Review: Country Club of Troy (Part 2)

It's time to check out the back nine at the Country Club of Troy, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is just under 400 yards, but it plays pretty long since it's uphill the whole way and you really can't use a driver. The fairway stops around 250 yards from the tee and heads up the hill you just climbed down on the ninth fairway. That leaves a short or mid iron up to a blind green; if you're lucky you'll be able to see the top of the flag. There are no hidden surprises around the green, which is nice, so you're not launching your iron into some deep bunker or oddly placed pond. The green is fairly undulating, but not particularly exciting. 

The tenth hole.

Approaching the tenth green. Yeah, it's up there.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is the final par 5 at Troy, and it's a really good one. It's 530 yards, but the tee shot is dramatically downhill, so it's not unreasonable to reach the green in two. However, being able to get there in two and actually doing it are two completely different things. For one thing, if you're on the left side your view of the green will be obscured by trees, so you want that clear shot you'll need to stay out right. If you do everything right, your reward will be a long iron or fairway wood to a very small green at the top of a plateau surrounded by five pot bunkers. It's a bit of a Volcano green, though not a dramatic one. The way you play it and its treatment of less-than-perfect shots is the same. Trying to hit this green from 200-250 yards away is an exercise in futility; no golfer outside of the PGA Tour is that accurate. A wedge or a pitch third is certainly easier, but not to the degree you might expect. This is just not a friendly hole, and I like that. It's not often that a par 5 is one of the toughest holes on the course, but I think this hole is among the toughest at Troy. It's also one of the best.

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

A slightly closer look at the little plateau the eleventh green sits on. It's really not an inviting target.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole may or may not be a 255 yard par 3. It says 255 on the scorecard, but there was no black tee during our round, just the blue tee at 230 yards. And you know what? That's plenty. I actually feel like this hole may have been a par 4 as first designed, judging from the four bunkers about 40 yards short of the green, but that's just a wild guess. The green is guarded by one small bunker front right, and there's also a swale in the right central portion of the green. That swale makes putts and chips involving the right side of the green quite complicated.

The twelfth hole.

The twelfth green. 

The thirteenth hole is a mid-length par 4 with a fairway that's sloped significantly from right to left. Two bunkers on the left side narrow the landing area, but while going down the left side shortens the hole, it does mean the second shot will be directly over two pot bunkers next to the green. The right side gives you a better angle, but you'll also have the ball significantly above your feet, encouraging a hook, again leading you toward the greenside bunkers. The green itself is on the larger side, but there's a swale running through the middle of it. There's also some mounding around much the back of the green. You need a precise second shot; even being on the wrong portion of the green brings bogey into play, let along missing the green.

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

A better look at the thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is a relatively straightforward par 4, playing just under 360 yards. However, while it certainly looks simple from above, the reality on the ground is different. The tee shot is even more blind than on the ninth; none of the fairway is visible. The fairway then slopes down for a couple hundred yards, then rises back up again about 100 yards from the green. There are two small bunkers right of the green, which is semiblind from the fairway and filled with the usual undulations.

The fourteenth hole.

Approaching the fourteenth green.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is 140 yards, technically making it the shortest hole at Troy, but since the green is 50 or so feet above the tee, in reality the second does play a bit shorter. Aside from the obvious giant hill, the fifteenth is actually pretty similar to the second. The small, semiblind green is sloped significantly from back to front and has several small (and deep) bunkers in front. While I do like that this course has two sub–150 yard par 3s, I wish they didn't effectively play exactly the same.

The fifteenth hole.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is about 425 yards and may be the best hole at Troy, which is saying something considering the quality of the course thus far. The drive is downhill to a wide fairway, but a pair of bunkers right and a group of trees left narrow the fairway where a good drive would end up. Hit a drive into those bunkers and suddenly the crossbunkers 40 yards short of the green become something to worry about. Lay back and you'll have a pretty long shot into the green, and that's not something you want. There are two bunkers right of the green, but the main feature of the sixteenth green is the two small plateaus in the back corners. They're big enough so that the hole can be cut on them (though they weren't for our round, sadly), but even if the hole is elsewhere, they still dominate the green. Troy has a lot more subdued greens than Cape Arundel, the other Walter Travis course I've played, but this one would fit in nicely there. 

The sixteenth hole.

Approaching the sixteenth green.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is a basically straightforward 370 yard par 4 playing over roughly level ground. There's a bunker on the right side of the fairway, and hitting your drive close to that bunker will give you the best angle into green, which is protected by two bunkers left. Shots hit out to the right of the green will funnel back down, taking the slope. It's not the most compelling hole in the world, but it's far from the worst.

The seventeenth hole.

Approaching the seventeenth green.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole is a grand, sweeping finisher, yet still has the quirk one has come to expect from this course. Obviously, there's the fairway, which is decidedly crooked, but first I want to talk about the back tee. I feel like this hole was originally designed as a 360 yard hole, with the back tee partially up a hill. At some point though, a very well-hidden tee was added 50 yards back, next to the fifteenth green and tenth fairway, positioned so that you actually have to hit over the sixteenth tee. The things you can do on a private golf course. Okay, now we can go back to the fairway. There are three bunkers right and two left, right where you'd want to hit an aggressive drive, but laying back of them leaves a long, uphill approach. The green is slightly domed and sloped from right to left, with the four bunkers right being very poor places to end up. Go left and you'll have a tricky shot from fairway, but at least the green won't run away from you. It's not the best hole at Troy, but it's a good way to end the round.

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

Like I said at the beginning, the Country Club of Troy is one of the best courses that I've played. It's a ton of fun right from the start, and it keeps that sense of fun throughout the entire round. The first hole is amazing, the fourth is a rollercoaster from start to finish, the ninth is delightfully quirky with its blind tee shot and wild green, the eleventh is an almost-brutal par 5, and the sixteenth is just great design on relatively flat terrain. There are a few problem trees that I wish were cleared, and the place was just playing too slowly (which may have been outside of its control), so it's not perfect or my absolute favorite course. It doesn't have to be though. It's just a fun, quirky course, and I'd love to play it again.