Review: Hickory Heights Golf Club (Part 1)

Honestly, the things I do sometimes to keep these reviews going. When I go to a golf course with the intent of photographing it, I usually like the weather to be at least a little bit nice. When it's completely cloudy, that's annoying, but when a golf course is good, a monotone gray sky isn't the end of the world. If the course isn't good, well... the less said about Cumberland Golf Club, the better.

Really, the weather forecasters are to blame for what happened at Hickory Heights Golf Club, which is about halfway between Hanover and York, Pennsylvania. I made a tee time on a Saturday night for around noon on Sunday. When I made this tee time, I was assured that the weather would be partly to mostly cloudy, with a high around 60. A bit cool for mid October in this part of the country, but otherwise, perfectly reasonable golf weather. As you can probably guess, this is not the weather I received. The temperature never got past 50 and it rained for half the round, sometimes quite hard. On the bright side, I pretty much had the course to myself and I got around in under 3 hours.

Anyway, now that I've complained about the weather, let's look at the golf course. The first hole is a sub 300 yard par 4, but this is far from an easy start. In fact, this is quite an interesting proposition. The hole is wedged between a stream and pond left and a steep hillside right. From the tee, the green is blind, but between trees, the hill, and the pond, there isn't much margin for error if you want to go for the green, especially since this is the first drive of the day. A lay-up is probably the smarter play, but if that lay-up is steered away from the water, the second shot will be completely blind. In addition, the fairway all but disappears around 75 yards from the green, pinched between the pond and the hill. There's a lot to think about on this hole, and it's quite possibly the best hole at Hickory Heights. At the very least, it's the best on the front nine.

The first hole from the tee. Not a great picture, but there was someone right behind and I was kind of rushing.

The first green, with the pond left.

The second hole is a bit of a backbreaker, weighing in at 580 yards. It's amazing how a golf course that barely tops 6,000 yards can have a hole so long. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly interesting hole. Other than a blind drive, there's no interesting feature for the first 570 yards. It's dead straight and pretty wide. The green is small, narrow, and guarded by three bunkers. A lay-up to the right side of the fairway will leave a simple pitch.

The drive on the second hole is blind.

The second shot isn't particularly interesting.

The second green. This course won't win any maintenance awards

The third hole is, at 410 yards, the longest par 4 on the front nine and one of only two par 4s at Hickory Heights longer than 400 yards. The tee shot is extremely wide open and there is absolutely no trouble to speak of. However, mindlessly bashing a tee shot as far as you can may not be the best strategy. The fairway drops significantly below the level of the green and there is quite a bit of slope. End up at the bottom of the hill and you'll have to go right back up. So, if you can keep your tee shot right, you'll have a better and probably flatter look at the green.

The third fairway drops down a lot.

The third green.

The fourth hole is the first par 3 at Hickory Heights, and it definitely isn't easy. Missing right is a very bad idea, with a steep dropoff and a pair of bunkers waiting. Obviously, a miss short left will receive a friendly bounce, even when the course is completely soaked. So that's probably where you want to aim your tee shot.

The fourth hole.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is the sort of hole you expect to see at a short little golf course crammed onto a piece of land that barely tops 100 acres. The tee shot is blind and I honestly had absolutely no idea what to do. The scorecard indicated a dogleg right, but I didn't know how far the treeline was or where exactly the green was. So I guessed, and I got away with it. You could honestly try driving this green if you know where you're going, it's only 315 yards, and I'm sure the green is closer than that. If not, you're better off laying up well left, otherwise you'll have a three-quarter wedge off a hanging lie to a small green with a pond in front. It's kind of a silly hole, but I'll take silly over boring any day.

This isn't an empty field, I swear.

The fifth green from the top of the hill. It was about this point that it really started to rain.

The fifth green from creek level.

The sixth hole is the shortest hole at Hickory Heights, measuring only 130 yards.

The sixth hole.

Looking back down the sixth hole, with the fifth green in the background.

The seventh hole is only 330 yards, but as you can probably guess from the pictures, it plays noticeably longer than that. Interestingly, this hole possesses the only fairway bunker at Hickory heights, but it honestly doesn't seem to accomplish very much. I mean, other than the fact that I hit a wormburner off the tee right into it. I guess it was actually exceedingly well placed. Anyway, other than the constant climb, this hole isn't too exciting.

The seventh hole.

Still a lot of hill to climb.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole plays parallel to the seventh, so it drops right back down the hill you just climbed back up. As a result, even though it's 35 yards longer on the scorecard, it plays shorter. The only hazard of note off the tee is the O.B. left, which is also the better side to approach the green. The second shot is a wedge over a narrow stream to a narrow green.

The eighth hole.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is yet another short par 4, but this one plays over pretty level ground. If you hit a 200 yard iron, you'll have plenty of room to work with. However,  the trees left and stream right pinch in past that point, giving you less room to work with. And the trees also keep the green from being easily drivable. There's no significant advantage for hitting it very far, so my recommendation is to lay up and go at the green with a full wedge. The green is small and guarded by three bunkers, but all three are either to the side or behind. Not a bad hole to close out the front nine.

The ninth hole.

The ninth green.

That's it for now, next week we'll check out the back nine.