Review: Country Club of Troy (Part 1)

Rain is a good thing, but there is such a thing as too much. In July 2021, the Albany area received a record amount of rainfall. Something like a dozen inches fell, and while you might think that a bunch of rain is good for the grass, it's a struggle for golf courses to keep things going. All those stupid carts people insist on using cause damage, which is amplified when the grounds basically all just mud. It also means that golf courses that are at their best when playing fast and firm don't get to show off their true nature, which brings us to the Country Club of Troy. 

Designed in the late 1920s by Walter Travis – this is actually his last design, as he died not too long after working on it – the course is draped over the rolling hills east of town and is loaded with the sort of quirk one might expect from a course routed over dramatic terrain. According to my brother, who played the course multiple times several years ago, it's supposed to play very firm, especially around and on the greens, and that's what I was looking forward to. Unfortunately, while the weather was fine for our round, all the water from the rainy July lingered, and so the course was soft and the greens almost frustratingly slow. The Country Club of Troy was not giving us its best stuff. But you take what you get, so let's see how Troy stacks up against some of my other favorite courses. (Mild spoiler: No amount of rain and softness could take away from the fact that this is a really good course.)

The first hole is a fantastic opener, and it sets the mood for the rest of the round very well. When you walk up to the first tee and all you see is the side of a rather steep hill, you just know you're in an interesting day. The further you go on this mid-length par 4, and the further right you are in the fairway, the better your angle and view into the green will be. You will have the ball above your feet for your second shot pretty much no matter what, and that's not easy when it's on the first hole. The green is just as interesting as the drive; it's domed and slightly elevated above yards of surrounding fairway, and there are no bunkers around it. The challenge, if you do miss the green, is figuring out how to get back on. There's no obvious or single way to do it, you could use anything from a putter to a wedge to an iron. Bunkers and rough are great and provide plenty of strategy, but a subtle design like this has its own unique interest. It's not quite the best first hole I've ever played, but it's very close.

The first hole.

Approaching the first green.

The first green.

The second hole is the first of two par 3s under 150 yards at Troy, playing 145 yards to a very heavily defended green. The ring of seven pot bunkers almost completely encircles the green, though I can say that the ones short aren't actually the worst place to miss. The green slopes sharply from back to front, so if you take an extra club and end up on the back end of the green or worse, over it, you're going to have a tough time getting a par. At least, you would if the course was playing correctly. This is an example of the course having some of its bite taken away by the rain; there were almost no consequences for going above the hole. It didn't really matter where you were on the green because the putts were just so slow. I certainly benefitted from it, since I did hit onto the back part of the green, but I really shouldn't have. That putt from a couple feet above the hole should have been terrifying, not mildly inconvenient. But hey, what can you do?

The second hole.

The second green.

The third hole is a fairly short 370 yard par 4 with a steeply downhill tee shot, so it plays even shorter than the yardage indicates. The entire fairway slopes sharply from left to right, making it difficult to keep your drive left. You'll want to stay left on the drive because there are two small bunkers protecting the right side of the green. That green has a small swale running through the middle; not quite Biarritz level but similar concept. Still, it's a good birdie opportunity, since two of the three of us made 3s.

The third hole.

Approaching the third green.

The third green.

The fourth hole is the first par 5 at Troy, and it's quite a hole. At 531 yards it's not particularly long, but it doesn't need to be. The first section of the fairway plays uphill, and I'm going to guess about 99% of drives run right into and stop short. Really long hitters can get to the top of the ridge and make the hole reachable in two, but for most, this is a distinctly three-shot hole. After the drive into the front of the hill, the second shot is blind; a stream cuts about 30 yards in front of the green, so laying back to about 100 yards is ideal to avoid any accidental water balls. That third shot will be from a downhill/sidehill lie over the stream to an undulating green with a back to front slope. It reminds me a bit of the eleventh at Leatherstocking; this hole doesn't have the same dominating sideslope, but it's always in motion. There are no flat lies, and there are no easy shots, no mindlessly blasting away. There's always something to think about.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is apparently not that long a par 4 at only 415 yards, but it manages to play pretty long despite the tee shot being very downhill. You probably don't want to use a driver, since the fairway narrows beyond 250 yards between a few tall trees left and forest right. If you want an unobstructed view of the green, you'll need to play right, and there's really not much room to work with. It's actually  a really tough and precise tee shot. Then you'll have a short to mid iron up a very steep hill to a semiblind green with a small bunker front right. This is not my favorite hole in the world, to be honest.

The fifth hole.

Approaching the fifth green.

The fifth green.

The sixth hole is 360 yards, and it's downhill the whole way. This isn't a wide fairway in general, so you may want to use a 3 wood or long iron off of the tee, but doing so brings two fairway bunkers into play, so perhaps driver is the best option. There is a third fairway bunker right that could catch overly bold drives, so maybe driver isn't best. No easy answers on the tee shot then. The second shot is downhill to a small green that plays out onto a promontory of sorts. The back is built up a lot over the surrounding terrain, making recovery shots from any location other than short of the green very difficult. Despite all appearances though, the green isn't actually really sloped from back to front, though of course it isn't flat, featuring plenty of little undulations. It's a solid short but not driveable par 4, and that's something I like to see.

The sixth hole.

Approaching the sixth green.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is the longest hole at Troy, playing 560 yards over the only really flat portion of the property. The playing corridor is technically quite wide, but two big trees in the corner of the dogleg dominate the drive; if you want any sort of clear shot forward, you'll need to either blast past them or skirt around them to the right, lengthening what's already a pretty long hole. I doubt many people reach this green in two. The second shot, if you've avoided the trees, is to a pretty wide fairway, though there is a cross bunker about 100 yards from the green, right where you'd want to lay up. Then you've got a wedge to a green flanked by five small bunkers. I'm not sure how I feel about those two trees; on the one hand, they certainly add interest, but on the other, they're a bit too good at their job. If it was just one, or if they were less enormous, I think I'd like this hole more.

The seventh hole.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is 193 yards and dead flat the whole way. The green is tucked between a group of small mounds that both act as hazards and flow into the green itself. This is how you do mounding correctly, it's obvious they're artificial, but they're also not only acting as a framing device. There are also four small, deep bunkers around the green: two short, one left, and one right. The green itself is not large and is undulating thanks to the mounds.

The eighth hole.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is the exact opposite of flat. The tee shot is incredibly blind, with a lone bunker and only a sliver of fairway indicating that there's even a hole here at all. If you use a 3 wood or long iron, you'll end up at the top of a plateau looking down onto the green, but you'll have a long shot in, since the hole is 425 yards. Alternatively, you can use driver and clear the plateau, getting a huge boost but almost certainly ending up with a steeply downhill stance for your wedge second shot. You do run the risk of slicing into the trees or hooking into a bunch of high fescue left of the fairway, but the potential for massive drives is difficult to ignore. The green is the most interesting one we've seen so far at Troy, and a definite reminder that Walter Travis was known for his greens. There are multiple tiers and sections within this medium-sized green, and where you want to be can vary wildly depending on where the flag is. I can tell you with the hole location we saw, I had a much easier time getting up and down from left of the green (using the central slope as a backstop to bring the ball back down to a couple feet away) than my brother did despite him on the green but on top of the right plateau. I don't know if this counts as a great hole, but it's certainly an interesting and quirky one.

The ninth hole. Not a lot to see from the tee.

Approaching the ninth green.

The ninth green.

The ninth hole from behind.

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