The late, great architect Mike Strantz never adhered to convention. So it’s only fitting that a side project spawned from his more iconoclastic creation sidesteps some conventions of its own.
IN Tobacco Street North Carolina Sandhills Golf Course owner Mark Stewart has announced the construction of Matchbox, a 12-hole par-3 course that will wind through the trees near the 12th and 13th fairways of Strantz’s stately home. Like its big brother, the new course will sit on family land that once served as a gravel mining site, its spoil piles and sand ridges providing the unruly raw material for Strantz’s imagination when the main course opened in 1998.
Short courses are everywhere these days, springing up at resorts and day-rate facilities across the country. But Tobacco Road has put a twist on the trend.
The matchbox will be constructed with synthetic turf blended into the natural landscape, allowing for more consistent conditions without having to clear the tree canopy from sunlight. It will also feature a mix of real and faux sand bunkers.
Stewart, who spoke to GOLF on Tuesday by phone, said the approach matches the extraordinary thinking Strantz brought to the original course. “I think he would be thrilled,” Stewart said. “It goes along with his whole evil approach.”
The tee box is being designed by Carlton Marshall Golf Design, whose principals, Justin Carlton and Chris Marshall, specialize in synthetic turf projects. Another key player is Mark White, a former Strantz student and one of Tobacco Road’s original founders.
Strantz himself died of cancer at the age of 50 in 2005, but not before blazing a special path. An Ohio native, he cut his teeth under Tom Fazio and then struck out on his own, earning acclaim for his first solo project, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in South Carolina, as well as his neighbor, True Blue. Tobacco Road came next. A wild statement, the course baffled some critics but attracted a large faction of admirers. Over time, the latter camp has only grown, and Tobacco Road has emerged as a must-play in the Sandhills, a quirky complement to the region’s more classic designs.
Part of Matchbox Road will play along a pond that even many Tobacco Road regulars may not know exists. Stewart said he and Strantz had discussed having a par-3 play on it during the original design process, but it didn’t make the final cut.
The holes themselves cut the profile of Tobacco Road’s Mini-Me, stitched into a five-acre plot with roughly 40 meters of elevation change. The third will play as a 60-yard blind shot from a lofted ball. The 7th calls for a 40-yard carry over a creek. The 9th is meant to channel the face-opening spirit of the big course, playing through two large mounds.
Stewart said he had his eye on the par-3 for more than 20 years, thinking long and hard about what he could do with it. And the name he had in mind all along was never in doubt. The matchbox nods to tobacco (expression for lighting), but also alludes to a golf match by winking at the intimate scale of a matchbox car. “I’ve had this name in mind for years,” he told GOLF.
