Review: The Links at Gettysburg (Part 1)

The Links at Gettysburg and I have had this day coming for a long time. It's been on the back of my mind for years. In many ways, this review will be special. It's not every day you get to see a golf course as bad as this. 

Perhaps I should explain. Back in 2006, I played a high school golf tournament here, and to say it did not go well would be an understatement. Now, I'm very willing to accept my shortcomings as a golfer, especially back then when I was 14 years old. But on any other golf course, my round would have been 10 or 15 shots lower simply because the Links at Gettysburg is just that badly designed. My opinion was only solidified a few years later when one of my younger brothers also played a high school golf tournament here; while his round certainly went better than mine, his opinion was the same: This golf course is absolutely awful. It is, to this day, the worst golf course I ever played. 

Or is it? 2006 is a long time ago, and my eye for golf courses has improved immensely. I've seen actual golf courses now, courses capable of hosting professional golf tournaments, even majors. I've also seen some pretty terrible golf courses. Does the Links at Gettysburg still hold up as the worst golf course I've ever played? I think that's a question worth pursuing. 

The first hole starts things off in exactly the sort of way you'd expect from a course called "the Links at" something: With hundreds of trees in play. The hole is 370 yards and doglegs hard left about 225 yards out, with the fairway dropping down into a valley with a small stream at the bottom. Go beyond the dogleg and you'll be faced with a tremendously awkward downhill/sidehill stance. Miss the fairway by any significant margin and you'll have overhanging trees in the way. That makes your only realistic option on the tee a supremely exciting lay-up with a long iron. The green is across the stream and is protected by two bunkers – one short and one long – and a retaining wall for some reason. Don't know why it's there, no other green has a wall like that, and I'm pretty certain a bit of earthmoving could have shored the green up in a more effective and more natural fashion. 

(A side note: The back tees are listed at nearly 7,100 yards on the scorecard; however, they were not provided during this round. Who knows if they're ever put out anymore? Therefore, I will be listing yardages from the blue tees, which were the longest provided set out there. It makes the course a more reasonable 6,700 yards.)

The first hole.

Approaching the first green. Why is there a retaining wall in front? Excellent question.

The first green.

The second hole is 390 yards and also plays through the forest. Really seeing the Links moniker here. The fairway doglegs 90 degrees right at around 240-250 yards out, with a bunker in the corner to catch anyone trying to shorten the hole. It is possible to clear that bunker with a driver, but then you're risking running out of space on the other side. And don't think of laying back with an iron; anything that doesn't at least draw even with the fairway bunker will have no shot at the green. This is target golf at its "finest": Hit the fairway, hit the green, which is on the other side of a ravine, completely cut off from the rest of the hole. Oh, and there's a bunker right in front as well, just to make the shallow green that much more intimidating to hit.  

The second hole.

Approaching the second green. Much shorter than this and I'd have no shot at the flag.

The second green.

The third hole brings us to our first encounter with the red rock cliffs the Links at Gettysburg prides itself on. To quote from the website, the third is "the signature hole, a dramatic par 3 from an elevated tee to a large undulating green that fronts a red rock cliff. Hit the ball too far and you’ll find the large trap in front of the cliff. Leave it short and you’ll hit the creek in front of the green. This 187 yard hole is a daunting test of golf."

Let me tell you something about those red rock cliffs: They look absolutely terrible. The problem is that literally no effort was made in making them look like natural formations. I mean, obviously the rocks themselves are natural, I'm sure a few thousand tons of rock weren't placed in various locations around the course, but their presentation is awful. The rock wall on this hole is completely sheer and vertical. Nature doesn't make cliffs at a 90 degree angle. You can even see a series of equidistant grooves running vertically along the entire thing, which I'm guessing is a remnant of whatever they did to shape the cliff face into its current form. The wall's so uniform that my brother purposefully bounced a chip shot from over the green into the wall and had it ricochet back at the hole. The only reason he didn't end up next to the flag is because he hit the pitch too hard. It's a literal backboard.

Anyway, the hole itself is fine, I suppose, though about as far from a links as you could possibly imagine. It would work fine on most courses, provided they took a little bit of care sculpting the rock wall. At least the hazard in front is natural.

The third hole. 

The third green. Unfortunately, the rock wall is in shadow, so you can't make out the details, but the blasting/landscaping work involved was absolutely horrendous. Literally no effort was made to make the wall look natural.

The fourth hole is a very short par 5, playing just 460 yards, with the drive being significantly downhill. You can make the hole even shorter by challenging the trees in the corner of the dogleg; carry them and you could have as little as a short iron second. But of course, the margin for error while hitting driver is small, as the fairway is pinched by trees on both sides. The bunkers are of course present but barely relevant. The green is narrow and flanked by sand. A tough approach if you're coming at it from 200 yards away, not so much if you lay up. This is actually not a terrible hole, but I wish the bunkers were more relevant. Also, the fact that a links-style course (as silly as that moniker is) is relying on trees as a hazard is just silly.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is a fairly short 350 yard par 4 where you have to make an interesting choice on the tee. There's a large fairway bunker right, but if you use driver you can clear it quite easily, giving you a very open landing area. However, you'll be left with a short half-wedge into a small green surrounded by sand on three sides. Not the easiest shot in the world. If you lay back and bring the bunker into play on the drive, you'll have a full wedge into the green, meaning you'll be able to put spin on the golf ball and hopefully worry less about the bunkers around the green. I wouldn't call this a good hole, exactly, but it (along with the previous hole) are the best the Links at Gettysburg has to offer. It's all downhill from here. 

The fifth hole.

The fifth green.

The sixth hole is certainly a golf hole that exists. Usually, when you get a short par 3, there's an element of danger in play on the tee shot. Something to add spice to a wedge/short iron tee shot. After all, you know the golfer will have a short club in hand. This hole does not have that. Sure, there's a couple bunkers, but they're at best level with the green and are mostly behind it completely. There is no good reason to end up in one beyond a drastic mishit or misclub. This tee shot is just a wedge into a not particularly interesting green with minimal danger. If I'm being generous, there's a couple of small mounds built into the sides of the greens which would be mildly inconvenient to deal with if you had to putt/chip across them. But we're talking a very mild inconvenience. And yet, this is still one of the course's better holes. At least it's not actively awful. 

The sixth hole.

Speaking of actively awful, welcome to the seventh hole, home of the world's worst tee shot. Let me be clear: Having water on both sides of the fairway is always a bad idea. Always. It's especially a bad idea when you're approaching the fairway from a 45 degree angle, the fairway's quite narrow and firm, and you're unsure of the distances needed to clear the first pond while remaining short of the second one, all while calculating what effect the 40-foot elevation change and moderate wind will have. 

Obviously, laying up short of the ponds is an option, and in fact, that's what I did the first time around. However, there's a big glaring flaw in that plan: It's incredibly stupid. This hole is 580 yards. Do you really want to tee off with a mid iron on a long par 5? I played this hole 6 iron, 3 wood, pitching wedge back in 2006. That is an absolutely silly and ridiculous playing strategy. Oh, and there's a big fairway bunker about 150 yards away from the green, narrowing the fairway precisely where you'd be laying up if you played safe on the tee. Absolute genius move right there. Not at all needlessly punishing on people just looking to avoid the water.

Obviously, what you're supposed to do is challenge the water with a long iron or even driver. However, the precision required to hit this fairway goes beyond skill and straight into the realm of luck. And it would be so simple (theoretically) to fix this hole. Just get rid of the far pond, and this becomes the fun drive it was supposed to be. Challenge as much of the first pond as you dare, potentially bringing the green in range on the second shot, but if you get too greedy, you're punished. A classic heroic drive. What we have here is the most unfun penal design you could imagine.

Anyway, the rest of the hole is just sort of there. The fairway bunker's easily passed so long as you didn't bail out on the tee shot, there's a greenside bunker right, and the green is pretty unexciting. So yeah, this hole manages to be both stupid and boring. I think it's the worst hole on the course, but as we'll see, the seventh is far from the only candidate for that award.

The seventh hole, in all its glory.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is 320 yards, making it potentially driveable for long hitters. And honestly, if you have the length to reach the green, you should go for it. Not because it's open and easy to get to, because it isn't. You've got a rock wall right, two bunkers flanking the green, and a native area filled with brush and long grass left. The margin for error is not large. However, your options for laying up are pretty much just as limited. There's a couple of big bunkers in the lay-up zone 75-100 yards from the green. The only significant mass of fairway is immediately over the stream/native area, and laying up to that means using a mid iron off of the tee and leaving yourself over 100 yards on a 320 yard hole. Obviously, you can do that, but literally no one would want to and I imagine very few people do. If anything, there's more margin for error using driver than 3 wood/long iron, as the rock wall cuts in about 250-275 yards out than moves back out. This hole is just badly conceived and badly designed. At least it's not long like the last hole was.

The eighth hole. More incredibly natural rock walls come into play here.

The eighth hole.

The ninth hole is the final time the Links at Gettysburg presents a hole without water in play. Okay, technically a stream crosses right in front of the tee, but that doesn't really count. After crossing the valley, the drive has to contend with O.B. far left and two bunkers right. The second shot is uphill and to a fairly large green with bunkers on each side. If that doesn't sound very interesting, that's because it isn't. Still one of the course's better holes.

The ninth hole.

The ninth green.

That's it for this week, come back next week for the exciting conclusion.