Review: The Links at Hiawatha Landing (Part 2)

It's time to check out the back nine at Hiawatha Landing, go here if you haven't seen the front.

The tenth hole is a downhill mid-length par 4 with O.B. all along the left side. Most people will hit a draw in between the two fairway bunkers, likely ending up on the little plateau about 250-300 yards from the tee. Or you could play it like my brother, who hit his drive left, landing on the cart path and ultimately going way over 300 yards. Risky, but probably not worth it. The green is guarded by two bunkers to the right. Overall, a nice, fairly simple way to start off the back nine.

The tenth hole.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is a fairly long par 4, playing 430 yards. The hole is bunkerless, but it doglegs left around a cluster of trees that you'll want to avoid. There's plenty of room to the right though. The second shot is semiblind to an elevated green secluded in a little amphitheater. It has a fairly significant amount of slope to it, so missing long isn't a great idea.

The eleventh hole.

The eleventh green is semiblind.

The twelfth hole is by far the longest hole at Hiawatha Landing, stretching to 600 yards from the back tees. This is a big hole by every definition of the word. Off of the tee, the fairway is pretty wide, but there are fairway bunkers on both sides that you'll want to avoid. Then you have a choice. If you're not in a great position, you'll probably have to follow the fairway, leaving yourself quite a long third shot. But if you've hit a decent drive, you can carry as much of the big native area sitting between the fairway and the green as you want. The green is nearly reachable in two if you're pretty long. There's a bunker in front if you're coming from that direction, or on the right if you've laid up. The hole looks intimidating, but it's easier than it looks.

The very long and expansive twelfth hole.

Approaching the twelfth green.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is a slightly uphill par 3 playing 180 yards over a couple of bunkers. The green is extremely shallow but very wide. And speaking from experience here, if you hit onto the wrong side of the green (such as hitting the left corner when the hole is cut on the right) you will be left with a putt that you will either have to aim off of the green to get to the hole or chip. And yes, I did manage to make a par, which was probably the best two putt I've ever managed. So I'm inclined to like this hole.

The thirteenth hole.

The thirteenth green. You can sort of see my ball way in the distance, many many feet away from the hole.

The fourteenth hole is a nice and short par 4 playing downhill. When we played it, it was downwind, so a well-struck drive could get quite close to the green. Normally though, a driver might not be the best play, since there's a small pond left and a bunker right, both pretty much right where a slightly wayward drive would end up. The green is long, narrow, angled 45 degrees from the fairway, and from our experience, it is completely impossible to make a putt on it. It doesn't look particularly nasty, but apparently it's the toughest green on the course.

The fourteenth hole.

Approaching the fourteenth green.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is a long and uphill par 4, playing every inch of its 450 yards. The tee shot is pretty wide open, as the single fairway bunker is too close to the tee to make much of a difference. The second shot is much more interesting, as the green is guarded by four bunkers, all of which are on the left side. The chipping area right of the green does provide some difficulty if you bail out that way. It's a long hole, but not a particularly difficult one.

The fifteenth hole.

Approaching the fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is probably the best hole at Hiawatha Landing despite being the longest par 4 on the course, stretching up to 465 yards. That's pretty long, but the hole doglegs sharply to the left, so you can absolutely cut off some of that dogleg to get a much shorter look at the hole. Of course, you have to avoid a cluster of big fairway bunkers to do this, but you can leave yourself a very short second shot if you do it right. And you might want to, because approaching the green from the right side is an intimidating prospect. There's a few bunkers in front and to the right, and the green is sort of elevated on a small plateau.

The sixteenth hole.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is a par 3 that's a little over 200 yards, and naturally, as all modern courses must apparently do, water has to come into play. In this case, a pond lurks to the left, and a bunker protects the green to the right. I'm not entirely sure what the two fairway bunkers are accomplishing on a par 3, but yet, there they are. Other than that, it's a fairly standard difficult par 3.

The seventeen hole.

The eighteenth hole is a par 5, and on the scorecard it's listed as being 520 yards (and is almost that wide). But it's only that long if you take the extremely long route around the lake, playing so that no shot carries any water. But if you're willing to take on some risk, you can shorten the hole by a lot. And I do mean a lot. I hit a drive that was maybe 270, 280 yards over the right corner of the pond and had just under 200 yards into the green. But if you can hit it 300 yards, you can really get aggressive and have just a wedge for the second shot. Sure, there's plenty of water to worry about, but a wedge into a par 5 is a pretty tempting proposition. The green is pretty shallow and pretty tilted from back to front so it's not the easiest two putt in the world, but still, this is a great opportunity to finish with a birdie or even an eagle.

A panoramic view of the last hole.

Most people will go down this way.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

All in all, I couldn't help being a little disappointed in the Links at Hiawatha Landing. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad course and there were some interesting holes, but I was hoping for a little bit more. I was especially disappointed in the front nine. Sure, it was neat playing along the river, but the ponds sitting in the middle of the front nine really kind of ruined it. It made several holes, particularly the seventh, way too narrow. I don't like having water on both sides of the fairway, doing that is unnecessarily penal in my opinion.

It's a shame that the front nine isn't more like the back, since the back is by far the superior of the two. There's less water and there's actual elevation change, both of which automatically make things more interesting. I know there probably wasn't much the architect could do in terms of elevation change on the front nine, since it is routed on a flood plain, but throwing ponds down was not a good solution.

In terms of value, Hiawatha Landing isn't too bad. It was 30 dollars per person on a Sunday afternoon, which is pretty decent, especially seeing as it's a newer golf course. But still, if you're looking for value in the Southern Tier, Mark Twain is by far the better option. Two people could play for 30 dollars, and I like that course better. It was nice to play this course once, but I probably wouldn't go back.