Poplar Grove Golf Course, Amherst, Virginia - the Legendary Sam Snead's Final Golf Course Design and a Top Upscale New Course

Sam Snead was never a professional golf course architect, per se, but he and his son Jack got involved with a project that was intended to inaugurate the Sam Snead Golf Trail. Together, they worked with Ed Carton, a former member of Tom Fazio's design group, and undertook the Poplar Grove Golf Course in Amherst, Virginia.

Toward the end of his career, it's said that Snead developed a sympathy for the average golfer, and the result is said to be on display at Poplar Grove. The course, which opened in 2004, plays through the Virginia hill country where Snead was born and raised and is set in the middle of lands wooded with trees, brambles and honeysuckle briars.

Though Snead passed away before work on the back nine had begun, his influence is seen throughout the course, which is laid out on the site of a Colonial-era manor. Some of the "duffer-friendly'' aspects of Poplar Grove include wide fairways that narrow only where longer hitters might place their shots.

Snead also hated multi-tiered, penalizing greens, and he advised that the challenge come not from the greens, but from the hole locations, including the placement of surrounding bunkers. His vision was to have a target that the average golfer could hit, and the putting surfaces are generally large, gently sloped and receptive to approach shots. He wanted greens to be like a "catcher's mitt,'' catching balls rather than shedding them.

Snead also liked to start players out on the right foot, so the first hole is particularly player-friendly. The tee shot plays sharply downhill to a broad fairway, and tee boxes on the rest of the layout tend to be found on promontories, as Snead disliked uphill tee shots.

The layout also features four lakes and a couple of creeks, which is said to be more water than Snead would have liked, but designer Carton tried to minimize the impact of such hazards. Perhaps the most visually daunting hole is No. 2, a par-4 that looks out over the arm of a lake on the left side. The tee shot, however, is still fairly easy and plays to a fairway that's 50 yards wide.

The course layout is said to curve gracefully from fairway to fairway and has a rhythm to its flow, with the bunkering being characterized as "awesome'' by some reviewers. The green complexes are also said to be diverse, with some featuring a gentle slope, while a handful of holes feature a number of levels.

Among the honors and awards already accorded Poplar Grove are a ranking by Golf Digest as the #8 Best New Upscale Public Facility in 2005. The course is also home to several championship tournaments.