Chautauqua Golf Club - Hill Course (Chautauqua, NY)

Be patient with the Hill course. It starts off slow but turns into a rollicking roller coaster from the ninth tee until the final putt on eighteen. It’s an out and in design that transverses the beautiful western New York countryside. It may not be the most sophisticated architecturally, but if conditions mean a lot to you, the greens were the best I’ve played all year.

Hill was designed by Xen Hassenplug, a civil engineer turned golf architect whose work is found mainly in the New York-Pennsylvania-Ohio triad. Working on a severe piece of property like this one, he did a great job routing some cool holes. I’m particularly impressed by the cross sloped ones. I also like that he didn’t make the natural water features the dominant hazard. They’re nuanced with plenty of give for those who don’t want to challenge them.

(The 463/450 yard par five eighth plays straight uphill to this green. After being in the meadow down near the clubhouse, this climb sets in motion the drama for the next ten holes.)

(The 346/298 yard par four tenth doglegs slightly left before ascending to a small shelf of a green. Judging the yardage appropriately will be key. Anything short will tumble back down the fairway.)

(The 473/469 yard par five eleventh demands an accurate tee shot between the trees. One can cheat a bit by playing down the left and getting a favorable bounce…

…from there it’s straight uphill to a green that has one of the few bunkers on the course guarding the front left. It’s a good birdie opportunity if you can negotiate the tee shot.)

(The 386/380 yard par four twelth drops down between two small ponds on either side of the fairway before playing back uphill to the green. Notice how the lay of the land design flows effortlessly without the need for sand traps to provide challenge.)

(The 168/136 yard par three thirteenth provides one of those deep breathe moments. No houses, no noise, just peace and solitude listening to the sounds of nature. It’s a lovely shot to a large green that should yield a stress free par unless you challenge a front pin position.)

(The 388/361 yard par four sixteenth comes out of the trees before doglegging left, dropping downhill, and climbing to another elevated green. It’s beautiful hole but I’m unsure of the mowing lines…

…this view looking back shows plenty of grass in the elbow of the dogleg which shortens the hole. I feel this is the line most players take. Regardless, the green is hard to hit and quite challenging once you arrive.)

The Hill is one of two eighteen hole courses at the Chautauqua Golf Club. Together, they make for an ideal 36 hole golf getaway. (Cleveland is just over two hours away) If the first six holes matched the quality of the last ten, the Hill would be rivaling Peak n Peek’s Upper as the best course in the area. Nonetheless, it’s super fun, very playable, and a great value at $58. I know my friends love Deer Ridge in Belleville, and I think they’d have the same affinity for this place. I give the Hills a solid 5 (good)(worth driving an hour to play).

(The 389/365 yard eighteenth completes the round with a dogleg right downhill par four. One can fly his approach to the green or use the tumbling fairway to run the ball on.)

(I played the white tees at 5,961 yards. The swing changes from my lesson seem to be paying off and I’m getting more comfortable trusting them on the course. I tied my best round of the year, but the 11 GIR tell me it could’ve been a few strokes better. Golf is a funny game. I shot a 94 the day before. Blog 488)

Giants Ridge - Quarry (Biwabik, MN)

#35 Top 100 Public USA (Golf Digest)

#68 Top 100 Public USA (Golf Magazine)

#36 Top 100 USA Resort (GolfWeek)

#44 Top 100 USA Public (GolfWeek)

#1 Best Public Courses Minnesota (GolfWeek)

Taking a page out of Mike Strantz’ book, Jeff Brauer created a wild, raucous ride full of heart pounding holes and cool shots. Like Tobacco Road, it plays easier than it looks. Wide fairways and multiple options allow players to choose how daring or conservative they want to be. The rich Northland terrain fits beautifully with the scale of the course, a mix of hardwoods, fauna, rock piles, and old quarry remnants.

(The 575/558/525 yard par five second can be played many different ways but the temptation to play it as a straightaway hole is there for the tiger golfer. Most of us will tack our way around the hazard, trying to obtain a good angle for our third…

…the central bunker is the last line of defense against the long hitter while squeezing the angle for short hitter coming from the side. It’s a terrific par five with many options to make it exciting for every level of player.)

(The 369/346/313 yard sixth is a great drive and pitch par four featuring a thrilling tee shot over a quarry…

…as this pic shows, the pitch portion of the hole is to a massive green full of great pin locations. Today’s flag is tucked onto a tiny tier in the back right corner. While this Sunday pin is hard to negotiate, most others are very accessible. My only thought is do they ever stick the pin in the sunken “bath tub” seen on the left side of the picture?)

(The 189/175/142 yard par three seventh plays over another quarry to an unusual green where the front half is three times wider than the back. Imagine a pin squeezed into the far left or far right. How juicy would it be hitting to those flags?!)

I saw a lot similarities with Tobacco Road, many times on the par fives where the low index player can take on risk and be rewarded with a shorter shot. It even has a dell type green where the flag can be hidden behind a hill, reminiscent of Tobacco’s famous par five thirteenth. The par fours are terrific, and the three short ones in particular are excellent. The past several years, the drive and pitch has been forlorn for the dramatic driveable hole, but the Quarry reminds us how exciting these types are, and for good measure, has one of the best driveable par fours in the country. It’s no surprise they’re my favorite holes on the course.

(The 377/353/325 yard par four ninth has a wide fairway that bottlenecks between two large hills. A shot down the left leaves the best angle while an indifferent strike to the right can be blocked out…

…the passage through the neck is quite narrow. Notice how unfavorable drives from the tee can leave very tricky approach shots.)

(The 323/296/275 yard par four thirteenth is the hole everyone associates with Giants Ridge. A centerline bunker forces a decision between laying back, hitting to the lower right, or playing to the upper left. The large green is angled so it’s thirty yards less to carry to the right side of the green…

…it is a wall of rough fronting the green so aggressive players best not be short. This is the view from the upper left where every pin is in view…

…being short or on the lower right leaves a blind to semi blind shot. It’s a classic 2 or 7 hole. Architecture rarely gets better than this!)

The Quarry has been getting accolades since it opened in 2003. It won Best New Course that year, and climbed the rankings to the 18th best public course in America before settling in the mid 30s. The unfortunate truth is that the last two holes play on the land by the clubhouse, away from the first sixteen. It makes for a long transition between 16-17, and creates an awkward last hole. Brauer acknowledged this much in an interview and commented they thought about making eighteen a par three over the corner of the lake. Regardless, the course is such high quality, I’m willing to let a few blemishes slide. I give Giants Ridge Quarry an 8 (excellent)(worth spending a weekend to play).

(The 513/499/454 yard par five fourteenth plays uphill to a saddled green that hides behind two ridges. Today’s pin is on the right, just out of view from the left fairway. Imagine how it looks from the center or right half. Strantz would love it!)

(One of my better rounds this year unfortunately. If I didn’t have 170 yards or less, I’d lay up and take my chances with my short game. Not a bad score playing with that mentality. I played the white tees at 6,101 yards. The course is in excellent shape and the $140 price tag is a great value considering it’s ranked inside the top 50. Minnesota is the 32 state I’ve played in.)

(454/431/398 par four fifteenth has an interrupted fairway. The approach is 180-200 from this view.)

(The 558/502/473 par five sixteenth is an excellent driving hole. Bailing out right makes second shot an intimidating one over a cross hazard. Excellent green!)

(The 220/181/156 yard seventeenth is a straightforward hole and relatively easy if you refrain from being too aggressive. Plenty of green to hit from the tee.)

(The 468/448/408 yard eighteenth hole doglegs left. A draw is optimal but it’s a longer carry than you think. The fairway does run out before tumbling over the ravine into the water…

…the approach is typically 200+ so layup like I did in the pic, or try to work it off the backside of the slope. Right is dead. It’s a tough ending hole.) Blog 487

Heritage Course - Marquette Golf Club (Marquette, MI)

The Langford and Moreau nine gives the Heritage Course the star power it needs to make Marquette Golf Club a legitimate 36 hole adventure. While Greywalls is undoubtedly the showstopper, classical architecture fans will appreciate the cool engineered greens that LM are reknown for building. I was skeptical when a well traveled friend of mine claimed they rivaled Lawsonia, but I think he may have hit the nail on the head because these greens complexes are fantastic!

Superintendent Craig Moore did a remarkable job recapturing the original dimensions of LM greens which had seen them shrink in size over the years to cut maintenance costs. Not only are there more pinnable areas available, but the slopes, mounds, and bunkers make mishits or overly aggressive shots bound into unpredictable situations. Recovery shots require deft touch, and high skilled players will be rewarded with their ability to save par. Most impressive is the interior contouring with little ridges and rolls separating great shots from mediocre ones.

(The 515 yard par five fourth is the first LM hole of the day. It plays up and over a ridge with the green guarded by two bunkers well short. The slope beyond the sand funnels everything to the left where a large mound will make chipping quite difficult…

…the green has high shoulders both left and right. The middle will accept a shot easily but any putt that has to advance by putting towards the sides will be a big bender…

…this view from five tee highlights the severity of the green complex.)

The David Gill holes have a different feel to them, and understandably so as LM designed the original nine in 1926 and Gill added the second nine in 1969. Gill apprenticed under Robert Bruce Harris, an architect whose style featured a formulaic approach where bunker width and entrances were decided by what iron should be in the golfers hand. This seemed to be the case as the shorter par fours all had tighter or all aerial approaches. The greens were medium size with tilt being the main characteristic. It’s a more playable style that demands less skill to scrap out a par.

(The 336 yard opening hole is a David Gill design. Almost the entire green is fronted by sand with only the right side being available for a low running shot.)

(The 287 yard sixth is a driveable par four that LM capped off with an amazing green. Today’s pin is on a front apron with a large slope backdropping it. Once the flag moves towards the center, notice how wider the green becomes with outstretched pinning areas settling behind knobs. Each day brings an entirely different approach.)

(The 143 yard par three seventh is the best hole on the course and highlights the pure genius in LM routing ability. The green sits in a little dell all by itself with tall grass and hillocks beside it and a steep drop off fronting. It’s a beautiful little hole, and one where you must execute a a controlled short iron to safely find the putting surface.)

(The 401 yard par four eighth features a blind tee shot hit over the hill to set up this approach shot into the green. Look at the bunkering, the way the green pitches in separate ways. How aggressive can you be? So much thought goes into attacking LM green complexes!)

Most golfers who make the trek up north to the U.P. and the Marquette Golf Club will ever step foot onto the Heritage Course. (Greywalls is that good. I personally have it as one of the top ten courses I’ve ever played) However, this should start to change as more golfers see the life brought back into the LM holes and get a reprieve from the incredible demands Greywalls puts on its challengers. It’s also a great change of pace course that is budget friendly ($72) and good confidence booster. If you find yourself up here, don’t skip it. It’s a ton of fun!! I give the Heritage a 6 (very good)(worth driving 1-2 hours to play).

(Every year for two weeks, I believe around Labor Day, they split up the nines so you can play the LM holes as one loop. This makeshift scorecard shows the different holes on top and where they fit into the current routing. I unfortunately missed it by one day, so I played the front nine which has five LM holes including both par threes. The par five fourth and par three seventh are recognized as the best holes on the golf course. Blog 486)

(David Gill’s beautiful downhill 162 yard par three fourteenth. I added this pic because one drives just below the tee box when the front parking lot fills up.)

Greywalls course review:

https://golfingwithshawn.blogspot.com/2022/08/greywalls-marquette-golf-club-marquette.html?m=1

Belmont Golf Course (Richmond, VA)

The past few years I’ve been writing about the “munaisance” movement permeating golf architecture at the city level. Richmond experienced this trend in 2020 when the county invested money into Belmont Golf Course, a 1917 Tillinghast design that held the 1949 PGA Championship (Sam Snead won 3&2) however, it isn’t a traditional renovation but rather a revolutionary one. The Love Design team with lead architect Scot Sherman decided on a 12 hole course complimented by a six hole par three course, a putting course, and full scale practice facility.

There’s been a big push to “play it forward” and “play nine” but the twelve hole concept, which was novel to me, won me over with a great routing, stimulating architecture, and a pace that was just over a couple hours. I thought it was the perfect compromise as eighteen is sometimes too much and nine is not enough. Jack Nicklaus lobbied for this concept a couple decades ago, and Belmont may be the catalyst for other forward thinking projects. Maybe a great piece of land can’t yield eighteen holes but could twelve, or instead of a municipality closing their golf asset, they convert it to this model.

(The 320 yard opening hole plays downhill to this receptive green that is well defended by sand. There are multiple options off the tee, but the one that finds the fairway will lead to a good scoring opportunity.)

(The 505 yard par five fourth plays slightly downhill before going uphill to a green fronted by a hazard. The second shot is most important as bunkers guard the right and a ravine protects the left. A smart, well executed attack will produce a good birdie chance.)

(After a couple back to back par fives at three and four, the 450 yard par four fifth strives to secure any stroke you may have gained on the previous two. With the boundary line down the right, a forbidding cross bunker on the left fifty yards short, many will play this like a third par five.)

The first three holes play on the clubhouse side before one goes through a tunnel to play 4-11 on the south side. The southern parcel of land has good movement to it including elevation change, a creek that defines the eastern boundary and grassy ravine that influences play on four holes. Another trip through the tunnel brings us back to the starter’s shed to play a par three that lies perpendicular to the opening hole.

(The 180 yard par three seventh plays downhill to green ringed by bunkers. Good internal contouring will funnel most shots towards today’s pin position on the right. The back left will prove the hardest to get close.)

(The 310 yard par four tenth is a really fun hole with a centerline bunker being a great aiming point for conservative and aggressive strategies. Note the hillside that frames the outside of this dogleg right hole. Long hitters could try to cut it off the far end and drive it…

…the putting surface is tucked into a corner of the property with the creek guarding the entire right side. It’s the toughest green on the course too with a lot of contouring in it. Birdie will be well earned.)

I was really impressed with Belmont and could see this being my home course if I lived in town. I think as an introductory progression to new golfers or as a father spending time with their children, the option to play the par three course or even goof off on the putting course, makes this a cool experience. The price point is excellent too. I paid $45 for the twelve holes. I think this place deserves more national recognition, especially when other high end facilities offer similar offerings for quadruple the price. I give Belmont a solid 5 (good)(worth driving an hour to play).

(I played with a local golfer and we had the first tee time of the day (7:24) and finished in just over two hours (9:40). I played the Ross tees which if add 7-9 to the first six holes would equal 3,290 yards. That’s a good comparison for those wondering what the length equivalent is.)

(The 430 yard par four eleventh plays uphill to a blind green atop the rise. It’s open in the front for a low runner but if you bail left, a bunker 40-50 yards short will trap you.)

(A set of cross bunkers provides the strategy on the 475 yards par five third. Note the deep lip as the ball goes further into the trap. Avoid the fairway bunkers!)

(On a personal note, this is blog #485. Let the countdown begin for 500!!!)