Review: Waverly Woods Golf Club (Part 1)

Arthur Hills was a pretty prolific designer of golf courses, working on more than 200 courses over the span of a 50-year career. While his design focus was mostly in the Midwest, he did plenty of work in the Mid-Atlantic as well. And yet, my only experience with his work before now was Maryland National. It did not give me a great impression, but to be fair, he was handicapped with a site too small for a proper golf course. 

That brings us to Waverly Woods, a sprawling golf course just west of Baltimore. If you look north of Interstate 70 during the winter, you can just about see a couple of holes from the road (the golf course visible south of I-70 in the same vicinity is Turf Valley, a completely different thing). Waverly Woods was designed by Arthur Hills, and seeing as it's not too long a drive for me, I thought I'd give his work another chance. It can't be worse than Maryland National, right?

The first hole is a fairly short par 4 at about 380 yards. You can play safely on the drive out to the right side of the fairway, reducing the risk of finding a hazard but giving you a worse angle into the elevated green, or you can flirt with tall grass and trees left to obtain a better angle. Or you could do what I did and fully pull-hook a driver into the trees. Nothing better than losing a golf ball on the first shot of the day. The green is perched up on a hill and falls away on all sides. It is honestly not an easy green to hit, as some portions of the green itself even fall away, and when the course was as firm as it was (we hadn't gotten much rain at this point of the year), I think even decent shots could run off the green.

The first hole.

The first green.

The second hole is 550 yards and features an uphill tee shot to a narrow, mostly blind fairway. As the hole bends left, longer drivers can cut the corner and potentially bring the green in range on their second shot. However, for most people, the first two shots are an exercise in staying in the fairway and not losing a golf ball in the forest left or houses right. The playing corridor is fairly wide, but the average golfer is quite adept at finding places to lose golf balls. The third shot is more interesting, as a marshy area short and four bunkers right crowd the green, which is quite narrow and filled with broad slopes. Not a hole most people will birdie, if I'm being honest.

The second hole.

Approaching the second green.

The second green.

The third hole is 425 yards but plays significantly downhill. The hole doglegs right, but the fairway is split at the turn by a stream. I think it's technically possible to carry to the right portion of the hole where the green is and leave just a pitch in, but for most, the tee shot is a lay-up out left. The fairway is banked pretty severely the further left you go, so the closer you get to the stream, the flatter the stance for the second will be. Not to mention it'll be a shorter shot. The green is bunkerless, and with the fairway tilted up right of the green and forest left, the golfer is strongly encouraged to aim out right of the green and let the slope bring the ball down onto the green. It's a decent hole, I only wish I'd played it with a modicum of competency. Golf sometimes.

The third hole.

Approaching the third green.

The third green.

The fourth hole is a few yards shorter than the previous hole, but it plays significantly uphill the whole way. The fairway is offset from the tee and green and narrows the further you go; you need to be wary of draws and hooks, as they will run out of space quicker than you might think. You also need to avoid three bunkers and a few trees on the inside of the dogleg. Laying back into the widest portion of the fairway is of course an option, but that leaves you with a 175- to 200-yard second shot up the hill. Not ideal. The green is nestled in a group of mounds and blind from the fairway – the only reason you can see where you're going at all is the fact that the flag is about 13 feet tall. I've seen that trick before, but I think this one takes the prize as the tallest and silliest.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green, featuring one very, very tall flag.

The fifth hole is by far the shortest hole at Waverly Woods at just 140 yards. I do appreciate any course throwing in a short par 3, but this one is not particularly interesting. A steep dropoff left is definitely something you want to avoid, but the green is decently sized and there's no bunkers or hazards really in play. It's a very straightforward hole.

The fifth hole.

The sixth hole is a fairly short par 4 at 365 yards and plays to a partially blind fairway. The bunker you can on the tee is quite close and easily driven over. You can use driver here, but you also want a full wedge into this green, as it's quite small and angled behind a bunker. There's also a steep dropoff behind leading down into forest. The green itself is also fairly undulating.

The sixth hole.

Approaching the sixth green.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is 211 yards and doesn't present too many problems on the tee shot. Sure, there's a couple bunkers right, but with nothing left you have to significantly miss the tee shot to end up in one of the bunkers. The green here presents the primary challenge. I used too much club and ended up at the back of the green, and with the flag in front I had a very long birdie putt. Because of this, I know that the green has two sections (front left and middle right) where the green slopes away quite harshly from the vaguely S-shaped central plateau. Any tee shots landing in these spots will absolutely run off the green, and negotiating them on a putt was a dicey proposition. Naturally, I hit a decent lag then whiffed the 5-foot par putt. Classic golf.

The seventh hole.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is the longest hole at Waverly Woods, playing a little over 550 yards. You'll want to play directly toward the green here, but a few trees close in right of the fairway do a great job of forcing you left. In addition, the fairway narrows significantly beyond 275 yards, courtesy of a partially blind pond, and stays narrow for about 150 yards. That makes finding the fairway on the drive imperative here, as you don't want to be laying up into the narrowest part of the fairway. You need to cover 450 yards or so from the back to clear the pond and set up the best third shot. The green is pretty small with a fair amount of slope to it, and two bunkers guard it left and right. Much like the second, the eighth isn't really much of a birdie opportunity.

The eighth hole.

Approaching the eighth green.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is a long par 4, playing 450 yards up and over a rise. The landing area is blind, though you can see a bit of the fairway and two fairway bunkers right. A good drive can clear the bunkers, and the landing area is quite generous, so driver works just fine here. The second shot should be a mid to short iron. The green here is curious; not so much the green itself but the steep dropoff into an odd patch of fairway left of it. It almost looks like this hole was supposed to have an alternate green next to the current one, which doesn't make a lot of sense. But we never see fairway used in this manner again either. It just feels a bit strange.

The ninth hole.

Approaching the ninth green.

The ninth green.

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