Review: Worthington Manor Golf Club (Part 2)

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

The tenth hole is 380 yards and looks pretty innocuous on the tee. There's a few bunkers and the fairway disappears over the crest of a ridge, but overall it doesn't seem like there's much to worry about. Then you get over the top and find that there's a pond just right of the fairway about 275 yards out and your golf ball's nowhere to be found. Decidedly not a fan of blind water hazards. So, the correct play here is a 3 wood that splits between the bunkers, favoring the left side. That will leave the best angle into the green, which is angled from left to right and nestled between mounding and a bunker left and the water right.

The tenth hole.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is 360 yards and plays slightly downhill. A large, intimidating bunker cuts into the fairway at about 275 yards, narrowing the hole and making driver challenging to hit. And even if you do hit the fairway, a driver will likely leave you with a delicate half wedge into a shallow, undulating green with a pot bunker right in front. It's better to lay back and leave yourself a full wedge, giving yourself height and spin to hold this green. The green also has bunkers left and right, but the one in front is really the important one. 

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is a bit awkward, to say the least. It's a long par 4, playing 460 yards, but the fairway is cut off at 300 yards, and that's only if you utilize literally every available inch and play dangerously close to said native area right of the fairway. In reality, you'll be aiming at the fairway bunker in the center of the playing corridor; a solid 3 wood lay-up will leave about 200 yards into the green. The green is across a deep ravine and has two small bunkers left, with a third bunker about 20 yards short. That bunker's likely for those golfers who play too conservatively and need to run up a long second. Not sure how necessary that is, considering the presence of the severe downslope just a few feet away, but what can you do? At the end of the day this is just a really tough hole.

The twelfth hole.

Approaching the twelfth green.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is 555 yards and thankfully, unlike the previous hole, this fairway is very wide open. The ideal drive is over the corner of the gentle dogleg and the two fairway bunkers; do this and you should be close enough to at least potentially go for the green in two. However, there's a massive bunker left of the green and a slightly smaller cross bunker about 60 yards short, so if you're going to lay up, you'd be smart to do so fully. Leave a full wedge for the third. I only barely made it over that cross bunker on my second shot, if I'd been a little unlucky I would have had a very unpleasant bunker shot. The green is long, narrow, and fairly flat, so if you do get on in two, you'll have a decent chance at eagle.

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is 360 yards and plays significantly downhill to a fairway that bends left past a gate of bunkers about 100 yards from the green. The fairway is pinched pretty significantly by those bunkers, so the choice on the tee is either clear the bunkers – leaving an awkward half wedge for the second shot – or lay well back with a long iron. The green is very small and closely guarded by two large bunkers, so as tempting as it is to blast away with driver, the resulting 50- to 70-yard pitch is really quite difficult to get close. I know what I'm talking about, I used driver and then failed to get the pitch on the green. Walked away with a bogey after taking four shots to get down from 60 yards. This hole's tougher than it looks.

The fourteenth hole.

Approaching the fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is a pretty uncomplicated mid-length par 3. The tee shot is over a bunker to a fairly shallow green. It's not even a particularly interesting green. This hole's just sort of there, though at least there's plenty of room to bail out right, and getting up and down isn't particularly challenging.  

The fifteenth hole.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is 470 yards, making it the course's longest par 4 on paper. In reality, this hole plays very downhill, and when the course is as dry as it was for our round, that's a recipe for some very long drives. We played the hole from 430 yards and I had just over 100 yards left on my second shot. The fairway's mostly blind, but there's a ton of space and no bunkers at all. However, what the fairway does have is a noticeable left-to-right tilt, which is inconvenient as the green is best approached from the left. The ideal drive is a draw that hugs the left side. Now, this is all fine in theory, but there's a slight logistical problem that my brother and I noticed. The thirteenth tee is very close to the ideal line and landing area for this hole. Any sort of hook and you're landing your drive on someone's head. 

Anyway, if you've hit the fairway, you'll have a wedge or short iron into the green, which is fairly shallow and protected by a bunker right. Unless you've hugged the left side, you'll have to negotiate that bunker in some way. There's also a weird bit of rough protecting the middle-left section of green; I'm really not sure what that's accomplishing. This is decidedly not a perfect hole, but it is quite a fun one. Just be ready to yell if you miss left.

The sixteenth hole. You can just barely see the thirteenth tee below the pine trees in the middle left of the picture.

Approaching the sixteenth green.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is 220 yards but plays very, very downhill, mitigating quite a bit of that distance. It also plays through a section of dense forest, which feels quite claustrophobic after 16 holes of very wide-open fairways. While the green is absolutely not a Redan, the rest of the hole does bear a passing resemblance, with a deep bunker and steep dropoff left guarding an angled green. You also want to be careful flying a ball too far, as the green does run from front to back. It's also quite undulating, so even if you end up on, if you're on the wrong part you'll have a very tough two putt. I wish the trees weren't there, as they feel out of place, but I imagine the options were limited and this is otherwise a pretty good hole.

The seventeenth hole.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole is 525 yards and plays through a narrow chute of trees, but so long as you can keep your driver even remotely in check, the fairway opens up tremendously beyond the trees. There is an incredible amount of space to work with; technically there is a creek far left, but you'd have to hit the mother of all hooks to find that at any point while playing this hole. The fairway does an odd split about 300 yards out, giving the golfer two alternate routes. I'm not entirely sure why, there's literally nothing but rough in between the two fairways for 150 yards and it's not like the terrain is especially bumpy and not conducive to fairway. The green is angled from right to left, meaning it's best approached from the right. It's also by far the most well-bunkered green on the course, with four small bunkers bordering it and two larger ones about 20 yards short protecting it from long second shots. 

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

All in all, Worthington Manor was a very pleasant surprise. Of all the public golf courses in Frederick County, this is easily the second best, and maybe even first, depending on your opinion of P.B. Dye. It broadly presented a lot of strategic options and had pretty interesting greens. You could certainly lose golf balls, but in general the course was pretty wide open, and there was usually a good place to miss or bail out. There's nothing incredibly innovative and there aren't any holes I'd put anywhere close to my personal top 10, but most of the holes are solid and fun to play. There are a few exceptions: the sixth isn't great with the bunker in front, the twelfth is pretty awkward, and three of the first seven holes have essentially identical tee shots, but these flaws don't detract too much from the whole.  

Going beyond the golf itself, Worthington Manor is tough but doable for walkers. The land is fairly rugged, but less so than other Frederick-area courses like Whiskey Creek and Maryland National. You do have to make walks up hills to get to pretty much every tee, which is slightly annoying, but otherwise the routing works pretty well. No hole's too far from the previous one, and there are no long walks or awkward dangling holes. As for price, the course isn't cheap, but if you walk on a weekday afternoon, you can play for $50, which is honestly not too bad. For a course of this quality and in solid condition, $50 is about right. I'd happily play it again.