This past Tuesday (October 24th), I got the opportunity to play in Iron Maverick III hosted by Golf Crusade and the Strantz Fantz Club at Tot Hill Farm Golf Club (THF). This was my second opportunity getting to play THF, I was able to play on September 4th, the first day opening after it’s massive restoration. I wish I had gotten a chance to play it before the restoration to truly understand what the team was able to do but all I know is the course looks incredible now. My iPhone pictures will never be able to do it justice, but THF looked amazing with the changing colors of the leaves.
I am still at the beginning of this journey with Cackalacky Golf but any Strantz course feels like it’ll be hard to beat. To this point I have only played two of the five Strantz courses that are here in the Carolinas, Tobacco Road and THF, so I will need to make my way down to South Carolina in the near future to play the rest.
Now back to talking about Iron Maverick III, the morning started off colder than I was hoping for in the mid to high 30’s but warmed up to a beautiful day from the morning into the afternoon. We started the day off by playing the course normally, there was no competition so as a group we got to choose what we wanted to play. Lunch was catered by the Black Powder Smokehouse in Asheboro, and then the real fun began in the afternoon when we got to play the “Iron Maverick Course”.
The “Iron Maverick Course” featured 21 total holes, 18 of which were less than 150 yards and 14 of those 18 were less than 100 yards. There was one hole that was 288 yards, one that was 476 yards, and then one hole that played 633 yards. Now this wasn’t just some regular short course, at Tobacco Road they do an “El Camino” course in the afternoons where you get to play the front 9 from shorter par 3 tee boxes generally in the middle of the fairway. We were given a special scorecard for the “Iron Maverick Course” and on the back it states, “We at The Golf Crusade decided to test the limits of Strantz’s 360-degree design philosophy via a ‘reverse routing’ we had discovered thanks to the 1200 trees that were removed during the 2023 restoration effort.” Many of these holes were played from the following tee box back into the previous green which gave you a much different perspective when looking at each hole. The back of the scorecard also mentions, “Strantz designed his courses with the idea they should appear tough, play fair and stimulate the eyes in all directions” and that was easily observed when playing the “Iron Maverick Course”.
I could go on and on about each hole of this special routing but I’m going to give you my top three favorites from the “Iron Maverick Course”.
3. Starting with what was hole #2 of the “Iron Maverick Course”, named the “Autobahn”, playing at 633 yards, you tee’d off from beside the barn next to the 18th green and played to the 17th green. One of my favorite views on the course is when you are at the top of 18 and look back to see the fairway of 16, fairway and green of 17, and then the 18th fairway so I absolutely loved getting the opportunity to tee off in this direction. Also, getting to the 17th green is always a special treat with the wall that lines the green giving you a unique appearance that I haven’t experienced anywhere else.
2. My rankings may come as a surprise to anyone reading this who got to play in Iron Maverick III but coming in at my #2 spot is what was hole #5 of the “Iron Maverick Course”, named the “Cascade”, playing at 55 yards, you tee’d off from a mat at the top of the waterfall behind the 15th green (go check out the picture above to see the running waterfall). This was just a visually appealing hole to play as you could see all the way to the 14th green from the top of the waterfall, and it was cool to hear the running waterfall as you played it.
I’m guessing “Autobahn” and “Cascade” will likely have been many people’s favorites, but I have a couple honorable mentions I would like to throw in before we get to my number one spot. Hole #12 of the “Iron Maverick Course” played from the front lawn of the farmhouse clubhouse to the bottom pin location of the chipping green. Playing only 52 yards but you had to land it in a 7–10-yard spot at the top of the chipping green that was only 25-30 yards away in order for it to roll down towards the pin. This is also where one of the two hole in one’s were made during the playing of the “Iron Maverick Course”. My next honorable mention played in the same area, hole #13 you played from the top of driving range back on to the putting green, you had to make it back over the road that runs to the parking lot and also not go long, or you’d end up on the road/cart path leading to the clubhouse. I just loved the idea of incorporating the chipping and putting green into the routing of this course. My last honorable mention before we get to my long-awaited personal favorite of the “Iron Maverick Course” was holes #4 and #7, which utilized the two-tier green of the 13th green. Getting to play the same green from two different directions while feeling like you were playing two different greens was a cool experience.
1. Now for my favorite hole of the “Iron Maverick Course”… named “Westminster”, playing at 476 yards, you tee’d off from next to the 4th hole green, played back into the 4th fairway and finished at the 3rd green. This is also the hole that I finished my day on so maybe I was having extra feelings of attachment, but this hole really stuck with me. For one, it was an extremely difficult hole playing from this direction, so I loved the difficulty it provided (not that I need any difficulty since I ended up shooting a 94 on this “Iron Maverick Course” that was mainly par 3’s but we’re not going to discuss that any further) but more importantly the approach into the 3rd green from this direction really encapsulated this idea that Strantz wanted his courses to stimulate the eyes in all directions.
This first picture on the left is what did it for me, it looked like this hole was meant to be played this way. If you had showed me this picture and told me this was a hole at a Strantz course, I would have definitely believed it. Hole #3 at THF is already incredible in itself, from the giant rock to the massive bunker, the mound on the right that can provide a hidden pin placement, and the creek that runs all the way around the green. The way that the fourth fairway slopes from right to left when playing it from this direction just felt like this hole was meant to be played this way and I loved every second of it.
Shoutout to the guys over at Golf Crusade (golfcrusade.com) for hosting such an awesome event and coming up with this “Iron Maverick Course”, I definitely hope to play in many more Iron Maverick events!
I just want to end it by saying that Mike Strantz has become a big inspiration to me for Cackalacky Golf, his approach and views on golf course design were fascinating and I’m lucky enough to have almost all of his courses within a few hours of where I live. I can’t wait to play them all and continue to admire what he left behind.