The Meadows Course at The Greenbrier Resort
Before we made our stop at The Greenbrier on our Golf Aficionado 2018 Ultimate Golf Trip we knew that The Meadows was still very much recovering from major flooding in 2016. The Meadows course sustained substantial damage during the flood and only recently reopened for 18 holes of golf. So two years following the massive flooding, on my first trip to The Greenbrier Resort I was interested to see how much the resort had recovered.
Our schedule at The Greenbrier had us first playing The Snead, which was 100% recovered and showed no sign of any natural disaster, then The Greenbrier which is currently undergoing redesign by Phil Mickelson and just opened 9 nine holes for play before our visit. Our third stop at The Greenbrier was The Meadows course.
The golf course layout at The Greenbrier Resort consists of The Greenbrier and The Meadows on the West End of the resort, while the east side of the resort is reserved primarily for TPC Old White. The Snead is located a few miles away at the members-only Sporting Club. The west end of the layout which includes The Greenbrier and The Meadows are still recovering from the flooding that impacted the area. Therefore, you can still see signs of recovery here and there throughout the round, but in general, everything looks beautiful with The Greenbrier’s signature mountain vistas in the background.
In reading about the history of the flooding impacts, I found out that The Greenbrier Team had created new routings, greens, tees and even new hazards as a result of the floods. Having never seen or played the previous version of The Meadows, I can say that the Team did a great job as I saw no visual evidence of the previous layout or any awkward transitions. The signature stacked sod bunkers which The Meadows is known for can still be found throughout the course. The bunkers are beyond challenging if your ball ends up near the bunker wall, prepare to go sideways or backwards in order to escape.
The first hole on Meadows starts with promise, a demanding tee shot that requires you to hit it over Swan Lake onto what seemed like a narrow fairway from the tee and then a second shot onto a small green which requires precision. However, The Meadows was really a tale of 2 nines, the front nine was more along the lines of your average run of the mill resort course, good but nothing special is how I would sum up after the front nine. To my surprise, the tune changed drastically as we crossed the street and headed over to the 10th.
A look at the 11th green with a little slice of Howard’s Creek guarding the front of the Green
As you might imagine, our most memorable holes were all on the back nine. Topping the list at Meadows was 11, 12, 16 and 18. As we got to number 11, everyone was impressed with the green adjacent to Howards Creek that required an approach shot over the creek and through a gap in the trees that requires you to carry a large greenside bunker. Number 12 was a short par three, but equally impressive with the view from the tee box looking at the green set just over the rocky bank of Howards Creek. Make sure you carry the creek but be careful not to go left into one of the deeper sod slope bunkers you’ll encounter. With the steps they carved into the bank you’ll have no trouble getting yourself out of the bunker but your ball is another story, good luck with that one.
A view of the 12th, The green looks so close from the tee, just be sure to stay clear of those bunkers
Another memorable hole is the 16th which is a downhill dogleg left. This hole has a great view but if you’re not long off the tee, watch out for the small creek that surprised us and captured several of our group’s shots, nothing like walking up and finding your ball in the water when you didn’t expect it!
The 18th green on The Meadows, do you go for the green in 2 or not?
I’d have to vote for 18 as my favorite hole. If the game is on the line, what a great finishing hole to settle the score. After our tee shots, everyone in the group was trying to figure out whether to lay up or go for the intimidating shot over Swan Lake to a generously sized green surrounded by bunkers. With the flag up front, the approach shot was even more intimidating. The goal here is to just get it on the green and hopefully make par!
What started out as a ho-hum day on the front nine of The Meadows turned into a memorable round of golf. To be honest our entire impression of The Meadows changed by the time we finished the 18th. Two years following major flood damage the resort is nearly 100% recovered. All the golf courses at The Greenbrier were impacted by the flooding and required major recovery work to reopen. The priority of the recovery efforts was clearly The Snead and TPC Old White, so as you can imagine the recovery for those courses are much further along than The Meadows. Needless to say, if you’re staying at The Greenbrier you’ll want to make time to get in a round on The Meadows. The back nine alone makes it worthwhile and this time next year the course will be in even better shape as the resort completes restoration work on The Meadows and The Greenbrier course. Learn more about scheduling a golf trip to the Greenbrier.