Walking in Memphis

MIRIMICHI

A dawn start was called for the next day as we headed for our first golf experience of the trip, Mirimichi Golf Club. This is a public course, conveniently located only 15 minutes north of downtown and is easily the most famous in the area. That fame may be based on it’s previous owner being Justin Timberlake, but play it and you’ll realize it should instead be famed for having some of the best greens in the US. Timberlake, a fine golfer himself, reportedly spent US$16mm renovating the course after buying it in 2009. As well as making the track very eco-friendly, he is rumoured to have invested heavily in hiring staff from Augusta National to recreate the fast, firm bent grass surfaces we see in action every year.

Whilst the greens are uniformly true, tough and slick, the course itself builds from a relatively straight-forward, long but comparatively unremarkable front nine to the fantastic back nine with it’s elevation changes, waterfalls and a far more interesting, challenging design. The beautiful 10th prepares you for what lies ahead with two very strong shots required to avoid the fairway bunkers left, trees right and with the green over the meandering creek. The signature par-three 11th follows and it’s a superb looking hole, albeit less difficult than it looks with a large green and plenty of room left to avoid the water. The name Mirimichi means “place of happy retreat” but at nearly 7,500 yards long from the black tees, with a rating of 76.8 it could be anything but! Thankfully there are between five and seven tees on every hole and a less brutal route is readily available.

Heading back to the clubhouse, we passed by the driving range where we found a spectacular reminder of the man who had made all this possible: parked prominently was JT’s old bright red Cadillac golf cart, one of three the pop idol left behind as he departed…