Palmer Golf Course- Palmer, AK

This course most certainly made the best out of what is a very difficult site. First, the site is as flat as a large piece of land can be, having only forty feet of elevation change from one end of the course to another, a distance of nearly a mile and a half; it seems like less change than that when playing the course. On top of that, the site is wedged between Palmer Airport and the Matanuska River. There is a mandated set-back off of the airport and the river could not be used for scenery as much as possible due to wind blowing sediment from the river bed onto the greens. But even with these difficulties, there sits a solid golf course that is certainly fun to play.

Holes to Note

Hole #2: Par 4, 395 yards
The player is given several choices off this tee. The safe play is to play the tee shot out to the left, away from the fairway bunker visible between the two trees in the center of the image. The other is to play over the bunker, a carry of about 250 yards. The play over the bunker will leave the better line into the green, as might be expected, but there might be a surprise waiting for the player beyond the bunker.

 From the tee, there would appear to be little that the player cannot see. The views of mountains in the distance are quite nice and offered on every hole, regardless of the direction of play.

 From the left side of the fairway, the player is left with a rather straight forward shot of 165 to 175 yards, if he chose to lay back far enough to take the bunker out of play. Visible here, however, is an additional bunker, farther from the tee and not seen from the tee. So, the 250 yard carry the player had to play over the first bunker becomes around 280. Many players have likely found that second bunker on their initial playing of the course.

But for those players long enough to carry the second bunker, a simple shot of around 100 yards awaits.

Hole #5: Par 3, 230 yards

The longest par 3 on the course plays to a green that is slightly elevated, but not elevated enough to prevent a shot from rolling onto the green. The green is quite nicely shaped, having a very irregular shape, something like a clover, and enough contouring to make it interesting, but not unplayable given the length.

 From the tee, any type of pull is obviously not wanted. This shot from the left side of the teeing area, however, makes the hole feel tighter than it really plays. The green provides a generous target and there are wide fringe areas that work to help slight misses. It is unknown if those flat and wide fringe areas used to be green areas and have been lost over the years.

Here you can see some of the shaping of the green. There is another finger of the green that extends out near the bunker on the right side of the image. This is a well shaped green and certainly able to provide challenge to the long incoming shots while still remaining playable. 

Hole #12: Par 4, 380 yards

This dogleg left hole provides a fair challenge to the player off the tee. With most dogleg holes, the play would seemingly be to play down the side of the dogleg in order to cut length off of the hole. However, here, playing down the left side will likely yield only trouble. Shots hugging the left side of the fairway will have to be hit at least 260 yards to avoid being blocked out by the trees on that side. However, any shot traveling over 285 yards runs the risk of winding up behind a large hardwood tree that is through the fairway. So, here, the left side is most certainly not the preferred side. The best play from this tee is a shot in the range of 240-260 yards played to the right-center of the fairway. This will allow for a relatively easy shot into the green.

 The green is not visible from the tee. It lies roughly directly below the point where the ridge line of the peak in the distance disappears behind the trees. Those trees hug tight to the fairway on the left, blocking out shots to the green.

This from the center of the fairway, roughly 120 yards from the green. This gives a fair look at the opening to the green, allowing for either aerial play or ground play. The green is also something of a punchbowl green, one of the few "classic" golf features to be found in Alaska.

Overall, this is a very solid golf course. It is very difficult to review this course in pictures because often times the scale of the photograph does no justice for the hole. On all the holes playing northwards (2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 17) the scale is determined by the backdrop of the mountains that are ten miles distance and 3,500 to 4,000 feet in height. But this course is as good a course as this writer has seen given the nature of the site. 4 out of 10.