Review: Cacapon State Park Golf Course

That's right, it's time for another golf course review!

The par 3 4th

The course in question today is Cacapon State Park Golf Course, located just south of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, known for its mineral springs. There's none of that here though, and not a whole lot of water at all. Just a couple of muddy ponds. What this course does have is trees, and lots of them. It's hardly surprising, given its location within a state park. The playing corridors were never too narrow, and both the holes and the golfer are allowed to breathe comfortably. Unlike some heavily forested courses I've played before, I was able to enjoy the scenery. And this is a pretty scenic course, nestled in a valley between Cacapon Mountain to the east and a lower ridge to the west. The course itself is routed in a general north-south direction with the valley, with only one hole (the par 3 15th) playing across the valley, so despite being in a relatively mountainous location, it was not an incredibly difficult walk. Only a couple of holes featured dramatic elevation change.

The par 4 13th. And yes, I did make the birdie putt.

I was mildly surprised to learn that Cacapon Golf Course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Senior, famed and prolific golf course architect. Was it obvious? No, not at all. RTJ didn't have too many calling cards, and while I'm not an expert on his design philosophy, I don't believe any of those signature RTJ features were there. Maybe some of the bunkers were a bit flowery, but that was it. It wasn't a particularly difficult course, though that may be because Cacapon is a muni, and municipal golf courses are seldom challenging. They gotta move a lot of people through, and difficulty slows things down. My round took five and a half hours as it was, it didn't need to be any longer.

View from the 3rd fairway

Like a lot of courses, this one starts of with a medium length par 4. I should note that I played the back tees, except for on this hole. Once I realized the round was going to be long, I decided "eh, why not play from the back?" Anyway, the hole bends to the right around a pair of bunkers, which were quite easily carried, even with a not fantastic drive. You then get a pitch up towards a green surrounded with bunkers. The green is next to the Cacapon Resort lodge (yes, it's a resort and a muni, and a state park. It's many things!), and was not particularly exciting to putt. None of the greens were. Again, probably something to speed up play. It worked fine for me, I putted really well.

The 1st green, with the lodge beyond

There are only two holes on the course where water is a factor, and the 2nd hole is one of them. Again, it's another mid-length par 4, bending left this time around bunkers to a green guarded by a pond and more sand. There's no trees in play, so I utilized my usual strategy on holes like this and ignored the fairway completely. I played the hole straight, and was rewarded with having only a little sand wedge left, despite the hole being nearly 400 yards.

The par 4 2nd

The 3rd hole is a par 5 whose primary feature is looking good. Cacapon Mountain is highly visible, there's a forest to the right, and that's about it. So, here's some pictures of the hole doing what it does best.

The 4th hole, as seen above, is a par 3, and while it might be a little hard to see from that picture, the 4th hole and the 8th hole occupy a double green. I don't think I've ever played a double green before. This one in particular was very long and thin, and you know what? There is absolutely no reason to maintain it as one big green. It's just a Cacapon Golf Course novelty. Anyway, both the 4th and the 8th are par 3's, virtually the same length at just under 200 yards, and play basically the same way. The bunkering is even similar.

The infamous double green at Cacapon Resort. Pictured from the 8th hole.

The 5th is one of the few holes where the driving area actually feels tight. There's a little bit of space left, but none at all to the right. Guess where I hit my drive? Go on, you'll never guess. Luckily, I didn't go in too far, and I was able to scrape out a bogey, thanks to a good chip from the left side of the elevated green.

The par 4 5th

The 6th hole is much more open then the first, with the drive playing over a valley to a fairway sloping to the right. I hit an indifferent sort of drive, then stuck a fantastic wedge to about 8 feet and made the birdie. So this hole is alright in my book. Also, I tend to like holes with bunkers in the corners of doglegs that I can challenge.

The wait after the 6th was particularly long, so I took a picture from the 7th tee.

The 7th hole is a longer par 4 at 430 yards. Given its length, and the fact that this tee shot is pretty wide open, you would think, "Here we go, time to really go after this drive!" That's what I was thinking, right until the moment when I hit the ball about 3 miles into the air. So I had 200 yards left on my second shot to a green surrounded by bunkers. I was not up to that challenge either, and I left the hole with a very wonderful double bogey.

The 9th hole is a fairly long, straightaway par 5, and the second hole to have water in play. Again, it's a pond near the green. The right side is wide open, while there are trees left, so if you're going to miss, miss right. That's what I did. If you want to get to the green in two, you have to hit a very good drive, which I did not do. The hole is a lot easier as a full three-shotter anyway, since you take the pond basically out of play.

I mean, it's possible to go in the pond from here. That would be a pretty bad shot though.

And now, onto the back nine. The back nine is definitely more challenging than the front, I think. There are more trees, it's tighter, and there's more elevation change. Where the front nine is at the bottom of the valley, the back nine is more at the foot of the mountain, and that shows from the tee shot on 10. It plays over a big valley and a pond that is very much not in play to a fairway that curves away to the right behind a group of trees. Play over the bunkers at the corner if you can. It shortens the hole by a lot.

Next is a short par 5, which I played almost perfectly. A drive down the left side, followed by a 6 iron onto the back of the green, and a two putt birdie. Again, we can see that there's more significant elevation on this nine, and unfortunately, this is the last look we get to see of Cacapon Mountain.

The 12th is a par 4 that plays right back up the hill you just went down. To be honest, I wasn't paying too much attention at this hole, since I hit my drive right into some trees, where it promptly disappeared. I hate when that happens. The ball shouldn't have been gone, but it was. Plus, I was struggling with a slice all day, and I was getting tired of it. There's not too much to look at on this hole, anyway.

The 13th and 14th holes are both par 4's that play downhill, and run along the edge of the property. Both have dense forest to the left that you definitely don't want to hit into. I managed this on 13, the longer of the two holes, as I hit an excellent drive and a good sand wedge to about 15 feet, and made the putt for my third (and last, unfortunately) birdie of the day. 14 went a bit less smoothly, though it could have been worse. I pulled my drive, and assumed it was gone. So I hit another drive, which was also not good, but in the opposite direction. It was in play, anyway. So I started walking down, and what do you know, my first drive is sitting in the middle of the fairway. It was a long way out, but that's better than losing it, right?

The 13th from the tee

The par 4 14th

The 15th hole is a fairly long par 3, but it plays less long since it's steeply downhill. Remember, this is the one hole that is not parallel with the valley. It's not an easy hole, the green isn't big, and there's a lot of sand (a fairly common theme here, I feel).

The 16th hole plays right alongside the 7th, and the tee shots are broadly similar. There's a big, wide open corridor to a fairway that sweeps along to the left. This hole is much easier then the 7th though, it's shorter and the green is less heavily defended. And it didn't matter much at all, because I hit the biggest slice of the day and lost my golf ball in the trees. Fun. Also, you may notice that the photo quality really takes a dive here. It was a very long round, and it was getting late. By this point it was around 7:30, and the sun was basically gone by this point. The whole course is right up alongside Cacapon Mountain, which is to the west, and was definitely contributing to the lack of light, along with the heavily forested nature of the course.

The 17th is a par 3 that plays to a green guarded by sand (again). Instead of talking about the hole, I'll just say that I got a highly improbable par here. Somehow, 180 yards was not enough for my 8 iron, and my ball airmailed the green, ending up on the back side of a bunker, so close to the edge that a normal bunker shot was impossible. So I tried to carefully get it out with a regular chip shot, which went about as well as most of my other chipping attempts went. I thinned it back over the green, to my not-at-all surprise. What was surprising was that the next chip went in. It's been a long time since I chipped in. So, that was nice.

Finally, we come to the last hole. The longest hole on the course, as a matter of fact, at nearly 550 yards. The tee shot definitely calls for a fade, and I pulled it off very well. A driver and a 4 iron was actually enough to get me into a front greenside bunker. The hole was at the back of the green, and so the bunker shot was quite long, and I wasn't able to get the birdie. So I closed with a par and finished with an 81, thanks to my unusually good putting. Seriously, I had 27 putts, and I don't think I've ever done so well.

This is 18 from behind, taken from the 10th tee. I had another very long wait.

Also, here's a picture of the putting green, which I thought was kinda nifty, but didn't notice until I was walking back to my car.

So, would I put Cacapon Golf Course on the list of all-time great golf courses? No, of course not. I wouldn't even put it on my personal top 10 courses I've played. It depends too much on the scenery; if it were located in a less interesting location, it would be a much less memorable course. The holes themselves lack variety, and too many holes depend on surrounding the greens with bunkers. The round took way too long, though I accept that conditions were absolutely perfect for golf, and that of course a bunch of people showed up at 2 PM, that's when the green fee dropped. I didn't think it would be quite that slow, but I knew it wouldn't be a quick round. My final verdict would be that I'm glad I played it, and that it is very photogenic, but I don't see myself playing there again. It just isn't really that interesting. Also, the nines should be reversed. The front nine had by far the better views, and there really wasn't much difference between the two nines. Just a thought for them.

I hope to make at least one more in-depth course review between now and the end of July. Not sure where yet, but hopefully someplace interesting. Of course, come late July I'll be going to Cape May, New Jersey for a week, where I'll playing lots of new golf courses, taking lots of pictures (hopefully), and hopefully getting enough material for highly thorough reviews like this one. I like this style of review a lot more than some of the ones I've done previously. I like getting more in depth with the course, and I especially like taking lots of pictures. I wish I could have done more with this one, but like I said, the course just wasn't that interesting. But anyway, look forward to more reviews like this! The golf season is just entering full swing, as it were.