Review: Albany Country Club (Part 1)

After the absolute majesty of the Links at Gettysburg, I think we all could use a palette cleanser. And so, welcome to Albany Country Club, a private course not quite in Albany, New York. Not only does it possess solid, interesting design, it provides a useful parallel to the Links at Gettysburg. Namely, Albany CC showcases how the architect can make a golf course difficult without needlessly punishing higher-handicap golfers.

While the club itself dates all the way back to 1890, the current Albany CC golf course was built in the early 1960s by one of golf's most famous architects, Robert Trent Jones. I'm not entirely sure what happened to the original course, but it was presumably a victim of postwar suburban expansion; the club sold off the expensive land and bought much cheaper land further out from the city. A classic story. I also can't speak to the quality of the original, though presumably since I haven't read anything about it, I can pretty safely say the new course is at worst, not a downgrade. 

Now, I've only played one RTJ course before this, and I feel like Cacapon doesn't fully capture the RTJ experience, as it's a very public and decidedly worn-out golf course. Still solid, with a great routing, but not at its peak. Albany CC is almost certainly much more faithful to the original design and to the classic RTJ tenet of "hard par, easy bogey," even with Albany have gone through one of the wettest summers on record and the course playing very, very soft. 

The first hole may actually be my favorite hole on the course. At 390 yards, it's not particularly long, but the thing is, at about 250 yards out the fairway drops precipitously down toward the green. You're left with a couple options. You can obviously lay back at the top of the hill, leaving you a downhill wedge shot, but there's a couple bunkers squeezing the fairway right at that point, so a lay-up is bringing them into play. You can of course hit driver, flirting with trees right, but then you're risking a dramatically downhill stance for the second shot, and that's not something you want coming into the green, which is quite small, guarded by four bunkers, and significantly undulating. A ridge running perpendicular about halfway through the green is especially troublesome; it is extremely difficult to judge a putt when the flag's on one side of this ridge, and you're on the other. I like this hole because there's no distinctly correct way to play it. Laying back has advantages and disadvantages, and hitting driver also comes with advantages and drawbacks. 

The first hole.

Approaching the first green.

The first green. That's me on the back of the green, facing an extremely dicey putt.

The second hole is 410 yards and doglegs slightly left around a bunker. The fairway is sloped fairly significantly from right to left, and that awkward stance notably complicates the second shot, especially if you've aimed away from the fairway bunker. The green is partially blind and surrounded by three bunkers digging in from all sides. Also, there's a tier running through the middle of the green. All in all, that adds up to a not particularly complicated hole, but one where it's difficult to really get the ball close to the hole for a decent birdie chance.

The second hole.

Approaching the second green.

The second green.

The third hole is 530 yards with a completely blind tee shot. Fortunately, while the playing corridor isn't dramatically wide, with trees on both sides, there are no bunkers in play. Just a fairway canted from right to left, similar to the previous hole. The second shot here is quite interesting, and successfully uses a tree as an interesting hazard, which you don't see too often. About 100 yards out, the fairway squeezes between a fairway bunker left and an overhanging tree right. If you find the left side of the fairway, you're relatively fine, but if you're out to the right, the sideslope of the fairway makes it tricky to get past the tree, or lay up in the ideal 100-yard spot. To get past, you'll have to hit a fade from a stance that encourages a draw. If you can't, you'll want to lay up short of the bunker, leaving a long third. This is not ideal either, as the green is fairly small, heavily undulating, and protected by four bunkers. Of course, people going for the green in two have to negotiate all that as well, an even tougher task from 250 yards out. Despite not having much space and requiring a pretty accurate tee shot, I think this is a good hole.

The third hole. Not much to see on the tee shot.

Approaching the third green.

The third green.

The fourth hole is about 400 yards and plays over pretty level terrain. The fairway is narrowed in the landing area by two bunkers right of the fairway; long hitters can definitely cut the corner, clearing the bunkers and leaving just a short wedge into the green. The rest of us have to either squeeze a driver between the bunkers and the tree line left, or lay up to the wider portion of the fairway. The green is well-bunkered, fairly large, and pretty undulating, with a deceiving amount of right-to-left tilt. Putts from above the hole are extremely quick.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is the first in a set of demanding par 3s at Albany CC. The hole is 170 yards, so not incredibly long, but it plays 50 feet uphill to a semiblind green. And don't think it's a forgiving green either, because it's narrow, only 15-20 yards in width. The green slopes from right to left, making the miss right particularly punishing. You are just not stopping a chip from right of the green close to the hole, and that means you're probably not getting up and down. Of course, the hole drops away left, so you don't really want to go left either. That left bunker is almost a kindness rather than a hazard, as it prevents golf balls from bouncing too far from the green.

The fifth hole.

The fifth green.

The sixth hole is a mid-length par 4 (not a huge amount of variation in par 4 length on the front nine) with a tee shot that plays slightly downhill. You can challenge the bunker and trees in the corner of the dogleg to give yourself a shorter second and a better angle into the green. Bailing out right means you'll have less green to work with, plus you'll have to clear two greenside bunkers. The green is fairly long and narrow, and filled with the usual Albany CC contours the golfer's become accustomed to.

The sixth hole.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is 380 yards and plays straightaway to a fairway at the top of a small ridge. There are fall-offs on both sides of the fairway, though if you must miss this fairway, you definitely want to miss left. Not only are there fairway bunkers pinching in right, there's also a greenside bunker right and the green itself is not angled or sloped in such a way to welcome approach shots from the right. The green is quite large but very undulating; use the right slopes and you can get approach shots that land in one place and roll 30, 40 feet away. It's a fun green, but unfortunately the hole location we saw for our round was a little too unfriendly. It was essentially impossible to keep a putt from above the hole within 5-10 feet of the hole. It wouldn't have taken much to make the hole location fine, just moving the flag a few feet would have made all the difference in the world.

The seventh hole.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is the longest hole on the course, playing 580 yards. There's not much trouble on the tee shot beyond a few trees and a small, slightly silly-looking bunker that's not really in play and almost invisible when you're teeing off. The fairway rises up to about 350 yards out then slowly drops down, so the second shot will be blind. The second is complicated by a pond that cuts into the fairway about 50 yards out from the green. You need to be sure to lay back far enough that you're not bringing the pond into play on the second. There is not much fairway between the pond and the trees left. The lay-up is complicated slightly by the fact that the second shot is blind and you don't know exactly where the water is. The green is on a small peninsula jutting out into the pond and angled about 45 degrees from the fairway. You definitely want to hug the left tree line on the second shot; if you're out to the right you'll need to go over the water directly rather than skirting along the side. I remain unconvinced of the merits of blind water hazards, but at least on this hole you could lay up short of it easily enough and not hurt your chances of making birdie or par.

The eighth hole.

Approaching the eighth green.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is up with the first in contending for best hole on the course. It's the shortest hole on the course at 166 yards, but it plays uphill to a small, narrow green that's very well guarded by three bunkers. The two on the left are very deep. But as with most of the greens on this course, simply getting onto the green isn't enough, as there's three distinct tiers, and if you end up on the wrong one, you're going to have a difficult putt. If you can control your distance correctly, though, you'll be rewarded with a short, relatively simple birdie putt. 

The ninth hole.

The ninth green.

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