GreatHoles
Nos.7&8
JON HOOD
T
he Water’s Edge Country Club in Penhook will host
the 2016 VSGA Mid-Amateur Championship—the
40th playing of our state Mid-Am—September 16-18.
Open to male golfers ages 25 and older, the Mid-Am
was the brainchild of former VSGA President, M. W.
“Dyke” Peebles, and the 1977 VSGA Mid-Am was the first-ever such
championship conducted in the United States. Most fittingly, the
Mid-Am winner receives the Dyke Peebles trophy.
Designed by the late R. F. “Buddy” Loving and later renovated by
Richard Mandell, The Water’s Edge Country Club is bordered by
Smith Mountain Lake. The largest lake contained entirely within
the borders of Virginia and featuring a shoreline of 500 miles, SML
is known for its pristine waters and is consistently ranked among
the cleanest lakes in the country.
Smith Mountain Lake is the backdrop for two superb designs
at WECC. The seventh, the signature hole (see the inset photo),
is a gorgeous par-3 played out to a wide point of land that serves
as an island green encircled by the lake. A number of different
tees allow this hole to play from a variety of angles and to an array
of distances.
The eight, an excellent par-4, is a demanding uphill two-shotter,
that plays considerably longer than the distances on the card.
Large strategically placed trees—on the left