Ah yes, Eagles Crossing. This golf course.
If you played high school golf in south-central Pennsylvania, this was a golf course you dreaded. It was the bane of country club kids everywhere — a public golf course with less-than-optimal playing conditions. Also, it was tough and weird and punishing, and just not a lot of fun. Of course, not being a country club kid, I usually did comparatively better here than my peers since I grew up playing on a crappy 9-hole muni.
That doesn't mean I liked Eagles Crossing, or that it's a good golf course in disguise. Because I don't, and it isn't. However, it still deserves its time in the review spotlight. Because while this is about as far removed from good, strategic golf as can be imagined, it is at least interesting. For better or worse. Mostly worse.
The first hole is a shortish 365-yard par 4 that plays downhill to a broadly rippling fairway pressed against dense forest left. You have the whole world to the right though, and while the large greenside bunker theoretically offers a worse angle, in reality it's so far separated from the green that it's almost irrelevant. The green here is at least fairly undulating, with the back-right corner being noticeably perched up over the rest. Honestly, not a terrible opening hole.
 |
| The first hole. |
 |
| The first green. |
The second hole is 380 yards and bends right around a cluster of trees to a fairway banked from left to right that's pressed close to a line of trees that marks an O.B. line. Obviously, the closer you take your drive to those trees, the shorter your second shot will be. The green here is tilted from left to right and has a single bunker left.
 |
| The second hole. |
 |
| The second green. |
The third hole is 165 yards but plays downhill. This hole is actually pretty tricky when it comes to judging the distance; not only does the hole play downhill, the green slopes significantly away from the tee. Land a ball on this green, and it won't stop easily. The water past the green is a threat, particularly if you pull your tee shot, but because you should really be aiming to land the approach short and bounce it on, it's not as much of a concern as it looks.
 |
| The third hole. |
 |
| The third green. |
The fourth hole is 375 yards and plays dead straight to a wide-open fairway. If you're a long driver, a few pine trees on either side do narrow things slightly, but there's really no reason not to use driver here. The second shot will be a wedge up the hill to a semi-blind green with bunkers on either side.
 |
| The fourth hole. |
 |
| Approaching the fourth green. |
 |
| The fourth green. |
The fifth hole is a 500-yard par 5 and Eagles Crossing's first really strange hole. The tee shot plays gradually downhill to a fairway that's initially quite wide, but around 150 yards out from the green, dense forest cuts in from the right, narrowing the playing corridor significantly. Also, from the hole's low point, roughly the same place the trees start, the fairway climbs something like 50 feet up to the green, which is small, shallow, and virtually impossible to hit without a wedge in your hand. So while you might technically get in range to reach the green in two with the drive, there's really no point in trying.
 |
| The fifth hole. |
 |
| Approaching the fifth green. |
 |
| The fifth green. |
The sixth hole is 310 yards and plays significantly downhill. Now, normally when you have a short par 4, you're usually given a reason not to use driver. Here, a "pond" — more of a drainage spot than anything — placed between 200 and 250 yards out pretty much precludes the use of anything but driver. Using driver grants you pretty unlimited lateral space and takes the hazard out of play. There is literally no reason to use anything else. Anyway, the green is medium sized, slopes from back right to front left, and has a single bunker left. This hole feels more like a super-long par 3 than a short par 4.
 |
| The sixth hole. |
 |
| The sixth green. |
The seventh hole is probably the most infamous of any hole at Eagles Crossing. It certainly is to me. At 170 yards, both the length and elevation change from tee to green are modest, but the reality on the ground is very different. The first 150 yards of the hole are over a pond, with the last 20 going straight up a 25-foot-hill. The green is wide and incredibly shallow; we're talking maybe 15 yards deep. That is not a lot of space for the short or mid iron most people are going to use here, especially considering the dramatic falloff in front. Even if you clear the water initially, if you come up even an inch short, odds are you're rolling right back down into the pond. And it's not like there's any breathing room long, as the landscape quickly rises up into dense forest. If the seventh was 50 yards shorter, I wouldn't mind it so much. It would be a classic do-or-die short par 3, but 170 yards is way too much for the shot this green is demanding.
 |
| The seventh hole. |
 |
| The seventh green. |
The eighth tee is situated back in the trees, which means the tee shot has to negotiate a narrow chute of trees to reach the admittedly quite-wide fairway. If you've got a big cut on command, you can use driver, but most will want to stick with the 3 wood. That makes this 550-yard par 5 a distinctly three-shot affair. A bunker 150 yards out on the right side of the fairway does give you a little something to think about, as do the trees left, but mostly the second shot is just about advancing the ball. The green here is on the long and narrow side, and slopes pretty severely from back to front.
 |
| The eighth hole. |
 |
| Approaching the eighth green. |
 |
| The eighth green. |
Did you come of the eighth tee and think, "Gee, that tee shot was tough, I sure hope I get to do the same thing again, but with way less wiggle room and with an even shorter club." Well, you're in luck, because the tee shot here on the ninth hole is far more punishing than the previous hole. There's maybe 20 yards between the trees on either side, and the fairway on this 350-yard par 4 turns about 250 yards out, so that means you can probably use, at most, a 3 wood. A long iron is better though, particularly since the penalty for being slightly off-line is so harsh. A careful tee shot will leave a full wedge slightly uphill to a green protected by two small bunkers left. That's fine, but the tee shot is absolutely miserable, and in five-plus rounds here over the years, I'm not sure I've once managed to avoid the trees.
 |
| The ninth hole. |
 |
| Approaching the ninth green. |
 |
| The ninth green. |
That's it for this week, next week we'll take a look at the back nine.
