The River Club (GA)
Played the River Club outside of Atlanta in 2019 with some work buddies. This was kind of a sneaky good course that flies under the radar a bit in the golf-rich Atlanta area (at least golf-rich as far as top private clubs go). The top privates to get on in the area are a who’s-who (or what’s-what) of top 100 golf courses: East Lake, Atlanta Athletic, Peachtree (there had to be a peach tree-named course in Atlanta of course – more on that later), Atlanta CC and of course a little club called Augusta National a mere two hours or so away. Anything not on that brand-name list flies under the radar.
We had a last-second opportunity to golf so our buddy Bobby made a few calls as he used to live there and while we couldn’t work our way onto one of the top brand names, we did get on here. Note if doing a guy’s trip here, my pro also struck out, so getting on those top name courses could be a really tough proposition.
We played at the crack-of-Christ so we flew around this course. The conditioning was top notch. We had après golf drinks in the club house though we all had flights so couldn’t linger as long as we wanted. The club is in a super high-end residential community that is home to some multi-million dollar mansions with some Atlanta-area athletes and other local glitterati as residents. The homes weren’t too intrusive and didn’t even seem to exist on the back nine.
There is precious little on the web on the River Club: the Gurus give it a quick couple of photos and a “B-” rating and it is on the Top 100 site too but outside of their top 50 in Georgia – pretty harsh IMO (Top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/river-club-georgia). I plant it firmly in my top 200 based on the conditioning, esthetics and challenge and it is the top Atlanta-area course I’ve played – but I will admit I have not golfed the cream of the crop here.
So to the course, I love being the first one out on a course. And the second group wasn’t even an after-thought so we were alone on this course for our round. This course was tough too. I don’t remember playing overly crappy but posted a 94. I think we played the whites which are over 6,300 and slopes to a 132 – so this isn’t a pushover. I’ll ty to recollect the holes in the captions but don’t bitch if I fuck it up.
To Atlanta. I can’t believe it took until the River Club for me to talk about Atlanta. I have been to Atlanta quite a bit in my life travels. Mostly for work but think there were a few rec trips to visit my brother-in-law and go to a non-Eagles Super Bowl there. To the latter. We went down to the 1998-99 Super Bowl featuring the “Greatest Show on Turf” Rams versus the Titans. Close game. We sat next to one of Kurt Warner’s buddies from Iowa. A huge ice storm hit before the game. We stayed outside the stadium area but right on the Marta subway line. Nothing was happening in the city as the storm (which would be nothing more than a mild annoyance in the Northeast) crippled the city. By luck, the one bar within walking distance of our hotel was the Cheetah Club (I think). Of course we had my cousin and buddy’s wife so it wasn’t on our itinerary to hit a strip club but when nature gives you “melons.” Ha! So the club flew in dancers who stayed at our hotel and made the walk over and we were like one of five groups there and finally to avoid the loud noise echoing around the empty club, we went to a VIP room and all the girls followed us in to hang since there was nothing else to do. So we made buddies with the girls and later in the week as the crowds came in, we went back. The girls greeted us by name and got us VIP tables. At one point, one of the girls we met asked if her friends could hang with us. She introduced me to some pretty big dude and it was Joey Fatone (spelling?) from N’Sync (maybe)? So I looked at him and truly taken back asked, “The kiddie band?” That insulted him and he steamed off. Oops.
So let’s talk Atlanta again. Every fucking thing in the city is Peach Tree this or Peach Tree that. Asking directions, you get “take Peach Tree NW to Peach Tree SE and follow until you hit Peach Tree Blvd. In fact, replace “shrimp” with Peach Tree” below and you have a description of Atlanta.
We went to a bachelor party in Atlanta way, way, way back and played Cobblestone. Since then I played the Bobby Jones course (I heard redone but was pretty rough when I played) and Stone Mountain (which is inside the Stone Mountain Park Drive and you have to pay an outrageous toll just to get to the course). If you’re planning an all-publics trip, head out to Reynolds Lake which has some really nice courses. If you want to stay in or around Atlanta, bring your most connected of friends and get on the privates.
Atlanta has some pretty good eats. Down and dirty, you got to hit the Varsity for a hot dog. Kevin Rathbun’s is a top notch steak house and they have a great STK franchise there. Atlanta BBQ is underrated and we went to Fox Brothers (a converted gas station) out by Emory University. Traffic sucks and I hear Buckhead has gotten dangerous.
So if you’re team is playing the Falcons or you have another burning reason to be in Atlanta (I went to the Masquerade and got to see Filter which was fun) then by all means. Do Stone Mountain, try the new Bobby Jones course and Cobblestone was nice though a distant memory. I’ve also played Bear’s Best there and Eagle’s Landing which is a nice not awesome private that’s easier to get on than the others.
Golf Scrapbook 