Review: The Links at Gettysburg (Part 2)

It's time to take a look at the back nine at the Links at Gettysburg, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is 390 yards, with the drive playing slightly uphill to a fairway guarded by a line of four bunkers right, along with O.B. in the form of houses just beyond. Houses which are very much in play if you slice, as I can attest. My drive stayed in bounds by a margin of inches, and it was quite literally in someone's yard. If you do hit the fairway, the second shot is to a wide, shallow green with a bunker behind and a pond short left, with fairway running down toward it. A golf ball probably wouldn't run the whole way down into the water if you came up short, but that's probably down to maintenance limitations. I bet, if they could, they would absolutely roll back into the pond.

The tenth hole.

Approaching the tenth green.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is not a long hole at 365 yards, but it's quite narrow, with the fairway squeezed between a pond left and forest right. Finding the fairway is very important, so you almost certainly do not want to use driver. The second shot is a wedge or short iron further down the hill to a green protected by sand left and right and a stream beyond. At least that's a natural water hazard, unlike the 10 ponds scattered across the back nine. No, that's not an exaggerated number. 

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is 160 yards, and it's a hole every classic links has: an island par 3. Wait, no, not that. Literally no links course has a par 3 surrounded by water. Sure, you could say that the green here is large, the island is large, and there's plenty of space to not go in the water. And that's true. The water's only in play if you hit a really bad shot. In a lot of ways, that makes the problem even worse. Why bother with a silly island green if you're going to do everything to keep the water out of play? It's just there because they felt like having it, and that's a terrible reason. It's a bad idea badly executed. 

The twelfth hole. Some excellent branding in view as well.

The thirteenth hole and I have some real history. In my many years of playing junior golf tournaments, only once did I record a single-hole score in the double digits. Right here. I made an 11 here, thanks to hitting two tee shots in the water, hacking my fifth shot onto the fairway, then hooking the sixth into the water again. Also worth mentioning: I am 100% convinced they had us playing the full 7,000 yard course, because I will never forget the tee shot I had to hit that day. During this round, however, there was no tee back where we were in 2006. I was 14 years old trying to play a 455 yard par 4 with a narrow fairway squeezed between two ponds left and dense forest right. This hole was a little more doable in 2023 when it played 415 yards and could be managed with a driver and a wedge. Don't get me wrong, the hole's still terrible. But at least it was possible this time around.  

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is basically a repeat of the previous hole, just longer. Pond left, trees right, narrow fairway. And it's like that for nearly 500 yards until finally opening up a little for the last 50 yards. The green is protected by three bunkers, two right, one left. It's an exercise in unfun plodding along, hit a careful drive, hit a careful second; at no point is there ever any real reward for aggressive, bold play. I guess the green's not terrible, but that hardly makes up for 530 yards of punishing boredom.

The fourteenth hole.

Approaching the fourteenth green.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is 190 yards and big surprise, it's got a pond left and trees right. All you can really do with it is hit your mid iron carefully and hope you're accurate. In isolation, this hole is fine, it's not unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination. Not good, but fine. It's there, it's a par 3, which are about accuracy anyway. It has no place on a links-style course, but I could deal with it on other courses. But here, it's just the same thing we've seen multiple times in a row, and the water's gotten very, very old.

The fifteenth hole.

The sixteenth hole is, mercifully, open on the tee shot. A wide fairway and no ponds (unless you hit, like, the worst/shortest hook ever). No, the water on this hole is natural and comes into play on the second shot; a stream cuts in front of the green, separating it from the rest of the hole. The green is quite small and pretty heavily sloped, and also has five bunkers around the green. This would be a pretty solid green site for a short par 4, something in the 350-yard range. However, this is not a short par 4. It's 420 yards, and could play as long as 490. That's absolutely insane for a green of this size and accessibility. You have to play the aerial game here, and when you've got a mid iron in hand, you're just not going to hit this green in two very often, and the punishment for missing the green is steep. Deep bunkers, plenty of places to lose golf balls, and a hard green to putt on.

Oh, and a special thanks to the path across the stream here, which goes so far out of its way it adds like 150-200 yards to the walk. That was a lot of fun, taking 5 minutes to walk in literally the wrong direction to get to the green.

The sixteenth hole.

Approaching the sixteenth green.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is a long par 4, playing 450 yards. Once again, there's a pond left, and while the right side is slightly more open than some of the previous holes, there's still long grass lurking. There's an advantage to playing down the left side, as it does give you a better angle into the green, but there's a couple problems with this. For one, the hole bends right, so playing to the outside of the dogleg makes a long hole even longer. Also, you can't see the water from the tee, so you're completely guessing on how far you can go before you end up getting wet. Blind water hazards are so much fun. The green is quite large and slightly elevated, and hidden behind a big bunker.

The seventeenth hole.

Approaching the seventeenth green.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole is a short par 5 at just 480 yards, which would lead you to believe it should be a solid birdie opportunity. But don't forget, this is the Links of Gettysburg, and this hole uses water as generously as other courses use bunkers. There's water all the way down the left side, and bunkers, tall grass, and housing right, which makes hitting driver extremely uncomfortable. And if you don't hit driver, that essentially takes the green out of play, since it's also got sand and water close by (not to mention those oh-so-stylish red wall cliffs). Of course, there's also no good place to lay up either, since water runs down the right side of the fairway from 200 yards out from the green to essentially greenside. Basically, what we've got here is a risk/reward par 5 with all risk and very little reward. And this is coming from someone who hit literally two perfect shots and made eagle. I could play this hole 100 times and I wouldn't come close to that again. I got so incredibly lucky, especially on the drive, since I forgot about the pond right, out past the corner of the dogleg. I could have hit just as solid a drive and been punished for it had I aimed 10 yards further right. So yeah, a terrible hole, but an appropriate way to finish, I suppose.

The eighteenth hole. That house to the right has to get hit with so many golf balls.

Approaching the eighteenth green. The red rock walls make their triumphant return.

The eighteenth green.

And now for the million dollar question: Is the Links at Gettysburg still the worst golf course I've ever played?

Yes. 

Don't get me wrong, I've played some pretty bad courses over the years. Greencastle, Maryland National, Heritage Hills, and the back nine at Glen Mills in particular stand out. Just like the Links at Gettysburg, those courses have significant routing and design issues. They stick holes where they shouldn't go. Holes are often way too narrow, giving the golfer no sense of freedom. The bad holes at Glen Mills especially stand out as being nearly as bad as the worst Gettysburg has to offer.

Crucially though, all of those courses have one thing going for them that this course does not: They respect their environment. What does that mean? It means they look like a golf course in this part of the country should. The Links at Gettysburg does not look like a golf course in the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania. It looks like something you'd find in Florida or Myrtle Beach, what with the double-digit ponds scattered around. Pennsylvania doesn't look like this. The course is just wrong, it doesn't belong here. The place oozes insincerity.

Also, and this is something I forgot, the course is actively spiteful toward walkers. You can walk the course, and on paper it shouldn't be very difficult. There's some hills on the front, but the back is basically dead flat. The walks between greens and tees don't look too bad from above. On the ground, however, you realize that the paths take you on the most roundabout, convoluted routes imaginable, adding so many extra steps to the journey. The trek to get to the sixteenth green from the fairway is especially heinous. And there's little to no reason for it. They just assumed everyone would take a cart, and I have no patience for courses like this. Golf is meant to be a walking game, and the Links at Gettysburg spits in the face of that.

I could go on, but I think I've ranted enough. Avoid this course, no matter the cost. Like, even if someone offered me a free round here, I'd pass. Literally never again.