Located off of route 23 just south of Delaware, OH, this course has the unusual feature of having the front nine designed by Donald Ross (or one of his proteges) and the back nine designed by Fuzzy Zoeller. Unfortunately, as with most course additions, the original style was not preserved or blended in with the new back 9. In fact, it would appear to me that only 6 of the original 9 are indeed "original". The 3rd and 9th hole are completely different from the Donald Ross design where their greens are big and undulating and the other holes have small flat greens. Somewhere between the 2nd and 4th, it would appear that the original 3rd hole exists, but was plowed under to make room for a subdivision. The gimmicky par 5 4th hole re-enforces this belief as there is a 150 ft tree right in the middle of the landing spot off the tee. Once you get passed the tree, the remaining hole has a feel of a Donald Ross design. Although different in style, the back nine and other non-original holes are well designed and quite tight in some spots.
We played on a Monday afternoon and the course had a flat $29 rate including cart. There was no break for walking. The gentleman in the pro shop said that "because the course is a difficult one to walk we don't have a walking rate. But if one chooses to walk, we usually take $10 off the rate." Okay, $29 was a decent rate nonetheless. It had rained the night before so we got hit with the "carts on paths only". Of course that slows down play. Interesting enough the carts do no follow up the entire side of the fairway. They stop well before the landing area off the tee. Unfortunately, this feature was not included on the additional nine holes.
The day that we played, the mercury was well above 90ยบ with high humidity. Needless to say we quickly sweated out any water consumed. At the turn, after we found no water coolers on the first nine we asked the pro shop if any water was out on the course. The reply, "no water is out on the course." The reason, "that's corporate." Although this was not part of the answer, apparently the reason why no water coolers are on some courses is because it's a health issue and courses are worried about pending litigation due to one falling ill due to unsanitary water jugs. Evidently, it's better to fall ill to heat exhaustion and lack of water than to getting diarrhea from "bad water". At the very least, a drink cart should be brought around the course. This is a financial incentive for the course.
The driving range has a big lake for its landing area and range balls "float" to the top. This is quite stupid as you have no idea how far you hit the ball or if the balls respond the same as traditional golf balls.
Although the greens were in excellent shape for this time of year, the ambiguous walking rate and the "it's corporate attitude" earns this course a 2 star rating.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
University of Montana Golf Course
Last week on a visit to see some friends in Montana I was able to play at the University of Montana in Missoula. The course is short with minor challenges and is easy to walk. Although quite affordable at $13 for 9-holes, the pace of play was incredibly slow. The greens had a slow pace as well. The main attraction to the course is the beauty of the surrounding terrain - see pics below. If I were to visit Missoula again I may play the course again, but other more enticing links may gain my play. I rate this course a solid two stars.
Third Tee
First Tee
Third Tee
First TeeFriday, July 8, 2011
Pine Hill - Solid Course in Central Ohio
Located in Carroll, Ohio about half way between Lancaster and Columbus sits Pine Hill golf club. This course, designed by Jack Kidwell, has a nice undulating layout. I played on a Saturday afternoon and was able to walk 18 in about three and a half hours. The price at $20 was quite the bargain as the greens and fairways were in good shape. The front nine was the better of the two as the back nine had the unusual 3-3-3 - three par 3s, three par 4s and three par 5s. The only real criticism was that the greens were slow and the round ended with two long and boring par 5s. This course was a solid 3 stars and will definitely earn a return trip.
http://pinehillgolfclub.com/home/index.php
http://pinehillgolfclub.com/
Berkshire Country Club - No Carts Before Noon
Today (6/19/11) I played at Berkshire Country Club in northeastern Ohio. To a former caddie, the round started off with the most dreaded phrase in golf, "you must take a cart before noon." What? What does that mean? And why before noon? I said, "no, I want to walk." The response, again, but with a more authoritative tone, "you must take a cart; that's the boss's rules." O-kay, the boss's rules, but why? Apparently there is this perception that golfers on carts play faster than those walking. Perhaps, but it is my experience that people take more time. Why? Because golfers are not trained on how to play cart golf. Often times golfers forget clubs in the cart and have to return to get the right clubs. This inevitably adds time to the round. One may say that the cart does speed up play between holes, but on a course like Berkshire, where the holes are all within reasonable distance of each other the cart does not speed up play. This is especially true on father's day when the course is packed from 7:00 am on.
Since I was not by myself, I begrudgingly paid for the cart and green fees, for a total of $46, which is quite steep for a course of this caliber. Having paid for this, and the course website stating that it is an "18 hole Championship Golf Course", I expected a much better groomed course than what I encountered. Although soggy in some spots, the greens were in good shape. The fairways were decent, but many of the tees needed work. Apparently this was to be done shortly as the carts had signs stating that they would be "moving dirt around" in the near future. The sand traps had very little sand if any at all and appeared as if they came through 30 years ago with a bulldozer and in one pass created a small indentation in the ground and then dumped sand from a nearby Lake Erie beach. As to the cart paths, which for this given day gained my attention, were in terrible shape. They had many undulations with tree roots growing through them. And where there was supposed to be asphalt, much of it was missing. The one good thing about the cart paths, which courses that have them should follow, is they are only near the tees and greens. They are not up the entire side of the hole, which many courses usually have. The one entertaining part of the day was the down hill par 4 no. 12, the second most difficult hole on the course. Perhaps, in its effort to be a "championship golf course" the green slopes severely back to front and if you leave your ball above the hole there is little chance to stop it unless you hit the hole. None of the players in my group could stop their ball before it rolled completely off the green. In fact, some people would consider this unfair. The USGA has suffered from similar criticism in previous US Opens. Overall, I rate this course 2 stars out of 5.
Since I was not by myself, I begrudgingly paid for the cart and green fees, for a total of $46, which is quite steep for a course of this caliber. Having paid for this, and the course website stating that it is an "18 hole Championship Golf Course", I expected a much better groomed course than what I encountered. Although soggy in some spots, the greens were in good shape. The fairways were decent, but many of the tees needed work. Apparently this was to be done shortly as the carts had signs stating that they would be "moving dirt around" in the near future. The sand traps had very little sand if any at all and appeared as if they came through 30 years ago with a bulldozer and in one pass created a small indentation in the ground and then dumped sand from a nearby Lake Erie beach. As to the cart paths, which for this given day gained my attention, were in terrible shape. They had many undulations with tree roots growing through them. And where there was supposed to be asphalt, much of it was missing. The one good thing about the cart paths, which courses that have them should follow, is they are only near the tees and greens. They are not up the entire side of the hole, which many courses usually have. The one entertaining part of the day was the down hill par 4 no. 12, the second most difficult hole on the course. Perhaps, in its effort to be a "championship golf course" the green slopes severely back to front and if you leave your ball above the hole there is little chance to stop it unless you hit the hole. None of the players in my group could stop their ball before it rolled completely off the green. In fact, some people would consider this unfair. The USGA has suffered from similar criticism in previous US Opens. Overall, I rate this course 2 stars out of 5.
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