(This beautiful view from the clubhouse veranda is a pleasure to look at before and after the round.)
Reserve Run was designed by Barry Serafin in 1999. An old strip mine is in play on several holes while the rest are played on mildly rolling terrain. It’s part of a residential community with homes on the northern half and golf on the southern. This decision limited the size of the property so Serafin put six par threes on the course. Two of these are stand out holes and the other four do a good job moving the pace of play along. When you think about the awkwardness of seven and twelve, two holes he had to try hard to fit in, the six par threes was a good decision.
(The eighth is a 219/201 par three that is all carry to the green...
...this view shows how narrow the green is for this length shot. Short and right is the best miss, and some shots will rebound off the hill and bounce onto the green. A par is always a great score.)
(The 195/187 yard par three eleventh plays over the water at a diagonal. Anything short or right will find big trouble. There’s plenty of bailout left including fairway for those who choose to play conservatively.)
Serafin does a good job routing the course and warming the golfer up before making him tackle the tough stretch of 7-13. As mentioned earlier, seven and twelve are awkward par fours. They force a layup off the tee with a hybrid or mid iron, and have water guarding the greens for the approach. Minus these two holes, there are some interesting concepts on the others, including the cross bunker on three, the cape hole tee shot on thirteen, and the diagonal fairway bunkers on sixteen. I’m also a big fan of the short grass circling the putting surfaces, giving plenty of options to recover. There’s a lot of good golf here and the conditioning is superb!
(The thirteenth features a cape style tee shot where one can cut off a significant amount of distance. This risk/reward par four comes at the perfect point in the round where a charging player can catch his opponent.)
This is my fourth Barry Serafin course, and he does a really nice job designing playable tracks. He tends to find what I call pizzazz holes. There’s four or five holes a round where a natural feature is exclusively used to create a good challenge. By doing this, he gets away with some average ones because the golfer is looking ahead. At Reserve Run, the strip mine holes over the water are definitely the pizzazz holes. These holes take the pressure off of 2,4,15, and 17 which are not very strong par threes. The four holes by the entrance road (1,6,16,18) however are very good and instantly catapulted it to the top of my list when I visited back in May.
(The 430 yard finishing eighteenth is the best par four on the course. It takes two strong shots to reach it in regulation and hopefully walk away with a four. The elevated green will not be easy to access so playing it to the front might be best strategy.)
I’m impressed with the decision to keep the homes and golf separate. It truly makes the course a better experience, and ultimately will result in more rounds. Second, the two level clubhouse is a great choice. Excellent views can be seen in every direction. The lack of a driving range hurts, but Reserve Run is a strong contender in the Youngstown area. I know the golfers in PA like it because the parking lot is inundated with Pennsylvania license plates. I give Reserve Run a 5 (good)(worth driving one hour to play).
(This long view is from four tee to the clubhouse...
...and this is the view looking back from nine fairway. The eighth green, tenth green, and the uphill tee shot from nine tees are all in focus. It’s a terrific piece of property.)
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