Odessa National Golf Club

Detailed description of Odessa National Golf Club

Odessa National Golf Club is an 18 hole public golf course located in Townsend, Delaware.

Odessa National Golf Club opened for play in the summer of 2008. This par-72 course was designed by Gil Hanse and Joel Weiman.

Odessa National Golf Club plays to 7,047 yards from the back tees.

Golfers will enjoy the rural quality of the former dairy farm. Each hole is comfortably separated from one another, with visually satisfying setbacks from the club's property lines.

There is a good mix of holes that alternately demand accuracy and distance control. Greens on the shorter holes tend to be small and unbunkered. Longer holes feature broader green complexes that are most receptive to holding approaches with long iron and hybrid clubs. Average green size is about 8,000 square-feet. Grasses are allowed to grow high in season.

#2 is Odessa's No. 1 handicap hole. Thist 632-yard par 5 has water threatening on every shot. The tee shot is blind, but a yardage sign marks the distance to the water that bisects the fairway (about 270 yards from the tee box). The sensible second shot is aimed at the 150-yard marker, which sets up a reasonably cozy third shot that nevertheless must carry a finger of water that is in play when the pin is on the right-hand quadrant of the green.

#7 is a 430-yard par-4. It is a dogleg left that again requires two forced carries over penal waste. Short hitters may want to play this as a bogey five, and lay up again to avoid the waste area in front of the green.

#15 is a 226-yard par-3. You hit across a ravine that is all carry from the tips.

#17 is a 167-yard par-3. This hole is straight forward and can make up for strokes you may have lost on #15.

Course superintendant Joe Gulotti said, "It's an excellent layout. It's very different from the other courses here in the Middletown area. "It's undulating, has some nice changes in elevation, and it's got a lot of trees. We've got an eagle's nest on the 15th hole right now. There is a lot of wildlife out here."