phil126

This was the first time that my wife and I played Raven's Claw, although it had been high on our must play list for a while. The course itself was beautiful and impeccably maintained. The tee boxes were cut professionally, the fairways were almost divot free, and the greens were smooth and fair.
The course is not long and does not have an abundance of water, but the difficulty is there. The rolling farmland gives the golfer uneven lies throughout and makes tee shot placement a must. Sand traps and wild fescue comes into play on numerous holes. The ninth hole, with a double dogleg, ending in a steep uphill shot is particularly challenging. If you play from the tips, the tenth hole, at 644 yards will give even the longest hitters a challenge.
The only negatives that I had with the course were that the cart paths could use re-paving and the back nine, much shorter than the front, tended to rely more on tricky holes rather than totally legitimate challenges.
Overall, however, this is an excellent public track, well worth a trip and the greens fees. The staff gives the golfer a country club experience at a public course rate. We will be back there soon.

The Ambassador Course at Hickory Valley is a classic parkland course with a combination of narrow, tree lined fairways and strategically placed water and sand throughout. Though relatively short, the course has a number of challenging par 3s and mid-range par 4s. The par 5 ninth is a classic that plays almost six hundred yards from the tips. The tee shot goes from an open field into a narrow chuted fairway. Your second shot is tight and long to allow you to reach the green in three with a mid-iron. The third shot has to cross both a meandering stream and a pond that guards the green. A par on this hole will make your day. This is a fun course, well worth the time and price.

This used to be a private country club built on the lines of a Donald Ross design from the early part of the 20th century. The course architect did a very nice job of creating a course where distance is not as important as accuracy. A stream winds through the course and situates strategically on many holes. You rarely have a level lie and have to be a creative shotmaker. The greens are tricky with hidden breaks and radically different speeds evident from hole to hole. The only complaint that I had was that the holes were too close together, but that is a minor problem with this course which is like being in a time machine and getting a chance to play golf the way they did almost 100 years ago. Great buy.