GolfMentor

Geoffrey Cornish, the architect of this course, would have been 100 years old this very month. Cornish, the highly-respected "hands-on" architect is probably most famous for his gift to golf: HopMeadow Country Club, by far the finest course in Connecticut.

At the White Mountain course, Cornish laid 18 holes around and about the flood plain of the Pemigewassett River. It's good, flat land with scores of beautiful vistas of the river and the foothills leading to the White Mountains. The holes - for the most part - an easy to read from the tee box as Cornish simply hated the "trickery" of many of his contemporaries. The green complexes are enormous.

Sadly, mother nature did her very best this winter and spring to render golf courses in northern New England almost unplayable. Ice damage has destroyed hundreds of once-beautiful greens, fairways and rough are only just now (in late August) beginning to recover and achieve grow-in. White Mountain was one of the hardest-hit courses. Conditions on tee boxes, fairways, rough, green complexes are as bad as they have been in the past twenty-five years.

So why is, I wonder - with conditions on the course so bad - that my playing partner and I had such a wonderful time of it at White Mountain; why is it that we came away from this place in such a positive frame of mind? Well, here's why:

1. Welcoming Staff: Sterling Golf, the course manager, hires darned friendly and quite professional people, that's for sure. The assistant pro, the starter, the ranger, the dining room cook, folks working out on the course. Best group of professionals I've come upon all season.

2. The Cornish layout. Simple, straight-forward, subtle, always fair and interesting...and never over-whelming. It's a fun layout for great players and for high-handicappers.

3. The golf course superintendent !!! We didn't meet him or catch his name...but the herculean efforts that this man is making to heal his golf course, the evidence everywhere out there that efforts are being made to repair and restore conditions...well, it was impressive to say the very least. Bravo to him too. And to the folks who work for him.

For $35 including a cart you can play this course.

Mother Nature sometimes does her best to ruin things. But - at White Mountain Country Club - she failed miserably.

Oh. My. Goodness!

Just played my favorite golf course. Ever! The Ledges in York, ME.

The Staff: I’ve been treated very well by club staff at lots of public-play golf courses. But, trust me, I have very been treated as well as I was yesterday at The Ledges in York, ME. Start with the head pro, who walked out of his small shop to shake my hand and welcome me to his course. Same with his assistant and with the course ranger and the waitstaff in the club room. What a wonderful way to begin a round of golf. The staff at The Ledges are, very simply, the most golfer-friendly anywhere.

There is a public course in Plymouth, MA that advertises to golfers “Come and be a member for a day”. But no course, anywhere, delivers on this promise as does The Ledges.

The Property: This is, for sure, a beautiful 200-acre site. Wonderful vistas everywhere, lots of elevation and elevation changes, enough acreage to place most holes so that you get a sense that the hole you are playing is the only one out there. And the owner at The Ledges has done a beautiful job of placing the small clubhouse. And where are the maintenance buildings? They are hidden from view. This place is just gorgeous.

The Course Architecture: Talk with knowledgeable golfers who have played The Ledges. Ask them to name their favorite hole. In fact, I did that very thing yesterday, talked with 8 players. They each named a different hole. That’s because course architect Brad Booth wanted golfers to experience something special on each of the eight holes. Booth pulled off this very same feat at The Oaks in Somersworth, NH.

There’s lots of talk about The Ledges eighth hole, a downhill mid-length par-three protected by water on the left side. Great hole, but not my favorite. I’d pick the eighteen. It’s a par five and it’s a brute with a forced-carry second shot and a green sitting high above the fairway. Making a regulation par on this monster calls for special celebration at the 19th hole. What a grand finishing hole Brad Booth has created.

Course Condition: Good luck to every golf course owner in Northern New England. And good luck to every greenskeeper. This winter, this ugly spring, the snow, the ice...But the tee boxes at The Ledges somehow survived mother nature this year. There is no crowning and the turf is great. Most of the fairways are quite good. There are some bare patches in the rough areas (a problem solved by simply not hitting the ball into the rough!). My guess is that complete grown-in will be accomplished by September.

The Greens: Not perfect; some damaged areas recuperating from spring ice. Greens otherwise roll fast and true. Some of the greens provide big-time challenges.

The Price: Here’s a tough formula: the high property values in the area, a highly-involved world class architect, the high costs involved in shaping a golf course out of granite ledges, the best golf staff anywhere. Costs for the owner of The Ledges are high, that’s for sure. Hence, a peak season green fee of $92.00 (including cart and taxes). If you think that’s too expensive for your golfing budget, The Ledges provides a post-3 pm rate of $46 (cart & taxes included). That’s what we did...teed off just after 3 pm and we played this wonderful golf course in 2 hours and fifty minutes. My view: that’s a steal and we probably should have been arrested.

Bravo to The Ledges.

A beautiful three-hundred acre meadow, surrounded in all directions by spectacular mile-high mountains and frame by millions of giant pine trees...that was golf course architect Donald Ross’ extraordinary landscape one hundred years ago when he set out to design the Mount Washington Golf Course.

Ross - understanding the unique and profound setting - deviated from his standard formulas at Mt. Washington. Faced with the potential monotony of almost no elevation changes, he scores of fairway bunkers and, instead of locating them at the edges of fairways, be turned them ninety degrees, placed many of them well within the fairway divides. And he raised most of them three-to-seven feet above fairway height. As spectacular as the general setting of Mt. Washington might be, the golfer who plays this course will most remember the course for these raised fairway bunkers. They are beautiful and they are deadly.

And, recently, architect Brian Silva was called in to lengthen the course while - as the same time - bring the course back to its former grandeur. Silva, as usual, did an extraordinary job of this.

Many of the holes are relatively short, but Ross interspersed his fair share of heroic holes...he is known for this, particularly for heroic and long par three holes. The 14th at Mt. Washington, at 245 from the tips, is such a hole. Downhill and set against the prevailing wind, the hole punishes all shots hit to the right or short of the green. The is a well-travelled bale-out area to the left. But those who bale are then faced with downhill sloping green. Forget pitching it close to the hole. You won’t forget the 14th.

Memorable also is the wonderful 18th, a par four of 434 yards where the approach shot must carry the river to reach the green. What a beauty!

Sadly, Mt. Washington was hit hard this winter and conditions at the course are disappointing. The greens, many of them, have failed to grow in. Putting is an iffy affair. Likewise, fairways and rough areas are sparse and inconsistent. Playing preferred lies is an absolute necessity.

My recommendation to golfers might be to wait until the autumn when the course will have had a change to further recover. It will be worth the wait.

Cape Neddick, Maine is a beautiful place in this world, that's for sure. And for the casual recreational golfer the Cape Neddick course might be a fun way to invest a vacation morning or two.

The problem is that modern technology has overcome this course. It is too short, too easy, for the reasonably good player. The course is loaded with very short par fours that offer little challenge and provide almost no interest.

The rack rate green fees are very expensive and do not represent value in any way.

Pace of play - advertised at a bit over four hours - is deathly slow on the weekends. Many of the players are super-senior couples who just won't move along and simply refuse to let faster players through. Course marshals were not in evidence.

Food and drink in the nice clubhouse was good, but unreasonably expensive. Service seemed to be very nice to members, not so to "the public".

With so many fine courses in Southern Maine and the Seacoast region of New Hampshire, Cape Neddick is probably not the place for you to play.

What a wonderful thing it is when a golf course owner takes a sub-par property and turns it - over years of hard work - into a gem. So it is with Loudon Country Club where Bill Sr. and Bill Jr. have transformed a former cow pasture into a fine 18 holes of golf.
What a shock it was to me, having played this place many years ago, to find 18 fun holes - all a bit different and unique - that top out at around 6,200 from the tips.

The greens are perfect (17 of them anyway) despite a brutal winter in south-central New Hampshire. And a special thanks to the owner for understanding that these are greens that are best set at 6-7 on the Stimpmeter. The greens roll slow and true and they are an 18-hole pleasure to putt. The green complexes are interesting and demand intelligence. On 14 of the holes there is a relatively easy avenue to the short grass. On several holes the greens are perched high above the fairway and this adds a touch of fun and drama.

The fairways and rough are in pretty good shape and improving daily. There's some spotiness, but the turf in is moist and it is easy to hit a clean iron shot. The tee boxes are in OK condition with some modest "crowning" on a few holes. Just watch out where you tee it up.

Loudon has some memorable, high-impact, holes. On the front nine, the second hole, a long, uphill, par three, would be a welcome addition to any championship course.And the steeply uphill par-5 seventh is a beauty. On the back, the 11th, 16th and 18th would meet my definition as truly great & beautiful holes.

And a special note about the four par threes at Loudon. They are, as a group, the best I have played in New Hampshire.

Pace of play is brisk...the locals who play here pride themselves on keeping up; slower players urged us to play through. We finished in three hours!

But...maybe best of all...is the staff at Loudon. These are simply the nicest, most professional, people I have ever met at a golf course. They are welcoming, knowledgeable, interesting folks who seem to be passionate about serving guests. It's rare these days.
It is wonderful for an itinerant golfer to be treated so very well.

If you love northern New England golf, you need to travel to Loudon and play a round.

Crotched Mountain is a classic New Hampshire Resort golf course. These resort courses are meant to be played as an aesthetic experience; the vistas to be enjoyed as much as the golf course itself. For me, this afternoon's ride around Crotched Mountain's eighteen holes would have been worth the money if I hadn't hit a single shot.

The course is very short, playing about 6,000 from the tips. I left my driver and 3-wood in the trunk and used a 5-wood off the tees. The holes, many of them, are quite narrow with extreme elevation changes. I had very few level lies all day.

For such a short course, Crotched Mountain sports three very long & tough downhill par three holes, the 6th, 16th and 18th. These three holes would be welcome additions to any championship track.

Conditions at Crotched Mountain? Look, this the west Central New Hampshire at an elevation of about 1,000 above sea level. It's a challenge to recover from the long winters. At this course, the groundskeeper has done a pretty darned good job. Seventeen of the 18 greens are in perfect shape, running at about 9 on the Stimpmeter. The tee boxes are a bit scruffy and several of them suffer from "crowning", so you've got to be careful where you tee your ball. There are many areas around the greens where bare patches make chipping and pitching the ball almost impossible. Fairways are in good shape.

I interacted two indifferent staff members in the pro shop, both of whom failed to even make eye contact with me. They stared at the computerized screen on the cash register and seemed relieved when I completed my brief transactions.

As I got ready to tee off on the first hole, I watched a foursome finish up on the eighteenth. I noticed that these folks - senior players - had actually walked the course. They are better men than me. A walking loop around Crotched Mountain is much like a mountain hike. Trust me, take a cart.

I played alone and fast, with no one ahead of me. Eighteen beautiful holes in an hour-and-forty-five minutes. What a joy!

With 7 par three's and two very short par fours this 1,825 yard executive course in reasonably good shape shorts, fun to play.

What is more than amazing about Monadnock "Country Club" is that it also "sports" the most expensive motorized cart rentals in New Hampshire. Get this: They charge $27.00 for a couple of loops around this place.

What is it - you might ask - about these carts? Were they formerly driven by famous people; do they contain picnic baskets filled with goodies? Can they fly? Nope to all of these things. They simply cost $27 to lumber less than 4,000 yards. Have they rebuilt these golf carts into ROADSTERS?

A few miles down the road in nearby Keene, New Hampshire is an extraordinary golf course called Bretwood. Award-winning! Its two courses stretche 6,800 at the tips and are pure beauties. How much, you might ask, does Bretwood charge to rent a motorized cart for 18 long holes? Fourteen bucks. They charge about half of Monadnock's funny rate.

There's a great deal of talk these days about the dwindling interest in golf. One of the culprits is a certain group of courses and clubs that overprice fees and services. It's a darned shame.. We cannot grow this game by squeezing customers.