Conocodell Golf Club Review

Golf in a simple but entertaining form.

If there's one thing I have to say about golf in Franklin County, it's that there is an abundance of relatively cheap and accessible golf for everybody.  Conocodell, in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, is one of several inexpensive 9 hole courses in the area, and after playing there this weekend, I'd say it was the best.

One of the best points of the course is that it is very flat.  No hills, no nothing, so it's a very easy walk.  I think they try to encourage walking, since the price for 2 people to walk 9 holes on a Saturday is $24, but to ride, it's $48.  So, there weren't very many carts around, which was nice.  I would highly recommend anyone who plays the course do the same.

Water running along the first hole.

The condition of the course was iffy for most people, but for me, they were perfectly acceptable. There was a definite delineation between fairway and rough, the grass was somewhere between brown and green, and the course was playing fast, which is definitely how I like it.  The greens were in very good condition, playing reasonably quick, but not too fast.  I don't mind fairways and rough being a bit questionable, but getting a decent roll from the greens is nice.

Now, let's get to the important part of the review, the golf course.  It's not a long course, with a couple of very short par 4's, but the one par 5 is pretty long, and there are some longer par 4's as well.  I don't know, it's not a particularly scenic place, but it just seemed to fit into the surroundings very well, so I found myself taking quite a few pictures.  Maybe it was the fact the fairway blended into the rough almost seamlessly, and then the rough blended into the native areas just as seamlessly.

A crossbunker on the fifth fairway.

The first hole is a shortish par 4 that doglegs right around a water hazard.  The more water you cut off from the tee, the shorter second you have.  I think the green might be just about reachable with a bold enough drive.  I haven't been driving it well, so I didn't go for it.  After a straightaway mid-length par 4 and a shortish par 3, there's a couple of reasonably difficult par 4's.  The fourth is pretty tight, but the fifth is a bit more interesting.  There's a couple of big bunkers cutting into the line of play, and the green is guarded by even more.  A stream on the right makes the hole even more interesting.  I wish that I could say I played the hole well, but I didn't.  Hooked my drive straight into a tree, had to make a 12 foot putt for bogey. 

A challenging pitch on the last hole.

The sixth is a very short par 4 which my younger brother drove with a three wood.  Got the drive to about ten feet, missed the eagle putt right on the edge.  Typical, he said.  After another mid-length par 3, the eighth is a mid-length par 5, playing straight to a wide open fairway.  Really get a chance to open up with the driver, which I attempted unsuccessfully and my brother (who is comfortably better than me) managed.  It's a fun drive, but there isn't much else to that hole.  The ninth is a little more interesting.  It's only about 300 yards, but it plays along the road to a small green guarded very closely by a pair of surprising intimidating bunkers.  I closed off a relatively lackluster round by curling in a 15 foot birdie putt, salvaging a 40 on the par 35.  Not brilliant, but not awful.

I can't legitimately give the place a particularly good grade, or recommend it to anybody who doesn't already live here.  There are better places to play golf in Franklin County.  That said, it's a fun little course that's very easy to walk and fits in well with the environment.  Nice way to spend a couple hours with the family.

It just...looks good.