Arcadia was “a mountainous region of ancient Greece, traditionally known for the contented pastoral innocence of its people,” so spaketh dictionary.com. Evidently, when you bring bluffs into play, all contentment and innocence goes to pot! Those northerly breezes that blow off Lake Michigan make navigation of the fairways a fair challenge.

Those brown spots you see above might be construed as rough, but in actuality they are the acne of the devil! You can barely find your ball in them, although the fescue is quite wispy. Playing a legitimate shot back to reality takes quite a bit of concentration and execution.

The effect of Lake Michigan in the background is defiant. The big bunker on the right is as hungry as Cookie Monster with the munchies. The green is bisected by a ridge (not uncommon on this course) and fires balls toward the edges. Oh, and the hole measures about 600 yards.

Sometimes you see the fairway, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you find your ball, sometimes you can’t. My one gripe with Arcadia was based on something that didn’t happen at Kohler or Bandon (the two places with which Arcadia keeps company): you lost balls just off the fairway. My suggestion: cut that hairy stuff that edges the first cut and second cut of rough.

Strange as it seems, if you control your emotions, you can avoid all this sand. Play links golf as it should be played, and you will eliminate the troubled side.

The eighteenth green. Fittingly, I lipped out a par putt there. I also four-whacked on number nine (from 20 feet) and putted an eagle putt off the green on number sixteen (I picked up … too overwhelmed … I’m in counseling with Mac O’Grady.) All greens have a dozen pin positions, but rarely offer a flat putt or an unbreaking one.

Tomorrow: Crystal Mountain and Shanty Creek

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