Review: Metacomet Golf Club (Part 1)

In the 40 or so golf course reviews that I've done, I'm reasonably confident I've never been able to use the word "scandal" to describe the history of any golf course. But the now-closed Metacomet Golf Club, located just a couple miles from downtown Providence, Rhode Island, has been rocked by scandal in the past year. 

I should explain, although if you're an astute reader of Golf Digest you may already know the story. Metacomet is, at its core, a solid old Donald Ross course. It's been doing its thing for about a hundred years, providing a solid experience for its members. Yeah, this was a private course for pretty much all its history. Ultimately though, Metacomet isn't even the best Donald Ross course in Providence, and when you consider just how many excellent Donald Ross courses there are in New England, it is perhaps unsurprising that the club fell into financial trouble. There's a lot of options out there for the discerning, wealthy New Englander. 

That brings us to 2019, when the course was bought up by an investment group that happened to include Brad Faxon. Mr. Faxon is, of course, a well-regarded PGA Tour pro from the 80s and 90s who was one of the best putters of that generation. He also grew up in Providence, and Metacomet was his home course. A hometown legend buying up his childhood home course to save it from near death? That sounds like a feel-good story to me. This investment group made some changes to bring in extra cash, including allowing the public to make a limited number of tee times. So far, so good, right? 

Fast forward a year or so. The first summer of semiprivate golf had a few glitches, but overall the members were satisfied with the direction the course was going until mid-February, when it was announced the club was up for sale. A week later the course was sold. This came out of nowhere, and the members of Metacomet felt betrayed. There were mass resignations, and quite a few sued the management company that had bought the course a year earlier. Brad Faxon said publicly that, while he and the company tried to save Metacomet, the hole they were in was too deep, and they had no choice but to sell. Conflict with local residents of the community about keeping the property green, coupled with the pandemic, prevented Metacomet from closing immediately, but at the end of September, the course officially closed its doors.

Now that we've gotten that sad story out of the way, let's look at what was quite a good, if a bit cramped, Donald Ross course. The first hole is 400 yards and plays significantly downhill, a lot more so than you'd expect for a course that's right near the ocean. Metacomet isn't flat by any means. A nice gentle draw down the middle will run out a lot and leave you with just a wedge into the green. A row of bunkers guards the front and left portion of the green, which is pretty big but quite undulating. Not on the level of Cape Arundel, but they're much faster. If anything, Metacomet's greens were even more treacherous to putt on.

The first hole.

It's not exactly peak scenery, but that is the ocean out beyond the first green.

The first green, featuring some strange person.

The second hole is the longest hole at Metacomet, but it's only 490 yards from the back. This isn't a very long course, which shouldn't be too surprising considering the small size of the property. Bigger than Cape Arundel, to be sure, but not exactly generous. This hole in particularly is squeezed up against a tidal marsh, doglegging 90 degrees to the right. If you're especially bold, you can carry the marsh with the drive and leave yourself with just a wedge into the green. If not, this is best played as a three shot hole. The marsh is close enough to the green to be a threat if you're coming at it from a long way out, but if you've laid up, the bunker left of the green is more of an issue.

You can lay up off to left on the second hole ...

Or you can carry the marsh and go the direct route.

Approaching the second green.

The second green.

The third hole is a fairly short par 4 that plays along the edge of the marsh for the first 250 yards of the hole. This isn't a very wide or inviting fairway, especially with trees overhanging the right side. Unless you can hit a fade, a good drive will end up right underneath a pair of small trees to the left of the fairway. The second shot, if you've used a 3 wood or long iron, will be a wedge or short iron up the hill to a big, semiblind green with a false front that'll send you 20 yards down the fairway if you're not careful.

The third hole.

Approaching the third green.

The third green, with the seventh hole beyond.

The fourth hole is 435 yards, and it's the first time that Metacomet really flexes its muscle. It may be less than 6,500 yards, but it packs quite a punch. The tee shot is downhill and the fairway bends off to the right. The ideal tee shot cuts off the dogleg, but as my brother found out, there's a tiny stream right of the fairway that can catch slightly pushed drives. Staying right provides a better angle into the green for the second shot, which is a mid iron back uphill into a semiblind green protected by a deep bunker short and left. That bunker is not somewhere you want to be.

The fourth hole.

It's another semiblind approach into the fourth green.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is a mid-length par 3 that plays uphill to a crowned green. No run-up shots on this hole. The green is pretty undulating as well. I don't have too much to say about it otherwise, other than I made a triple bogey on it, so I really don't think I did it right. It's not an outwardly difficult golf course, Metacomet, but if you're not careful, you can really rack up the big numbers.

The fifth hole.

The sixth hole is 425, and the first 200 yards or so play straight uphill to a blind landing area. A couple bunkers which I think are technically on the ninth hole come into play on the left side, but for the most part the fairway is pretty wide open. The second shot is trickier. The green is wide open in front, with the lone bunker protecting the left side, but the green itself is small and not particularly friendly. Plus there's a big dropoff into dense vegetation past the green, so you don't want to go long either. 

The sixth hole, with an actual view of the hole.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is the shortest hole at Metacomet, playing a downhill 160 yards. This is one of those "hit the green or you're doomed" sort of holes. And even hitting the green is no guarantee, since it's one of the most severe on the course. Long is bad, right is bad, left is bad, and even short isn't great. You can get a glimpse of the marsh through the trees, but not much. This hole could have done with more than a little tree clearing.

The seventh hole.

The eighth hole is kind of a weird hole. The fairway is ridiculously wide, though a bunker does occupy quite a lot of real estate. The hole doglegs about 90 degrees left, so unless you're a really short hitter, it's a fairway wood or long iron off of the tee. If you've avoided the bunker, you'll be left with a short or mid iron over a ravine to a green ringed with three bunkers. It's quite a long carry as well, which is not something you see too often on Donald Ross courses. The green is pretty flat, so if you do get on in regulation, you have a decent chance at birdie.

The eighth hole.

There's a ravine to cross before the eighth green.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is the final par 5 at Metacomet. That's right, there are no par 5s on the back. So if you want that eagle, you'd better get it here. The hole is just 465 yards, so getting home in two is definitely possible, but the golfer isn't exactly given a generous fairway here. I'm not entirely sure who decided to plant trees on both sides of the hole in such a glaringly artificial way, but this feels less like a golf hole and more like a bowling alley or a quaint boulevard. Not a lot of strategy here, just hit a straight drive and a straight second, and you'll be fine. Fail to do this, and you'll struggle. There are bunkers along the fairway and left of the green, but they pale in comparison with the rows of trees. At least it's not that long a hole.

The ninth hole.

The ninth green.

That's it for this week, next week we'll take a look at the back nine.