I had been hearing about The Chief Golf Course for a few years before I finally played it.
I was also warned.
More than once.
“It’s a hard course.”
“You probably won’t like it.”
“You might be miserable.”
Apparently nobody told The Chief.
I played with Guy and two of his brothers, which is always a recipe for a fun round, and things got off to a pretty good start.
I birdied the first hole.
Yep.
First hole.
Birdie.
At that point, I was feeling pretty good about my chances of surviving this supposedly terrifying golf course.
And it only got better from there.
The Chief is definitely challenging. There is plenty going on, and you’re going to have to think about some of your shots. But one thing I really appreciated was the tee placement.
Play the correct tees for your game.
It makes a difference.
From the right tees, I never felt like the course was asking me to hit shots I simply couldn’t make. It was still challenging, but it was a fun kind of challenging.
There’s a big difference between the two.
Sometimes a difficult course feels like it’s beating you up for four hours.
The Chief made me want to see what I could do on the next hole.
Apparently, I could do quite a bit.
Because I beat the boys.
I’d just like to make sure that’s properly documented.
I played The Chief with Guy and two of his brothers, birdied the first hole, had a blast, and beat all three of them.
There.
Now it’s on the internet forever.
What I especially liked about the round was that it proved something I’ve learned over the years. You don’t have to be a low handicap golfer to enjoy a challenging golf course.
A well designed course with thoughtful tee placement can give better golfers all the challenge they want while still giving the rest of us a fighting chance.
And every once in a while, one of us might even beat them.
The Chief had been on my list for a while.
After finally playing it, I understood why I’d heard so much about it.
I loved the course.
The birdie certainly helped.
Beating the boys didn’t hurt either.
I’m sure they’ll tell you neither had anything to do with why I remember this round so fondly.
They’d be wrong. ⛳
Read about the fun we had and who I beat in our July 2025 Newsletter. Make sure you don’t miss an issue by clicking on Golf Up North Newsletter and subscribing to our monthly newsletter.
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