Review: Lederach Golf Club (Part 2)

It's time to check out the back nine at Lederach, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is a mid-length par 4 with two main options off the tee. You can hit out right, using a 3 wood; this is easier but you can only go so far before a bunker cuts you off. It also leaves you with a worse angle over a bunker (and a tree). If you head down the left side, you'll need to clear a series of mounds about 225-250 yards out, but if you do that you'll have a fairly easy second shot. The green is fairly undulating and has two bunkers right.

The tenth hole.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is listed as nearly 400 yards, but if you're willing to hit a driver straight at the green, it plays much shorter. Maybe not quite driveable, but close. Naturally, doing so means you're aiming into a narrow neck of fairway with a bunker and significant mounding left and dense forest right. That's a bit too much to ask for most golfers, who will play out left. That drive is easier, but you'll have a tough second shot to a narrow green guarded by a bunker left. And I really do mean narrow this time, like maybe 15 yards wide. And it's got slope and tiers and everything. Not a green you want to approach from 150-plus yards out.

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is an absolutely enormous par 5, playing over 650 yards from all the way back, with the second half of the hole playing significantly uphill. The tee shot favors a fade, and you'll want to avoid the O.B. left. On the second shot, your primary obstacles are a large mound in the center of the fairway and a bunker on the right side about 125-150 yards out. Two solid shots should leave a wedge or short iron into the green, which is semiblind and very shallow. It's not devoid of interest, obviously, but this is still kind of a slog.

The twelfth hole.

Approaching the twelfth green.

Someone forgot to take a picture of the green.

The thirteenth hole isn't the most exciting hole in the world. A mid-length par 4, it plays downhill to a blind fairway that runs out about 275 yards out, so you'll probably want to use less than driver. The hole then turns nearly 90 degrees, crossing a stream so there's no chance to play aggressively, up the green, which has the usual Lederach undulations and is fairly large and elevated significantly. This is a target-style hole; hit to the fairway, then to the green. Not much chance for creative play. 

The thirteenth hole. Not my best picture-taking day.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole isn't quite as monstrously long as the twelfth, but at 233 yards and uphill pretty much the whole way, it's certainly no slouch. That said, while the tee shot isn't easy, the green is very large (likely Lederach's largest) and most of it is open at the front, with just a single small bunker right. There's another bunker back right, but it really doesn't factor in. To miss long and right you'd have to significantly overclub, and I'm guessing that doesn't happen too much here. 

The fourteenth hole.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is the longest par 4 at Lederach, gently ascending for much of its 470 yards. The tee shot is wide open, with no hazards and plenty of space between the O.B. right and forest left. The second shot is a bit trickier, as a pair of bunkers about 20 yards short of the green basically cut the green off from the fairway. If you want to hit a running shot into the green, you'll have to contend with those bunkers, and since the hole is so long, odds are you'll be using a pretty low-lofted club on the second shot. So the bunkers come into play more than you might think. The green itself is vaguely two tiered, with the right higher than the left. 

The fifteenth green.

Approaching the fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is a fun and quirky short par 3, playing just 140 yards. The green here is quite large and boomerang shaped, with the two wings pointing away from the tee. There's only one bunker on the hole, off right of the green, but there's a large mound guarding the left side of the green very efficiently. You need to hit a pretty accurate and well-judged tee shot to hold the green if the flag is on the left side. It's pretty easy to miss long, but there's no hazards long so it's both relatively easy and deceivingly tricky to get up and down from back there. Chipping from a tight lie in the fairway is never easy, since you've got so many options. 

The sixteenth hole.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is another long par 4 at 450 yards, and while there's no hazards per se off of the tee, the fairway here is narrowed significantly by a group of mounds in the landing area. The fairway isn't a whole lot flatter, so the odds of having a flat stance on the second shot are not high. That'll obviously make the second shot tougher, especially when this is a less-than-inviting green to begin with. It's not large, sloped from front to back, and protected in front by humps and swales, with a bunker left thrown in for good measure. 

The seventeenth hole.

Approaching the seventeenth green.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole, at the very least, is shorter than the stereotypical par 4 finisher with water in play. At 330 yards, it's very nearly drivable for the longest hitters, but with water lurking left that may not be the best play. There are two bunkers about 250 yards away, nestled in amongst mounding, and they're the primary focus of the tee shot, since that where you would ideally lay up. You don't want to be in all that, so you need to either commit to staying short, leaving a full wedge into the green, skirting left of them, bringing the water into play and potentially leaving an awkward pitch, or clearing them, which is obviously not a play everyone can manage. Whatever you pick, the green is easily the most extreme one on the course, filled with large undulations and falloffs toward the water. There's an especially brutal false front short left. This is not a green where you can take a two putt for granted.

The eighteenth hole.

The eighteenth green.

Lederach is a good golf course. It's got very interesting greens, and while the strategy is often a bit lacking elsewhere, it's not completely devoid of it. There are a fair number of holes I like quite a lot, like the fourth and sixteenth. But it can't escape the housing development curse, not completely. The individual holes are good, but there's no flow to the round. It all feels disjointed and disconnected, and routing matters. It's not the worst offender in the world, but since the course is decent otherwise, somehow you feel it more. And like I said, there's a fair number of holes where the strategy on the tee is just "hit it as far as you can," and that's not especially interesting. 

Overall, there's a fair amount to recommend here, and I wouldn't say you shouldn't play Lederach, but I do think there are better options for public golf in Philadelphia. Jeffersonville, for example, and the next course I'll be reviewing, which has to be my most pleasant surprise in a long time. However, if you're in the mood for a modern style of design, Lederach is absolutely a better fit than Glen Mills.