P.B. Dye Golf Club Review

I think it's pretty safe to say that spring has come to Maryland. I know, I know, I thought that before, and then we got freezing temperatures and several inches of snow in March. Oops. But it's April now, and golf season has begun. And I plan on being ambitious this year with my golf. I've got a big list of courses I'd like to play, and while I certainly won't get to all of them this year, I hope to be reviewing quite a few in the upcoming months. Especially when I get out to Cape May, New Jersey for a week. Got big plans for that.

The par 4 16th, from the tee

Strangely, however, P.B. Dye Golf Club was not on my list. I actually pretty much forgot about it when I was making it, and when I did remember it, I was dismissive at first. The Dye name is big in golf, but not in regards to P.B here. I thought, "just how good is a course designed by someone whose big claim to fame is being the son of someone better possibly going to be?" Well, thanks to a well-placed day off in the middle of the week and a much-lowered greens fee, I found out. And the answer? Not too bad, honestly.

One of the most noticeable features of this course is that there is a lot of sand around. There are 87 bunkers, more or less, and that's quite a lot, but then I got curious, and the Founders Course at Penn National, a course I'm familiar with in Pennsylvania that is... well, not quite good, but tournament-worthy, anyway, actually has 92 bunkers. The difference is, the bunkers there are usually quite small, but here, they are much bigger, and much more present. Which makes it interesting that I didn't go into a single bunker during my round. Not one. I came close a couple of times, but for the most part, I was either hitting fairways, or missing in the right places.

The par 4 18th, from behind

The second big thing you notice is that this is not a very easy course. That may be related to the large amounts of sand, but the greens are also quite severe. If they hadn't been recently aerated, I'm sure I would have had a much harder time, and probably wouldn't have done as well. There are a few too many forced carries for my taste, but there is plenty of width, so that's a plus. This isn't a course where you'll have to be dodging trees all day.

The course opens with a shortish par 4, which actually has some semblance of strategy to it! If you want the best angle at the green, you have to hit your drive close to a line of bunkers to the right. These bunkers are quite intimidating, and the temptation is to swing away from them, down the generous amount of fairway left, but doing that will leave you with an awkward not-quite-full wedge over a big group of bunkers. It's a good hole. How did I play it? I hit a gigantic hook off the tee, chunk second, pitch on, two putts. Flawless.

The par 5 7th

The next hole is a very short par 3 over a stream and some native area to a very severe green. I might have enjoyed it, if I weren't so out of practice. One chunked drive and 3 increasingly irritated pitch shots later, I was finally on the green, and I was happy to two putt.

The four hole stretch that follows is the most underwhelming golf on the course. I'm alright with a blind shot now and then, and I understand that this was fairly rough terrain, but four blind or semi-blind tee shots in a row is pushing it. And maybe it was just because I wasn't doing very well at this point, but none of these holes were very good.

Really, the next hole that got my attention was the long par 3 eighth, and that's because of another relatively unique feature of this course, the chipping area. I like the idea of maintaining large amounts of ground around the green as fairway instead of rough. It's a much more interesting playing surface, and allows for many different options, rather than just "pull out lob wedge, chip on". You can putt, you can use an iron and bump and run, or if you're confident, you can use a high loft wedge. I am not confident, so I putted. I just missed the resulting par putt, but it goes to show how you can make a bunkerless hole interesting using only terrain, and judicious lawnmowering.

The ninth is a fairly standard end of nine hole. Difficult, longer, and with a pond next to the green. I swear I wasn't dumb and hit my second shot in the water despite ample room to the left. I swear that didn't happen.

The par 4 10th

The back nine at this course is, in my opinion anyway, much better. Maybe I'm biased, after all, I shot a 46 on the front, and a 37 on the back. But I do really think it's better. The tenth is an interesting hole, it's a short par 4 that doglegs sharply to the right. I'm not sure about the exact yardage, but the green feels very much in range, and almost dares you into going at it. But I resisted, and my reward was a relatively simple wedge from about 100 yards, with a very nice backdrop beyond. Sugarloaf Mountain is an inselberg or monadnock, an isolated hill formed of very hard rock that resists erosion. In this case, Sugarloaf Mountain stands several hundred feet above the surrounding land, and is completely unattached from the nearby Appalachians. You get several views of it during the back nine, and it does look quite good.

Next up is another short, but very intimidating par 3. I'll show you the picture, and let you figure out for yourself all you need to know about this hole.

And no, I didn't go in the water. I was on the fringe right, and I made a par.

After that is a par 5 with yet another blind tee shot. My drive was pretty bad, and I still had 230 yards for my second, even though the hole was only 470 or so from the tees I was using. Then I hit the best shot of the day, a dead straight 4 iron that landed 15 feet right of the hole. I missed the eagle putt, but the birdie was nice.

Next up was a difficult, sort of long but not quite that long par 4. Again, I hit a poor drive, a pop up left, so I still had an 8 iron to the green, with water very much in play to the left of the green, water I had to flirt with to go at the flag. And I hit another very good iron shot. To spare you further writing of good shots, my irons were very, very good throughout the back nine. I only made 1 birdie though, which was unfortunate.

The 16th, from the fairway...sort of

Following a mid-length par 3 with another very severe are a pair of dogleg right par 4s. Both feature forced carries, the 15th on the tee shot, and the 16th on the second. Of the two, the 15th is probably the better hole, with abundant fairway around the green encouraging all manner of short game creativity, but I preferred the 16th. It was more dramatic, with its numerous large bunkers, and wooden plank walls. Also, more of the hole is in view, and Sugarloaf Mountain once again provides and interesting backdrop. I bogeyed both holes, though the bogey on 16 was more irritating. I was 170 yards out, left of the fairway, wind not really helping. I wasn't confident I could get an 8 iron over, and of course, I don't currently have a 7 iron. So I bailed out right, and of course, I hit an excellent shot that was exactly hole high. I didn't need to bail out at all, and if there's any shot in golf that is my ultimate nemesis, it's a short chip with plenty of green to work with.

The final hole, from the fairway

After the 17th, a short, very well bunkered par 5 that I missed right in two because I was in a really weird spot from the tee (on a severe upslope, just short of a bunker) is the final hole. Of course, it's a long par 4, and of course, it has water on it, as all 18th holes apparently must have. I neatly sidestepped the issue this time though. That's not even sarcasm, I hit a 3 wood about 250-260 into position A on the fairway, then hit a 9 iron 10 feet left of the hole. I just missed the birdie putt though, because, you know, you can never finish a round of golf exactly how you want to.

So, even though the course was fairly tough, I did enjoy it. It was tough, but not in a dumb way. It didn't rely on ultra tight fairways, or excessive use of native areas (ahem...Whitetail) or water (AHEM...Links of Gettysburg), it was, and I don't like using the word, reasonably fair. At least it was for me. I imagine someone who had trouble clearing 100 yards consistently would have a difficult time here. But I would definitely consider coming back here. It was well worth the $25 I paid to play.