Maryland National Golf Club-Middletown, MD

This course is both very good and very bad. Part of the course is routed over higher ground and those holes are quite good. The other part of the course is routed beside, over, and around a creek that bisects the property and those are generally quite poor. This course has the potential to be very good. The first five holes start the golfer off with high quality golf. 6 is a fair par 3 by itself, but it is a virtual twin to the 17th and rather similar to the 14th. This is a Jekyll and Hyde golf course, some holes are outstanding, 6 or 7 quality, and others are terrible, 1 and 2 quality.

Variety of Design: Not exceptional, but not bad. 3 of the 5 par 3's play significantly downhill and there is limited variety in yardage. The par 4's have significant ranges in yardage, but the two shortest ones are quite poor. The par 5's are a real highlight of the course and have very quality designs. But oddly, there are no holes that play uphill, and many that play downhill. The uphill spots are traveled by cart. Hole directions are also out of balance. 5

Flow of the Course: The course does flow, but not due to hole features. It flows due to having good and poor holes. But in general, the flow is only moderate. 4 1/2

Course Conditioning: Top quality. The greens and fairways are both well maintained and the course runs firm. 7 1/2

Ease of Walking: This would be a difficult course to walk. The routing is not exceptional, having some large distances between holes, many of those being uphill. If you try to walk here, you'd better be in very good shape. 2

Atmosphere: Very little. Course has no tournament history. The designer, Arthur Hills, is not likely to bring in a large number of people. And the course has no other known history. 1

Total: 46.5

Holes to Note
Hole #2: Par 5, 585 yards
This is a very picturesque downhill par 5. The play from the tee is to play the shot down the left side, over the bunkers, and then let the ball run out down the fairway. The green might be reachable in two shots for the longer players if they can get the ball to run out and not be blocked out by the tree in the middle of the fairway. This can be a birdie hole if the player hits 2 or 3 solid shots.

 From the tee, the hole spreads out nicely. The best play is towards the peak of the small mountain in the distance.

This shot from the tee ran through the fairway and to the right side. This is not the shortest approach, but has a good angle, being able to avoid the tree. This may be the best hole on the course.

Hole #7: Par 5, 542 yards
The second in a fantastic set of par 5's. This hole plays over flat ground but is shaped in such a way as to provide good interest on all shots. The tee shot is influenced by a large bunker cutting deeply into the right side of fairway at 285 yards from the tee. Longer players may have to play less than driver from the tee in order to avoid this bunker. There is also the option for them to attempt to hit a drive into the fairway that is to the left of the bunker, though it is only 20 yards wide. And of course, if the player is tremendously long off the tee, he can attempt to carry the bunker, a hit of about 325 yards in the air. The second shot is then influenced by a very large mound, again on the right side of the hole. Players who do not navigate this mound very well will have a difficult shot into the green over bunkers. Players finding the top of the mound or past is on the right side will have an easy approach.

 From the tee, the bunkers is visible as two small bunkers; the majority of the bunker being blind. 

 The mound visible in the center of the image must be navigated on the second shot.

No easy approach awaits for this player who failed to successfully navigate his way around the mound.

Hole #12: Par 3, 246 yards

This is a solid, long par 3 playing downhill from the tee. The hole allows the player to run the ball onto the green, as would be expected for a hole this long. This is certainly the best par 3 on the golf course.

 The green is slightly left of the center of the picture. This is likely the highest point on the course and gives the player a stunning view of the surrounding area.

The flat approach leading to the green slopes off to the left for shots that are pulled or hooked. This hole would be a solid addition to nearly any golf course.

Hole #16: Par 4, 336 yards

This may be the worst hole this writer has ever played. There is so much going on here that it's a virtual car wreck. The hole plays pinched between a hill on the right and the creek on the left. The problem is that the hole is so narrow that anything more than an iron is not a smart play. Couple that with the fact that the creek crosses the fairway at about 220 yards off the tee, and requires roughly a 240 yard carry to make it across. And the cart path crosses directly across the fairway and then is pushed hard against the fairway down the left side. If Arthur Hills has ever designed a hole worse than this, that course needs to be shut down. 

 From the back tee, it is easy to see how tight the hole plays. The bunker visible in the center is green side.

 From closer, the creek crossing the fairway is visible and all the other gruesome features of the hole are more visible as well.

From the lay-up area short of the creek, the hole gets no better. Any shot hit left will be lost in the creek and anything right will likely be lost up the hill. The only good thing about this hole is that it ends.

This course had potential to be very good. Instead it comes out as something just average due to some very poor holes coupled with the very good ones. 4 out of 10.

Settlers Bay Golf Course- Wasilla, AK

This is the only housing development course in Alaska and the course uses that tidbit of information in it's advertising, though this writer is not sure if saying your courses is routed through houses is really a good thing. But that aside, the course is not bad. It has some up and down spots, as most do, but as a whole, it is a fair course. However, it must be said that having the range and first tee occupiying the most scenic part of the property might not have been the best way to route the course. On the front nine, the houses are generally not obtrusive, only coming into play on a single hole. However, on the back nine, they are more in play, indeed it seems that one hole was even altered due to homes being built. This course is certainly not the best course in Alaska, but it'd not a poor choice either.

Holes to Note

Hole #1: Par 4, 429 yards

Occupying the finest piece of ground on the entire property is never really a good thing for the first hole. However, this one does. The hole itself is not a bad hole, quality dogleg left that plays substantially downhill off the tee and overlooks Pioneer Peak in the distance. The best play off the tee is to play to the inside of the dogleg, over the depression. This widens the fairway and shortens the approach. The shot to the green is uphill to a modestly defended green that has some decent interest. Good opening hole in general, but sadly, the scenery never again comes close to matching that from the first tee.

From the tee, the hole opens up nicely for the player with the mountains providing a beautiful backdrop.

From the fairway, the player is left with this uphill approach.

From up close, the interior movements and fall-offs are visible

Hole #7, 630 yards

Playing downhill from just below the clubhouse, this is the longest par 5 on the course. On colder days, this hole would play as a real monster. The hole plays dead straight and really just requires the player hit two solid shots in order to be left with a reasonable shot into the green. But the green is one of the best this writer has played in the state. It sits as a biarritz green (which just warms the heart, naturally) and can be approached either from the air or on the ground, as it should. The green certainly makes up for the otherwise average nature of the hole.

From the tee, the player is not shown any options. The play is simply to hit the fairway as far off the tee as possible.

On the second shot, though it cannot be seen here the proper play is down the left side of the fairway, leaving a better angle into the green. It should be noted that the cart path crossing the fairway is a real eye sore. Why do courses do that?

Once closer to the greenm the bunkers that protect the putting surface are visible. This green is not a 100% biarritz green because it is aligned at a slight angle from the fairway/approach, but it is very close.

Here, the central valley and the front and rear plateaus are visible. The front pin, as usual, offers it's own unique challenges for distance control. The ball seen in the picture roughly a yard off the right fringe landed perhaps 5 yards right and 1 yard long of the flag, then released out to 35-40 feet from the cup. One has to wonder how many of the golfers here recognize the similarity in the green contours?

Hole #13: Par 4, 313 yards

This hole is of note only because it is a very poor hole. The golfer, upon leaving the 11th green, is not given a direct route to the tee. He must walk down to directly in front of the teeing area and then back about 75 yards to get to the back tees. Once there, he finds a teeing area that could have its own postal address. The tee is situated between the back decks of two nice homes and might actually draw a crowd to watch during a tournament. From there, the hole plays downhill. There is a bunker situated on the right side of the fairway roughly 250 yards off the tee. The best play is to play as close to the bunker as possible, or over it for the longest players, to leave the best shot into the green.

From the back tee, there seems to be little room for error, though the opening is slightly wider than it would appear. The bench visible by the forward tee pad is roughly where the player arrives after leaving the 11th green before walking back to the tee. The target bunker is visible in the center of the image with a house directly behind it.

On the second shot, the golfer is confronted with one of the worst hazards this writer has ever seen. The bunker sized hazard on the right is not a bunker, it is a fronting pond. This green is one of the highest points of the course, so there is no need for the pond from a drainage perspective. It is simply there to inflict severe penalty on the golfer. This course had significant potential to be good until this hole. From here, the course just goes downhill.

As mentioned above, the course starts off very well on the first hole and the entire front nine is generally solid. But the back nine is very lacking. Holes 10 and 11 are good, but from there, the course really staggers to the finish. 4 out of 10

Moose Run Golf Course (Hill)- Fort Richardson, AK

This is the older and short course at Moose Run. This course is also a bit wider and generally easier than the Creek course. The two nines were built at different times, and while this writer does not know which nine was built first, there is an obvious quality difference between the two. The front nine occupies rolling land and has solid holes. The back nine occupies a very flat section of land and, sadly, is rather repetitive. The par 4's blend together on the back nine because they are all flat, though the one par 5 has some interest and is scenic playing back to the mountains. But this is simply an average course and, due to the back nine, the lowest quality course among the six 18 hole courses around Anchorage and out into the Valley.

Holes to Note

Hole #2: Par 4, 422 yards
From the tee, this hole bears a passing resemblance to the eighth hole at Pine Valley. The landing area is obscured by a large hill that enters from the left and slopes down across the fairway to the right. The best play is to aim for the center or left-center of the fairway and let the ball feed down to the right. The green is easy to approach from either side of the fairway, but players that reach the right side will be afforded a flatter lie and level approach. From the fairway, the player may choose to either fly the ball to the hole or bump it along the ground. The green is equally receptive to either shot with very limited protections from approach shots. Easy second hole and a fairly good chance for birdie.

From the tee, the hill is imposing and blocks the landing area from view. For those who have seen it, the resemblance to #8 at Pine Valley is readily visible. 

From the right side of the fairway, the green is easily accessed from a flat lie. The green sits in wait with limited protections.

Hole #5: Par 5, 518 yards

Solid par 5 that plays blind over the hill to the fairway. The hole bends to the left, but the player is given no indication of that from the tee. The best line is to play up the right side, leaving the player a chance to go for the green with a straight shot. From the top of the hill, the hole spreads out in front of the player and, while not an exceptionally strategic hole, it's certainly photogenic. The green is, like most here, lightly defended (the green actually has a bunker left and also long, but due to green shrinkage over time, they are so far offset that this writer failed to even notice them on the course and only saw them upon looking at the course from overhead).

 Completely blind off the tee, the player has no idea what is in store.

 Fortunately for him, there was no trouble awaiting in the fairway and the only concern is whether or not the ball ended up in the fairway and if he can make an attempt to go for the green in two shots.

From the 150 yard marker, the shot is uphill to the green and not very difficult.

This course could be a solid golf course if they did some work on it and perhaps brought in a professional designer to add a bit of interest to the back nine. It simply gets repetitive on the closing stretch. But there have been changes over time here. Bunker shrinkage can be seem in numerous places, as can green shrinkage. An aerial view of the front nine shows how far offset the bunkers are from the greens. If there existed some cash to spend on this course, it could be as good as the other courses in the area, if not better than some. 

The square edge indicates where the green used to be and how much rough encroachment exists on the third green.

This course is not bad, indeed it is actually average. It is actually something of a compliment to the quality of golf in this area overall that this course is at the bottom of the heap. For an area with as short a golfing season as Alaska, there exists a generally high quality of golf here. This course: 3 out of 10.

Length Based Designators for Golf Courses

What is a long golf course? What is a very long golf course? For the purposes of some future discussions and course reviews that are likely to take place on this site, perhaps some definitions are in order.

The shipping industry has some uniform designators based on ship size. One standard set of designators, there are several "standards," rates ships as Crude Carriers (meaning ships that carry bulk shipments of unrefined crude oil/petroleum), Large Crude Carriers, Very Large Crude Carriers and Ultra Large Crude Carriers. The numbers used to make these determinations are virtually meaningless to the non-mariner and also not of real use here. But could a system like this work for golf courses?

Indeed, it could. Using the shipping model, there are very few ULCC's. As such, it makes sense that there would be very few Ultra Long Golf Courses. It seems reasonable that a ULGC is any course longer than 7,700 yards.

The Very Long Golf Courses (VLGC) designator could go down from there and cover courses between 7,300 and 7,700 yards.

The Long Golf Course (LGC) designator could be 6,900 to 7,300 yards.

And the standard Golf Course (GC) designator could be courses below 6,900 yards.

Of course, if desired, there could also be an additional, perhaps quite useful, designator of Short Golf Courses (SGC) for those courses below 6,100 yards.

Perhaps these designators can be used to sort through and categorize the various golf courses as they may be profiled.