Review: Greencastle Golf Club (Part 2)

It's time to take a look at the back nine at Greencastle Golf Club, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is 435 yards, and the first 350 yards of the hole is pretty inoffensive. Plenty of space, no bunkers, very little to worry about besides O.B. very far left. That's fine. The green is a different story. The last thing a long par 4 needs is an island green, but that's what the tenth presents. Sure, the island's quite big, as is the green (it's extremely long and split down the middle into two tiers), but the average golfer's going to be using a mid or long iron on their second shot. They're going to miss that island plenty of times. Meanwhile, good golfers will barely even notice the water. It's an issue of punishing the wrong group of golfers.

The tenth hole.

Approaching the tenth green.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is by far the shortest hole on the course at just 135 yards. However, it plays up the side of a mountain. All you can see is a large bunker and the very top of the flag. If it was just the giant hill, this hole would a little odd but fine. However, there's a few trees separate from the forest left that overhang quite far out. You miss left at all, and you can get caught up in those trees and drop down into potential disaster. It's not great. The green is medium sized and two tiered, with the top significantly higher than the bottom.

The eleventh hole. It's a little uphill.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is technically the longest par 4 on the course, playing a whole yard longer than the tenth. The drive plays over a deep valley to a fairway draped over a narrow plateau; the ideal play here is a 3 wood or long iron to the top of the plateau, leaving you a short or mid iron from a level stance. The second shot is over a second valley with a pond at the bottom. Of course, you can use driver on this hole, since the pond doesn't come into play until you've gone something like 315 yards, but you'll be left with a very uphill shot from a very steep downhill lie. The green has a large bunker behind it and is fairly unremarkable, though if you end up short your approach will roll back quite a bit. This is quite common, I think, as the green is higher up than it looks. Either that, or the yardage lies to you, because both my brother and I left our approach shots precisely the same amount short, and I don't think that happened by accident.

The twelfth hole.

Approaching the twelfth green.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is 540 yards, with the fairway playing between two O.B. lines – houses left and a farm right. There's plenty of space in between, but still, I'm never a fan of having O.B. on both sides. Especially when you can't tell there's O.B. right because it's obscured by trees. Beyond the O.B., there's not much to the hole. Hit the fairway, hit a good layup, then hit the green. At least the green has a couple bunkers next to it, and it's got some decent back-to-front slope.

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is a longish par 3 at 185 yards that plays over basically level ground. The green's nothing to write home about, but what is noteworthy is the bunkering. There are six bunkers around this green, and while five are quite small, there's a big one right of the green. It's so big, in fact, that there's a bridge going through the middle so you don't have to go incredibly out of your way to get around. I don't think I've ever seen a bunker bridge before, so if you want to see that, Greencastle is one of your likely very few options.

The fourteenth hole.

Not a great picture of the fourteenth green, but I was more interested in the bunker bridge.

The fifteenth hole is a mid-length par 4 playing to a fairway with a severe left-to-right slopes. There's also a pair of large bunkers alongside the fairway. Also worth mentioning is the O.B. far left, which I wouldn't normally figure as being in play, but since my brother hit a golf ball out that way, I guess it's more in play than I initially thought. The green is fairly large, with a decent amount of back-to-front slope, and flanked by bunkers.

The fifteenth hole.

Approaching the fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is a welcome (?) return to form after a few noncontroversial, slightly dull holes. It's 545 yards and bends hard right, so unless you can hit a big fade with the driver, you may want to use a 3 wood. However, you don't want to be too far right, because there's a cluster of trees farther up the dogleg that will block out shots aimed anywhere close to the green. You won't even be able to easily reach the ideal lay-up. This is not a hole that can be reached in two. It's long, and also there's a pond in front of the green. Also, the green's very shallow. It's not even an easy shot when you have a wedge in your hands. It's not as blatantly bad as some of the holes here, but it's got a bunch of design elements that don't really mesh together very well.

The sixteenth hole.

Approaching the sixteenth green.

The sixteenth green.

After some funky routing (the seventeenth tee is about 200 yards from the previous green, quite close to the landing area from the sixteenth tee), the seventeenth hole is 430 yards but plays steeply downhill the whole way, so if you can hit a good drive, you can really get some distance, potentially leaving yourself just a little wedge second. Thankfully, it's a wide-open drive, so feel free to pull driver and go for it. The green is somewhat undulating and protected by water left and a bunker right.

The seventeenth hole.

Approaching the seventeenth green.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole is 15 yards shorter than the previous hole, but since it's uphill the whole way, it effectively plays significantly longer. Much like the ninth, the fairway is quite narrow, but there are no hazards, so it's effectively a wide-open playing field. A good drive will leave a short iron into the green, which is fairly long and narrow and protected by three bunkers left. 

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

Clearly, we're not dealing with a masterpiece of design here. Greencastle is not a good golf course in any sense of the word. Actually, it's worse than I remembered. The eighth hole in particular is just such a bad, bad hole. And the third is so incredibly ugly. I guess I can say the last third of the round isn't entirely terrible. Not good, average at best. At the very least, it was $45 to play the course. (Cart included, this is NOT a walking-friendly golf course. Try to contain your surprise.) Not a great price, but for a Saturday afternoon, it's not the worst. I wouldn't spend my money here again, but it's not the highway robbery that the Links of Challedon was.