Playing the Slammer & Squire Takes You to a New Place in Golf

Golf Writer Andy Reistetter continues his exclusive "Play-Write" series with a round of golf on The Slammer & Squire Golf Course adjacent to the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida. While teeing off on the first hole, Andy realized that there was something quite unique about this particular golfing trip. Read along with Reistetter as he plays along with the great Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen on their eternal home course.

There is no other place in the world where you can have the ultimate historical golfing experience.

No place on Earth where you can put on your golfing shoes, tap your golf ball on the face of your wedge and play a round with the legends of the game.

Not at the Old Course in St. Andrews or at Augusta National. Not even a historic U.S. Open venue like Pebble Beach.

Like Gary Player says, if you love golf you have to go to St. Augustine and experience the World Golf Hall of Fame.

When you go, make sure to play the Slammer & Squire.                         

Maybe you will experience the same epiphany I did when I put my peg in the ground on the first tee at the Slammer & Squire.

I looked up and saw the World Golf Hall of Fame and its iconic Tower. I was fixated as though I had never seen it before.

Nowhere in the world is there so much golf history concentrated in one place.

Within the walls of the Hall lie all the elements of the game dating back to its predecessor games of the 13^th century.

The first written notes on how to play the game better were recorded in 1687 by a medical student in Edinburgh.

His tip was to stay in balance throughout your swing.

When I stepped back to visualize my tee shot, I felt all 136 members come out of the Hall as if to say "play well, enjoy your game today."

Somehow I had become a teenager again, hitting balls on the practice field at Ely Park.

There is definitely a "play it and they will come" sort of intimate connection with the game when you tee it up on the Slammer & Squire.

Of course two prominent members of the inaugural induction class of 1974 played along with me for all 18 holes.

Sam "The Slammer" Snead and Gene "The Squire" Sarazen consulted on the golf course design with architect Bobby Weed.

The course debut coincided with the opening of the Hall of Fame in World Golf Village in May 1998.

Stretching to nearly 7,000 yards from the tips with a 72.7 rating and 127 slope, the first nine meander far away from and return back to the Tower. The second nine stay close to the Tower with the most striking views seen on tees 11, 13, 14, and 18.

There are 5 sets of tees with the most forward being 5,119 yards with a rating of 69.1 and slope of 124.

The touch of Snead and Sarazen is felt throughout a memorable round of golf.

Snead, the hillbilly from Virginia, had a naturally perfect swing and played competitively for six decades.

As the long time golf professional emeritus and legend at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, he was familiar with Charles Blair MacDonald's 1914 Old White design.

The classic features of Old White include a Redan hole and deception that utilize bunkers and mounding.

Snead brought these exciting and challenging golf elements to life in St. Augustine on the par-3 7^th hole with its angled elevated green with bunkers short left and long right.

The green at the par-5 11^th hole is masterfully hidden by a large bunker enshrined in a large mound. A precisely executed strategy is the only way to get your third shot close for birdie.

Sarazen, always the gentleman, brought innovation to the game of golf.

The Squire invented the modern sand wedge with a flanged sole. His stroke of brilliance came while taking flying lessons from Howard Hughes.

Sand and golf have a common history all the way back to the sandy soil of the Old Course at St. Andrews. Bunkers simply came from animals burrowing in the ground thereby exposing a sandy patch.

The home hole features a distant, oversized fairway bunker that confounds the golfer when selecting a club for the tee shot.

The Slammer & Squire, the outside heart of the World Golf Village, is a place of tranquility. Golfers of all skill levels play there and become more connected to the essence of the game.

At what other course can you grab a crisp apple on the first tee, see a hawk fly overhead with a fish in its claws, and marvel at the genius of a course design that fills your spirit?

Visiting the World Golf Hall of Fame and playing the Slammer & Squire are both doable in the same day. To make it the historic trip that it should be, stay two or three days and add the King & Bear to your rotation.

My advice for your round is to play the ball as you find it and perhaps even play stymies.

There is only one Slammer & Squire.

Enjoy!

Other articles in Golf Writer Andy Reistetter's exclusive "Play-Write" series include the Greenbrier's Old White and the King & Bear:

Greenbrier's Old White Course (White Sulphur Springs, W VA): A Charles Blair Macdonald Masterpiece enveloped with the essence of Slammin' Sammy Snead at America's Resort.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/422692-pga-tour-the-greenbrier-americas-resort-takes-center-stage

Within a few miles of the World Golf Hall of Fame legends Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus came together for the only time in their design careers to create a masterpiece unlike any other golf course in Florida.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/925329-hall-of-famers-nicklaus-palmer-an-inside-out-perspective

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer as well as a Spotter, Research and Broadcast Assistant for The Golf Channel, NBC and CBS Sports. He spends time on all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

Reistetter resides within two miles of the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame and THE PLAYERS while pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached by e-mailing him at [e-mail]