Off the Fringe, “Golf’s best short read.” The award winning newsletter, sent twice monthly, that provides an unconventional perspective on the golf world.
Brian Clark
Harrisonburg
2020-11-02
$36 (cart included), played on Tuesday, October 2020 at 12:30 PM
Spending three (3) days here at the Massanutten Resort and decided to take advantage of the lower afternoon price of $40.00 from the normal $75 for 18 w/cart. Being located in the hilly setting, it offers many challenges from staying on the fairways to reading putts. Arnold Palmer must of had some real challenges in 1976 carving out these hillside fairways and greens to make it very playable. With four (4) tee slections you can choose from Blues at 6,443yds / 71.9 / 139 down to Red at 4,846yds /69.3 / 128 on this Par 36/36 layout. We ended up playing the Whites at 3,131 / 2,956 yds and used the range finder to target landing areas distances and green elevations. Conditions today were alittle wet because of the rain yesterday so that helped keeping out tee shots on the fairways and sticking the greens. The well kept fairways were mostly narrow and being treelined, they offered a visual challenge from the teebox. I ended up hitting many 3 woods /4 irons off the tee as many fairways ran downhill and then uphill to the greens. The greens were rolling at 8-10 and were very hard to read as I struggled all day with. The starter gave us this tip, "No matter what you see, it breaks AWAY from the hill" and he was correct. Sand traps were plentiful and well placed on fairways and green protection. The #7 is a downhill 475-379yds Par 4 and protects its green with a creek for those that can hit a long high shot into a shallow green. Follow that up with at #8 a170-73yd Par 3, that has the green 2-3 clubs above the tee box. I hit my 155yd club to a 126 yd front pin placement and was 6' short but on the green. Coming up short will have you hitting from a blind shelf 30' below the green. The Back 9 has some more generous fairways but still using 3 wood / 4 iron off the tee to allow attacting the green instead of punching out from the trees and playing for Bogey. Many beautiful views here in hole layouts and mountian views, so take your camera. I ended up shooting 43/41 w/41 putts as hitting the greens wasn't the problem, but reading those putts was another story. Looking forward to returning someday with alittle more respect and knowalege of mountain green putting.
Would travel: 60-120 Miles, Vacation Worthy
Bottom line: I would play again, Better than average course for the area, Bargain priced based on quality and competitive area pricing, Fair priced based on quality and competitive area pricing, Ranks with the best in this price level
Condition of Course, Price, Pace of Play, Difficulty, Ambiance, Layout, No Houses on Course
$36 (cart included), played on Tuesday, October 2020 at 12:30 PM
Spending three (3) days here at the Massanutten Resort and decided to take advantage of the lower afternoon price of $40.00 from the normal $75 for 18 w/cart. Being located in the hilly setting, it offers many challenges from staying on the fairways to reading putts. Arnold Palmer must of had some real challenges in 1976 carving out these hillside fairways and greens to make it very playable. With four (4) tee slections you can choose from Blues at 6,443yds / 71.9 / 139 down to Red at 4,846yds /69.3 / 128 on this Par 36/36 layout. We ended up playing the Whites at 3,131 / 2,956 yds and used the range finder to target landing areas distances and green elevations. Conditions today were alittle wet because of the rain yesterday so that helped keeping out tee shots on the fairways and sticking the greens. The well kept fairways were mostly narrow and being treelined, they offered a visual challenge from the teebox. I ended up hitting many 3 woods /4 irons off the tee as many fairways ran downhill and then uphill to the greens. The greens were rolling at 8-10 and were very hard to read as I struggled all day with. The starter gave us this tip, "No matter what you see, it breaks AWAY from the hill" and he was correct. Sand traps were plentiful and well placed on fairways and green protection. The #7 is a downhill 475-379yds Par 4 and protects its green with a creek for those that can hit a long high shot into a shallow green. Follow that up with at #8 a170-73yd Par 3, that has the green 2-3 clubs above the tee box. I hit my 155yd club to a 126 yd front pin placement and was 6' short but on the green. Coming up short will have you hitting from a blind shelf 30' below the green. The Back 9 has some more generous fairways but still using 3 wood / 4 iron off the tee to allow attacting the green instead of punching out from the trees and playing for Bogey. Many beautiful views here in hole layouts and mountian views, so take your camera. I ended up shooting 43/41 w/41 putts as hitting the greens wasn't the problem, but reading those putts was another story. Looking forward to returning someday with alittle more respect and knowalege of mountain green putting.