Review: The Fairways of Halfmoon (Part 1)

I'm always a bit dubious of courses with the naming scheme "the X of Y," though admittedly "the Fairways" is less egregious than "the Links." A course hundreds of miles from the ocean will have very little in common with true links courses, but a course named "the Fairways of Halfmoon" is probably going to have fairways. 

It does. 

And that's about all I knew going into the round, other then that the course – located in Halfmoon, New York, a bit northeast of Albany – was okay, with a few quirky holes. Also, I was advised that walking would be a mistake, but since my youngest brother insisted on walking, I decided to see just how tough a walk the course would be. 

The first hole is, by a hefty margin, the longest hole at Halfmoon, playing 560 yards. Make that even longer for our round, since it was playing pretty much straight into a pretty strong wind, and the course was very wet. A downpour about 2 hours before our round made extra sure of that. Anyway, the hole quickly turns hard left after escaping through a wide chute of trees, so you definitely want to hit a draw. Slicing a drive adds distance, and this hole is long enough. The second shot is very wide open, but there is a pond lurking right of the green. Not a big concern if you're approaching the green from 100 yards away, but the long hitters who can reach this hole in two will need to be wary of it.

The first hole.

Approaching the first green.

The first green.

The second hole is a pretty quiet mid-length par 4, as it has almost literally no hazards in play. The only thing to watch out for are mounds left of the fairway and a big tree directly in line between the green and the tee. Hitting a fade around that tree works very well and should give you just a wedge into the green. This green is pretty large, and while the greens at Halfmoon aren't flat, they're not filled with big, exciting undulations. There's break and slopes, but they're subtle. Still, this is definitely not a difficult hole.

The second hole.

The second green.

The third hole is just 330 yards and plays downhill; while technically it could be driven, that is very much not the smart thing to do. The green is carved into the side of a hill, with a steep falloff into brush and trees just right. The best play is an iron into the admittedly narrow fairway, leaving a wedge up and over an oddly placed tree (it is right in the way, so you really want to avoid the left side if you can) to the green, which is quite long and very narrow.

The third hole.

Approaching the third green.

The third green.

The fourth hole is not a long hole at just 345 yards, but what it lacks in distance it makes up for in narrowness. There is very little room between the dense forest left and dense forest right. 30, 35 yards. Accuracy is king here, though if you can get to the top of the little ridge in the fairway, that will give you a full look at the green. If you have to miss, a miss left is much more likely to bounce you back down into play thanks to the sideslope. Right is completely and thoroughly dead. Find the fairway, and the second shot is pretty straightforward; the green isn't complicated and there's no hazards around it.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is 160 yards and plays around the shoulder of a hill to a partially blind, fairly shallow green. The elevation change in the green isn't dramatic, but it is quite noticeable, and the back left portion is distinctly higher than the rest of the green. Long is a very, very bad place to miss.

The fifth hole.

The sixth hole is 370 yards, but it effectively plays longer, as you can only really use a long iron on this tee. The hole bends nearly 90 degrees right about 200-225 yards out, so a solid lay-up to the middle of the fairway will leave you about 150 yards. A solid short iron, or even more if you don't hug the right tree line. Fortunately, the green, which is long and narrow, has no bunkers or hazards around it, so it's a fairly inviting target. And yet, my brothers and I all doubled this hole, because we all fumbled the tee shot in various ways. Golf is weird sometimes.

The sixth hole.

Approaching the sixth green.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is every golfer's dream: A 440-yard par 5. And that makes it pretty easy, as there's a ton of room to play with left. No need to mess with the tree line and bunker right. Sure, that lengthens the hole and makes the second much less inviting, but at the end of the day, it's still a mid iron second shot into a par 5. Of course, you still have the option of taking the ideal line down the more-dangerous right side. Doing this gives you a better angle into the green, which is protected by a pond short and left as well as two small bunkers short left. I actually like that this hole is a par 5, instead of the par 4 most courses would present. The written par doesn't make a difference in what the golfer actually makes, but because the scorecard says a par 5, it flatters the higher-handicap golfers. And I can't say that's a terrible decision for a public golf course to make.

The seventh hole.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole isn't technically a long par 3, as it's just 160 yards, but it plays steeply uphill, so you'll need to add at least a couple clubs to whatever you'd normally hit. There's a single bunker a bit short of the green that can catch anyone who doesn't use enough club on the tee; go in that bunker, and you'll have a nasty 30-yard bunker shot, one of the hardest shots in golf. The green is tilted fairly significantly from back to front, so the golf ball will stop, even though it'll be coming in at a lower than normal angle.

The eighth hole.

The ninth hole is a pretty uncomplicated short par 5 at just under 500 yards. There's very little to worry about on the drive beyond a few trees, and with just one bunker protecting the green, you've got a green light to go for the green in two, even if your drive isn't optimal. The green isn't what I'd call easy, but this is still an excellent opportunity for a birdie.

The ninth hole. Fun fact, the tees pointing off to the right in the middle of the picture belong to the eleventh. For some reason, the back tees for that hole were placed directly in the line of fire for this hole. They do not belong there. We played from the next tees up on 11.

Approaching the ninth green.

The ninth green.

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