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Golfer Bob
Ijamsville
2014-07-11
$66 (cart included), played on Thursday, July 2014 at 10am
My experience with this course on 7-10-14 was less than favorable. Other than playing with three great guys, it was not much fun at all for reasons I'll explain below.
Full disclosure: I am 75 years old, have a 13.8 Index, and customarily score in the mid-80's from the senior tees (usually 5500 yards or so). This course has no senior tees. White tees are 5,919 yards. Slope and rating is 130 from the Whites is probably understated: IMHO it plays more like 140.
Course design is the basic problem. The terrain is quite hilly, so thre is lots of elevation change, which I usually consider a good thing. However, the execution is way over the top. First: the landing area on every hole except Par 3's, is not visible from the tee box until about hole #15. Some holes have fairly long forced carries, too. If you are unfamiliar with the course, drive forward and scope it out before hitting. Second: green approaches are banked/graded so that a ball landing short is kicked any direction but forward. Third: greens are HUGE, with much sculpting, and merely being on in regulation does not mean a simple par. The worst example is the multi-tiered green on #12, which is flat unfair for us mortals when the pin is on the top tier, which is a full 20 feet higher than, and 100+ feet laterally, from the front edge of the putting surface. Fourth, fairway bunkers (and there are a lot of them) are deep and not amenable to long-iron escape. Simply put, one wonders who this course was designed for?
Conditions were OK in fairways and on greens, which fortunately for us, were speedy, but not lightning fast. Bunkers were terrible: considering the number of them on the course (I think there are about 46 on the front nine alone), it must require a dedicated crew to maintain just that feature.
Staff that we met were friendly and made us feel welcome.
In summary: this course is only a few miles from several other layouts in the same price range (Whiskey Creek, Worthington Manor, Musket Ridge, Maryland National, and even the Frederick city muni, Clustered Spires) all of which offer a better golf experience, I think.
Now, lest you think all of this is just some crabby old geezer bitching about a lousy round, let me note that one of our group plays to a 2.4 Index, is club champion at his home course, and "escaped" with a hard-won 80 during our round yesterday. It's a very tough course, clearly not aimed at higher-handicappers, and certainly not senior-friendly.
$66 (cart included), played on Thursday, July 2014 at 10am
My experience with this course on 7-10-14 was less than favorable. Other than playing with three great guys, it was not much fun at all for reasons I'll explain below.
Full disclosure: I am 75 years old, have a 13.8 Index, and customarily score in the mid-80's from the senior tees (usually 5500 yards or so). This course has no senior tees. White tees are 5,919 yards. Slope and rating is 130 from the Whites is probably understated: IMHO it plays more like 140.
Course design is the basic problem. The terrain is quite hilly, so thre is lots of elevation change, which I usually consider a good thing. However, the execution is way over the top. First: the landing area on every hole except Par 3's, is not visible from the tee box until about hole #15. Some holes have fairly long forced carries, too. If you are unfamiliar with the course, drive forward and scope it out before hitting. Second: green approaches are banked/graded so that a ball landing short is kicked any direction but forward. Third: greens are HUGE, with much sculpting, and merely being on in regulation does not mean a simple par. The worst example is the multi-tiered green on #12, which is flat unfair for us mortals when the pin is on the top tier, which is a full 20 feet higher than, and 100+ feet laterally, from the front edge of the putting surface. Fourth, fairway bunkers (and there are a lot of them) are deep and not amenable to long-iron escape. Simply put, one wonders who this course was designed for?
Conditions were OK in fairways and on greens, which fortunately for us, were speedy, but not lightning fast. Bunkers were terrible: considering the number of them on the course (I think there are about 46 on the front nine alone), it must require a dedicated crew to maintain just that feature.
Staff that we met were friendly and made us feel welcome.
In summary: this course is only a few miles from several other layouts in the same price range (Whiskey Creek, Worthington Manor, Musket Ridge, Maryland National, and even the Frederick city muni, Clustered Spires) all of which offer a better golf experience, I think.
Now, lest you think all of this is just some crabby old geezer bitching about a lousy round, let me note that one of our group plays to a 2.4 Index, is club champion at his home course, and "escaped" with a hard-won 80 during our round yesterday. It's a very tough course, clearly not aimed at higher-handicappers, and certainly not senior-friendly.
You've been warned!! Good luck.