Review: Dauphin Highlands Golf Club (Part 1)

The state of public golf in the Carlisle-Mechanicsburg-Harrisburg corridor of central Pennsylvania is less than stellar. Sure, Royal Manchester is pretty good, but that's much closer to York than Harrisburg. Beyond that, we've got some real winners: Cumberland Golf Club (boring), Rich Valley (boring), Carlisle Barracks (boring), and Eagles Crossing (not boring, but boy is it silly). And no, I'm not counting Hershey Country Club as a public course like Golfweek does. I am not spending $300 a night to stay at a participating hotel just for the opportunity to maybe play Hershey Country Club.

Point is, Dauphin Highlands – located just south of Harrisburg – is a welcome change of pace in a mediocre public golf region. According to both my brothers, who played the course multiple times during their junior golf days, the course is, at the very least, better than average. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I'll take better than average, especially when it comes to a new course in an area I've played a lot of golf in. 

*Note: Dauphin Highlands is over 7,100 yards from all the way back. Since I'm confident very few people are using those tees, we're going to use the next set up, which is a more reasonable 6,800 yards.

The first hole is 400 yards, with the tee shot dropping 20 or 30 feet to a very wide playing corridor. The direct line between the green and tee is guarded by a large fairway bunker, though I think long hitters can clear it. That will leave just a little wedge into the green. If you don't have the length, you'll have to go around, meaning the second shot will be 50 yards longer. The green is medium sized and pretty undulating, and it's protected by three bunkers. Not a difficult hole, especially considering how wide open the fairway is, but it's not a pushover either.

The first hole.

Approaching the first green.

The first green.

The second hole is just 290 yards, and while it does play uphill, it's still definitely reachable from the tee. However, to do that you'll have to completely clear a large cluster of bunkers or settle for aiming at the very left portion of the green. Now, that's great if the flag is cut left, but this green is very wide and has a massive tier running through the middle. Good luck getting a putt from the left side close to the hole if it's over on the right. Honestly, there are quite a few circumstances where you won't be able to go directly at the hole at all. Of course, you can also lay up and that's certainly a way to play this hole, but come on, that's no fun. The green's so close, it's so difficult to resist. It lures you into making an unwise play and leaving yourself a very difficult and awkward bunker shot. You can make anything from birdie to quadruple bogey from those bunkers, and that really does make the hole interesting. 

The second hole.

The second green.

The third hole is decidedly less interesting than the previous hole. It's fairly long at 425 yards, but it plays downhill the whole way, especially on the tee shot, which mitigates quite a bit of that distance. Also, the fairway's very wide and completely hazardless, unless you manage to hit the biggest hook of all time. A good drive will leave you as little as a wedge into the green, which is also bunkerless. At least the green has some undulation to it, otherwise this hole would really have nothing going for it.

The third hole.

Approaching the third green.

The third green.

The fourth hole features the largest bunker in human history. Well, probably not, but it is seriously enormous, stretching from the back edge of the green all the way to the front tee. Well over 100 yards of sprawling sand. I'm not entirely sure why, but it is quite memorable, which I suppose is a good enough reason. The green is angled about 45 degrees left to right on the other side of the bunker and is filled with plenty of small but noticeable undulations.

The fourth hole.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is slightly over 500 yards, and while there's a lot of room to play with, if you want to hit driver you'll need to squeeze the ball between marsh left and a bunker jutting in from the right. It's definitely not a tight squeeze, but after going through 1 and 3, it does feel narrower than it actually is. About 125-150 yards from the green, the fairway splits, with the two halves separated by rough and sand. The green is somewhat of a boomerang, with a large bunker digging into the middle of the green. I think it's pretty clear that you're supposed to approach this hole differently depending if the flag is on the right or left side of the green. If it's left, you should hug the marsh and tree line left of the green to set up the best third. If it's right, challenge the bunkers right of the driving zone and near the green.

In practice however, no golfer's going to willingly lay up near marsh and trees when the hole is very wide open right of the green. Sure, the third shot won't be easy if the flag is left, but you can still get a pitch from the right side within 20 feet. Easy par, potential birdie, with very little risk. There's just no reason to ever be left on this hole. The risk's not worth the reward.

The fifth hole.

Approaching the fifth green.

The fifth green.

The sixth hole is 370 yards, and this is the first time in the round where you can't almost literally hit the ball anywhere, which makes the drive in particular feel more claustrophobic than it actually is. If you hit a long iron, you have plenty of space to work with in between the marsh left and trees right. The fairway does tighten up significantly beyond the 250-yard point, so if you want the best view and angle into the green, you'll need to risk going in the water. The green is angled from right to left and is closely guarded by a pond left and a bunker right.

The sixth hole.

Approaching the sixth green.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is a pretty long par 5 at 560 yards, especially as it also plays uphill. The big feature of the hole are the pair of trees about 300-350 yards out from the tee covering the corner of the dogleg. If you want a decent shot at the green with your second (or even if you want to set up a short third), you do not want to be on the left side of the fairway. You can technically hit a high fade around those two big trees and over a group of shorter trees further left, but that's not a shot most golfers can pull off consistently, especially not with a long iron or fairway wood. Play to the outside of the dogleg, and you'll have a much easier time, though you will have to negotiate two bunkers in the lay-up zone, and the green is pretty shallow from that angle (and also has three bunkers in front). Unlike the fifth, this par 5 almost certainly gives up relatively few birdies. It's not an easy hole.

The seventh hole.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is the longest of the par 3s at Dauphin Highlands, playing just over 220 yards. It's slightly downhill, but not by much. The green is benched into a hillside; shots that end up in the patch of fairway short will likely roll quite a ways down toward the bottom of the valley. It's also a pretty shallow green, with a bunker short left and one long, as well as a significant falloff into trees left. Miss right, and you'll bounce toward the green. Miss left ... well, you're going to be in some trouble.

The eighth hole.

The ninth hole is a sprawling 430-yard par 4 with five fairway bunkers in play on the tee shot, including one interior fairway bunker in the left middle portion of the fairway. Challenging the three bunkers left and the interior fairway bunker will get you the best angle into the green. (Although not necessarily the hole, as I discovered. Did everything right on the tee, still had to go for the middle of the green. Tragic, I know.) The right side is more open if you're looking to avoid sand, as long as you don't miss too far right (there's a big falloff and a line of trees about 20 yards right of the fairway), but you'll have a tougher angle over a bunker with less green to work with. 

The ninth hole.

The ninth green. The green is very accessible from the left side, but that left hole location? Not so much.

That's it for this week, next week we'll check out the back nine.