Although the weather was stunning, unfortunately my golf wasn’t quite as stunning. I got my 6 par quota though so coach Thomas was reasonably happy with me : )