Review: Paxon Hollow Golf Club (Part 2)

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

The tenth hole is quite simply fantastic and the best hole on the course. The tee shot drops down into a valley with a stream running down the middle; the eighteenth is on the other side. On a course filled with short par 4s, this is the shortest, playing just 275 yards. That means quite a few people can seriously think about going for the green in two. But of course it isn't that simple. You've got the stream right and a pond left. The line of bunkers on the far side of the fairway, along with the two greenside bunkers short right, would lead you to believe that the ideal place to lay up is as close to those fairway bunkers as you can get. But that leaves a delicate pitch shot, and when the hole is left or in front, it's almost impossible to get that pitch close, thanks to a subtle left-to-right slope on the left portion of the green. The direct approach of going for the green is of course and option, but there's a lot of sand, not much green to work with, and a pair of well-placed trees lurking just right of the line you'd want to take. Miss at all to the right and you could end up behind them with no shot at holding the green with the second. 

The tenth hole.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is a 450-yard par 5, but this is definitely not an automatic birdie. The drive, hit through a chute of trees, goes down to a fairway tilted severely from left to right. There's a road left and trees and high grass right; the playing corridor is reasonable but far from spacious. Your first instinct on a fairway tilted like this one is to hit a draw, but with trees looming in so close and O.B. left, you'll need to be precise to avoid both while still using driver. A fade will likely roll out into the right rough. The second shot, if you're going for the green in two, is a long iron or wood up a big hill to a semiblind green with a deep bunker front right. The green is not large, not particularly deep, and one of the more severe on the course. Both my brothers three putted this green, but I think we got a particularly difficult hole location on the right side on a significant slope.

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is 360 yards and plays over two valleys, one that is carried over the drive and a second, narrower valley that the second shot plays over. The drive should ideally be laid up to the top of the plateau in the fairway. While one can hit driver, you'll end up at the bottom of the second valley, leaving yourself a partial wedge up a giant hill to a small green tilted pretty strongly from back to front that's surrounded by numerous small bunkers. That's not really a shot you want. It's much easier to use a long iron and leave a longer second shot from a relatively flat stance and with a full view of the green. Paxon Hollow may be short, but holes like this show that it's not a course you can overpower.

The twelfth hole.

Approaching the twelfth green.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole, a 360-yard par 4, looks pretty similar to the first and fifth off of the tee: There's a valley filled with long grass left, and you need to decide how much to carry on the drive. The fairway is very wide out to the right, making it a safe bailout, but if you do that, you'll quickly regret your choice. If this isn't the smallest green at Paxon Hollow, it's got to be close, and it's basically an island, separated from the fairway by three bunkers short(including one that's maybe 5 feet in diameter) and backed up by trees and brush beyond. And we're not talking about a flat green either, it's got plenty of slope to it, mostly from right to left. That makes approach shots from the right side of the fairway extra delicate. You want to be as far up and as far left as you dare here, challenging an always-narrowing fairway. The risk is worth the reward here.

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

While the back nine here is incredibly strong, the fourteenth hole is the weak link on the chain. It's not a bad hole, but it lacks that extra bit of strategy and style found elsewhere. The tee shot is blind, with O.B. left and scattered trees and a couple of fairway bunkers right. At 381 yards, it's the longest par 4 on the course, and it's one of the few holes at Paxon Hollow where you can comfortably hit driver without really thinking about it. The green is perched on the edge of a valley beyond, so long is a very bad miss. There's a bunker front left and another about 20 yards short of the green, which is tilted from back to front.

The fourteenth hole.

Approaching the fourteenth green.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is the longest of Paxon Hollow's five par 3s at 180 yards, and by far the most difficult of the set. It's got a good claim for being the toughest hole on the course. The green is built into a hillside and is perched precariously over dense forest to the left. The green is medium sized, but with two bunkers right and three left, there's not much room to miss. Right is obviously safer than left, but the green has a fair amount of right-to-left tilt to it, so it's tough to keep chips from the right side close to the hole unless you're very precise.

The fifteenth hole.

The fifteenth green.

When you're dealing with a small, hilly site, it's only natural for there to be a few routing eccentricities, and while the sixteenth here is far from the most egregious example, it is noticeable. You play a par 3 going out, walk a hundred yards further on to this tee, then turn around and come back the way you came. This hole is 320 yards and bends nearly 90 degrees right, wedged between the previous three holes which form a triangle around it. The odd routing is easily forgiven because this is a good hole, and no pushover either. Off of the tee, you can either lay up to the center of the fairway or challenge the bunker in the corner of the dogleg, potentially leaving just a pitch or chip to the green. However, this green is tiny (it's something like 40-50 feet wide), sloped from left to right with no back to front tilt to help slow shots down, and protected on both sides by sand. If you do try to get close to the green, you have to be directly in line with the axis of the green to be able to hold it. If you have to carry some of either bunker, you'll either have to flop it up and on, or accept that your second shot will probably roll through into the back fringe. If I were to play this hole again, I think I'd lay up and come at this green with a full wedge. That's probably the better play.

The sixteenth hole.

Approaching the sixteenth green.

When I played Pocono Manor back in 2021, I thought the tiny drop-shot par 3 seventh hole there would be pretty unique. And while it certainly remains the shortest par 3 on an otherwise full-length golf course I've played, the seventeenth at Paxon Hollow gives it a run for its money in every other regard. At 116 yards, it's the shortest hole on the course, and it plays straight downhill to a green that's got to be something like 75 feet below the tee. And there's trouble in the form of bunkers short and a stream long to make the task of judging the distance all the more difficult. The green is medium sized, but it's wider than it is deep, so there's really not much room to work with. Just remember though, this hole effectively plays under 100 yards. It's within everyone's reach.

The seventeenth hole.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole is Paxon Hollow's longest hole, playing 535 yards through the same valley as the tenth hole. The stream in the middle cuts the fairway in two at roughly 250-300 yards out, so you probably won't want to hit driver. Trees also crowd in on the right, a little too much so in my opinion. I think clearing out a few trees would make the decision off the tee a bit more interesting.  There's just no space for a driver, so the best play off the tee is pretty clearly a long iron or fairway wood. You just have to accept this is a full three-shot hole. The second shot is to a narrow, heavily sloping fairway with long grass left, and if you didn't get your drive far enough out, the stream lurks to the right. There's also a tree protecting the right front part of the green, and that will block out shots that don't keep to the fairway. The green itself is on the larger side but is two tiered; there's a lot of back-to-front slope here. I wish the tee shot was a little more interesting, but beyond that this is an excellent finishing hole, and the setting is top tier. Especially in the fall with the trees in full color.

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

What more can I say about Paxon Hollow? It's an endlessly fascinating course, and one that punches way above its weight. It's not difficult in the traditional sense, and you can go out and shoot a good score here. But you can't just go out and do that. You need to think, you need to put yourself in the right position. Paxon Hollow defends itself by taking driver out of your hand, and it gets away with it because it rarely forces you to do so. You can hit driver on pretty much every hole, there's nothing stopping you from doing so. It's just rarely a good idea. You can't overpower this course. So while it is way under 6,000 yards, it never feels that short.

I also want to give special recognition to the back nine, which I personally believe can stand tall with the best courses I've played. It might even exceed them in some cases; I think the tenth is the best of the 108 holes I saw during our Philadelphia swing. And that's including a past and future major championship host (we'll get to that soon). The front nine is a bit weaker, with some exceptions (particularly the fifth and eighth), which does hold Paxon Hollow out of my top 10, but even the opening stretch isn't terrible. 

As for value, Paxon Hollow is a little on the pricy side: $65 on weekends and $50 during the week, with no discount for walking. That's a bit annoying. It's quite a bit more than Jeffersonville, which is an ever-so-slightly better golf course. But the conditions are on the whole excellent for a public course, and the golf is interesting enough that I absolutely think Paxon Hollow is worth the price. I'd absolutely play there again.