It's time to take a look at the back nine at Locust Hill, go here to see the front
The tenth hole is a mid-length par 4 that doesn't have much going for it. Even the course's website calls it the easiest on the course, with its only advice "keep the ball in bounds." The fairway is wide and essentially hazardless beyond a few trees, and the green is quite large as well (though admittedly it does have some undulation to it). There are two bunkers greenside, but they're not difficult to avoid.
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| The tenth hole. |
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| Approaching the tenth green. |
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| The tenth green. |
The eleventh hole is quite a long hole, playing 440 yards uphill the entire way. There are no bunkers, but there's some very large trees close up on the left side. That definitely leads your eye out right, which lengthens the hole and gives you a worse angle on the second shot. The green is perched up at the top of a hill, with a steep dropoff right and three bunkers protecting the left side. And the green itself is hardly flat. I don't imagine too many birdies are made here.
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| Approaching the eleventh green. |
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| The eleventh green. |
The twelfth hole is 180 yards and plays downhill over a pond (which isn't really a major factor) to a green angled from left to right and sloped quite sharply from back to front. It's surrounded by three bunkers as well. This is a real all-or-nothing sort of par 3, which can definitely work well, but this hole is way too long for the green complex. This hole would be fine if it was 130-150 yards, but not 180.
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| The twelfth hole. |
The thirteenth hole is a 550-yard par 5 playing out to a wide fairway with a small cluster of trees left crowding in quite close, leading the golfer's eye out to the right. That's certainly the safer play, but doing so means your second shot will be blocked out by a group of dense trees right that starts about 150 yards out from the green. You may need to lay up quite a long way back if you go too far right. Hugging the left side means you can go directly at the green on the second shot. Not necessarily reach it, since this is a pretty long hole, but get fairly close. Like the previous hole, this green has a fair amount of back-to-front tilt, and there's also three bunkers left.
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| The thirteenth hole. |
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| Approaching the thirteenth green. |
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| The thirteenth green. |
The first few holes on the back nine haven't been terrible. Not great, but I was able to derive some slight enjoyment from them. The fourteenth hole ... not so much. This 430-yard par 4 is nearly a 90-degree dogleg, with the turn coming about halfway through. That means, realistically, you have to hit a long iron or maybe a fairway wood if you can hit a big draw threaded between flanking bunkers to match the fairway's sharp turn. At about 250 yards, the fairway ends, dropping down significantly to a second fairway and eventually the green, which is tucked in among mounding and is protected by a large bunker left. I know that doesn't sound completely unreasonable, but trust me, the margin for error on the tee shot is so small. You're coming out of a chute of trees, and if you miss the narrow fairway on either side, trees will block you out entirely from going at the green on the second shot. It's just not fun in any way. Holes like this can be good — there's a hole at Sagamore quite similar to this one that I really liked. The execution there, however, was far superior to Locust Hill (Donald Ross is a legendary architect for a reason). That hole was fun. This one is not.
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| The fourteenth hole. |
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| Approaching the fourteenth green. |
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| The fourteenth green. |
The fifteenth hole is 425 yards and plays to a flat, featureless, very wide fairway with water lurking right. There's no reward for playing close to the water aside from a slightly shorter shot, as the angle into the green (which is more of an isthmus green than a true island) is actually better from the left. The water's just here to punish bad shots, which is not fun. This hole could have been ripped from any one of a thousand Florida golf courses; it's even got the tacky houses in the background to complete the effect. I guess I can say that the green is kind of interesting, with a little false front and some noticeable elevation changes. But that doesn't salvage the hole.
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| The fifteenth hole. |
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| The fifteenth green. |
The sixteenth hole is 170 yards, 90% of which plays over an incredibly scenic and not at all algae-covered pond. The green is medium sized and has a fair amount of back-to-front tilt to it. There's also a couple of bunkers to keep shots coming up just short from bouncing back into the water. Like the twelfth, this hole would benefit from being a bit shorter, though I don't think that would make a huge difference in how much I like this hole. It's just a bit too stereotypical for me.
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| The sixteenth hole. |
The seventeenth hole is a shortish par 5 ruined by one of my least favorite design features: the blind water hazard. The fairway here looks quite generous, but about 275 yards out that width is cut by more than half by a pond that runs for a hundred yards or so up the right side. The only indication of the water is a red flag which is hardly the most obvious thing in the world. Essentially, longer hitters are forced to lay up on the tee shot here, which basically forces a lay-up on the second shot. It's not even that interesting a lay-up, since the water is pretty easy to get past and there aren't any other real hazards in play. The third will be a pitch to a large green with bunkers in front, left, and right.
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| The seventeenth hole. |
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| Approaching the seventeenth green. |
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| The seventeenth green. |
The eighteenth hole is the cliche long par 4 with water in play that somehow manages to fumble the water aspect. The fairway here is pretty wide with two bunkers wide right. Not too difficult. The second shot is then a mid iron over a pond to a medium-sized green ringed on three sides by bunkers. It's a difficult approach, yes, but the real hazard for lower-handicap golfers is the sand, not the water. The pond doesn't come within 30 yards of the green, which makes it a massive obstacle for higher-handicappers but not lower ones. And there's a word for hazards that excessively punish bad golfers instead of good ones: stupid.
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| The eighteenth hole. |
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| The eighteenth green. |
It's difficult to put my precise feelings on Locust Hill into words. I've certainly played worse golf courses. It's no Links at Gettysburg, or any of the other bad but not quite as offensive to the world golf courses out there like Maryland National or Heritage Hills. There were even a few holes that I kind of liked. But man, when I walked away, I was just thoroughly miserable. I played this course in May, and I only wrote this review last month. It's taken me months to work up the feelings necessary to write about Locust Hill, and that's just not a good sign.
Here's the thing: Before the round, I knew Locust Hill was going to be a bad golf course. That much was obvious just from looking at it on Google Maps. But I at least hoped it would be entertainingly bad. Maybe even so bad, it's good territory. But Locust Hill doesn't reach that level. It's bad, but it's not fun. It's not even bad or interesting enough to make fun of. It's just there, an incredibly mediocre golf course that sapped my soul of literally any feelings at all. I honestly think I'd rather play Links at Gettysburg than this one again. At least that course I can properly insult. Locust Hill is a void where interesting golf goes to die, and I never want to see, hear, or think about it ever again.
