Ranking the Golf Courses I Reviewed In 2019

It's officially 2020, and what better way to wean off that New Year's hangover than with a big round-up of all the golf courses I reviewed in 2019!

I'll say this about 2019, the golf was occasionally awful, but at least the weather was mildly cooperative. Actually, for a little while in the fall it was downright dry. So it was never a struggle to get a year's worth of review material in, which was very nice. I was also able to get quite a variety of environments this time around, ranging from the marshes of southern Maryland to the boreal forests of the Adirondacks. Anyway, let's get to the list!

13. Cumberland Golf Club

This is about as dynamic as Cumberland gets.

I called it all the way back when I reviewed the course back in January. It would be tough for a course to be worse than Cumberland, and nothing else I played was up to the challenge. Not even close. It's flat, it's boring, and it's not worth your time or money.

The eighteenth is the one mildly interesting hole at Cumberland. It isn't worth the effort.

Find my review of Cumberland here and here.

12. The Woods - Mountain View

One of the more intimidating tee shots you'll ever face.

Sometimes a piece of land just isn't suited for golf. There is such a thing as too rugged, and I think the Mountain View course at the Woods crosses it. The course is completely unwalkable, holes are separated from each other by what often seems like miles, and to make matters worse, houses line almost every hole. The other things I could forgive, but when I play a golf course in the middle of nowhere, I want it to feel like it's in the middle of nowhere. Instead, it just felt like a mediocre housing course.

One of the few pictures I took where there were no houses in frame.

Find my review of the Woods here and here.

11. Range End

The fourth at Range End, quite possibly my least favorite hole of all time.

We go from ridiculously mountainous to nearly dead flat. Range End isn't a bad course, per se, but it is pretty boring. It's packed into a small property, so that means numerous parallel holes, and to top it off, the vast majority of the land is pancake flat. A talented architect could create some interest with cleverly placed bunkers or subtle earthwork, but Range End possesses neither of these attributes. This is about as generic as golf gets.

The twelfth at Range End, the one hole on the course with significant elevation change.

Find my review of Range End here and here.

10. Stamford Valley

The seventh hole is the best one at Stamford Valley.

The only 9 hole course I reviewed in 2019, Stamford Valley has some excellent scenery and a generally interesting set of greens going for it. The stretch from 6 to 8 is honestly pretty compelling golf. The rest of the course is fairly lackluster, if occasionally quirky. And $16 for 9 holes is a bit steep. It's better than most of the other 9 hole courses I've played, but I wouldn't take it over too many 18 hole courses.

There's quite a lot to take in on the eighth tee.

Find my review of Stamford Valley here.

9. Hickory Heights

The fifth green at Hickory Heights.

My experience at Hickory Heights can be summed up in two words: unexpected rain. More than a year on and I'm still annoyed about that. Anyway, the golf course is pretty basic, but it traverses some rolling terrain, which provides some reasonable interest. It's not quite as quirky as Westminster National, but it's not bad.

The sixteenth hole.

Find my review of Hickory Heights here and here.

8. Brigantine Golf Links

The third hole at Brigantine.

This definitely isn't a bad golf course, but it's completely flat and literally every hole is surrounded by houses. As a result, things start to look a little repetitive, especially in April when all the grass is brown. That said, there's some real strategic interest here despite the weaknesses, and the sixteenth is definitely on the short list for most entertaining green I've ever seen. It's worth seeing Brigantine just for that.

The ninth green, overlooking the ocean. Also note the tiny flags.

Have fun if you end up above the hole.

Find my review of Brigantine here and here.

7. Fore Sisters

The third hole at Fore Sisters. Sometimes the round feels more like a hike than golf.

The ninth hole.

Remember what I said about the Woods? How a golf course in the middle of nowhere should feel like it? Well, Fore Sisters does exactly that. It feels wild. There are no houses in view, just forest and mountains. The course is rugged, but it's not completely unwalkable (I wouldn't recommend it, but you can do it). Is it the most compelling course in the world? No, but the setting alone elevates it, and there's some definite quirk around. Plus how many courses have 700 yard holes?

Now that's a hole.

Looking back down the fourteenth. Yes, the 700 yard hole is uphill.

The sixteenth hole.

Find my review of Fore Sisters here and here.

6. Kingsbury National Golf Club

One of Kingsbury National's unique features is a double green, occupied by the first and eighth holes.

The approach on the ninth.

Kingsbury National is a perfectly nice golf course. A few decent holes,  a few parallel holes, nothing spectacular but nothing bad. A typical modern golf course, I'd call it. However, Kingsbury National has an ace in the hole. I'm not sure if it always plays so firm and fast, but it did when I was there, and that made it way more fun than it had any right too be. In softer conditions, this may drop a spot or two.

Golden hour can make any hole look great.

Find my review of Kingsbury National here and here.

5. Swan Point

The second at Swan Point is a rude awakening, but a good-looking one.

The Potomac River behind the sixth green.

Swan Point is not the sort of golf course I'd expect to enjoy. Lots of trees, lots of water, not particularly wide, it sounds pretty awful, to be honest. And yet, I did enjoy playing Swan Point. It's a beautiful spot, and there are some fun holes on the back nine. They're a little too tough for the beginner, I think, but as a sort of not completely terrible golfer, I appreciate the challenge now and again. The thrill of blasting a drive over the marshes to an unseen fairway is something I won't soon forget. Just bring a few extra golf balls.

The tenth hole, with the eleventh in the background.

Trouble surrounds the eleventh green.

The thirteenth concludes quite a scenic three-hole stretch.

Find my review of Swan Point here and here.

4. Glenn Dale Golf Club

The tough approach to the second.

The punchbowl-like sixth green.

The ninth hole requires two mighty blows.

Ah, Glenn Dale, a golf course gone too soon. That's right, we've got a dead course on the list, so unlike the other courses on this list, you'll just have to take my word that this course was pretty fun. Not earth shattering, but there were 18 solid holes with a decent set of greens, and it was a nice little slice of nature in suburban Washington, D.C that you could play for a very reasonable price. The golf world needs more Glenn Dales, not fewer.

The fifteenth hole.

The uphill approach to the last green.

Find my review of Glenn Dale here and here.

3. Orchard Creek Golf Club

Heading down to the first green.

The eighth green, sitting over Bozen Kill

The weather may have been disgustingly hot and I may have blown 7 shots in 4 holes to my brother who was suffering a fair amount of heat exhaustion, but that didn't stop me from appreciating a wonderfully minimalist modern golf course. There was plenty of strategy around, and playing corridors were almost always very wide open. The greens were fun, and the course was very walkable, not to mention affordable. Just bring lots of water with you if it's hot.

The fourteenth is only 270 yards, but it's got many possibilities.

The fifteenth is a 250 yard brute.

Find my review of Orchard Creek here and here.

2. Lake Placid Club - Links

The second hole at Lake Placid, with some impressive mountains in the background.

The sixth green, long, undulating, and dangerous.

The Links course at Lake Placid is, of course, not a real links. It wasn't even particularly firm and fast. But what it does have is a resolutely old-school style. Granted, I haven't seen a whole lot of golf courses (just shy of 100), but I have never seen bunkering like the Links course had. Long, thin ribbons of sand, stretching for dozens and dozens of yards. The course has apparently undergone a recent restoration, and I would just like to commend whoever was responsible for actually restoring the features of the course to the way they would have looked when Lake Placid was built over a century ago. The Links is a tough course, long and often punishing. But it's never overly penal, if you're careful, you can work your way around just fine. Plus there's the little matter of the scenery. The pictures don't do it justice.

The eleventh hole.

It's tough to beat Lake Placid on a July evening.

Find my review of Lake Placid here and here.

1. Copake Country Club

The second green at Copake presents quite a challenge.

I thought the difference between Shennecossett and Keney Park last year was small. Both are excellent golf courses, but I was always a bigger fan of Shennecossett. This year, the difference between Lake Placid and Copake was so small that I initially favored Lake Placid over Copake. Lake Placid is such a beautiful course, of course it was best. How could it not be?

The sixth, one of three sub-300 yard par 4s at Copake.

This isn't just a beauty contest though, and while Lake Placid has plenty of style and substance to go with the scenery, I think Copake is a more compelling golf course. The greens at Lake Placid were often not the most interesting in the world, while Copake presented quite possibly the most compelling set of greens I've ever played. Copake is not a course that can be bludgeoned into submission, it's all about the second shot and the short game there. As such, it varies immensely from Lake Placid, which can be a bit of a brute tee to green.

The eleventh green.

The thirteenth hole, down in a valley.

Let's put it like this: If you gave me one round and a choice between Lake Placid and Copake, I'd go with Lake Placid. But if you gave me ten rounds, I'd probably split it seven/three in favor of Copake. Lake Placid is an excellent getaway course with plenty of charm, but Copake, in my opinion, is just more fun. I would rather play Copake every day than Lake Placid, and that's why I'm putting it at the top for 2019.

It may not be the Adirondacks, but Lake Copake isn't a bad substitute.

Find my review of Copake here and here.

Well, that's 2019 done and dusted. It's been an adventure. I've got a backlog of courses all the way to April this time around, so once again, expect reviews once a month in 2020. Stay tuned!

Review: Cumberland Golf Club (Part 2)

It's time for the back nine at Cumberland Golf Club, here's the front if you haven't seen it.

The tenth hole is a par 5, just like the first, and it plays parallel to the first. So the general strategy is pretty much the same, get your drive to the plateau and have a full view of the green. The hole is just over 500 yards, so it's definitely reachable in two. All I can say is the hole is a bit narrower than the first, so accuracy is a bit more important off the tee. Otherwise, pretty much everything I said about the first applies here.

The tenth hole.

A good place to hit your second shot from. Note: this isn't where I hit my second shot from.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is a reasonably nice looking par 3, playing 200 yards slightly downhill to a small green guarded by bunkers on each side. It would be better if that wasn't the same basic description as all the par 3s.

The eleventh hole.

A slightly closer look at the eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is the final par 5 at Cumberland. It's 515 yards, and pretty much the most interesting thing about this hole is that it doglegs. Several holes on the back nine do have doglegs, which elevates it ever so slightly above the front nine. Otherwise, it's another flat hole devoid of much trouble. There's O.B. left, but you'd have to hit a hook of monumental proportions to reach it.

The twelfth hole.

Might as well go for the twelfth in two if you can.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is the final par 3 at Cumberland. It plays exactly the same as the rest, and is the exact same length. The most interesting thing here is that this hole ends a 4-hole stretch where there are no par 4s. The par sequence of the back nine is 5-3-5-3-4-4-4-4-4, which is unusual. But if that's what fit, then that's what fit.

The thirteenth hole.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is just under 370 yards, and while the fairway does dogleg slightly, you can very easily play at the green. A very simple hole, though the green does have a fairly noticeable tilt from back to front, so putts from above the hole can be a little fast.

The fourteenth hole.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is just under 400 yards. The hole doglegs left when it hits a property line, so if you're an especially long hitter, you might want to use a 3 wood. There's a dropoff behind the green, so going long is not recommended.

The fifteenth hole.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is, at 310 yards, the shortest par 4 at Cumberland, especially seeing as the tees were moved up. The green is reachable, but you do have a few trees threatening shots that are pulled or hit a little too low. A lay-up and a full wedge work about as well if you're not confident with the driver.

The sixteenth hole.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is one of the better holes at Cumberland simply because it's long and has some elevation change. The drive is fairly straightforward, though a hook will land you in an unseen pond behind the trees. The second shot is to a green elevated significantly on top of a plateau. The green is a bit bigger than some of the others at Cumberland, but it's still not a huge target, so you had better be precise with your mid to long irons if you want to hit this green in regulation.

The seventeenth from the tee.

The elevated seventeenth green.

Looking back down 17.

The eighteenth hole is a bit shorter than the previous hole, but at 445 yards, it's still pretty long. It's also by far the most interesting hole at Cumberland. The pond left definitely comes into play, but bailing out right is also a poor idea, as a cluster of trees will stymie any drive hit over there. The best play is a fade aimed at the pond and brought back along the right-to-left sloping fairway. The second shot, of course, is business as usual, though the green is guarded by two bunkers on each side, rather than just one. Still, it's nice to end on a somewhat positive note.

The eighteenth hole.

The eighteenth green.

This was a very boring round.

Cumberland Golf Club is never going to win any awards for being a good golf course. It's actually pretty bad, though I'm willing to let the terrible fairway conditions slide, considering the record rainfall we got in 2018. I pretty much only did a full review because I took more than 100 pictures of the place, and I didn't want that work completely going to waste. In fact, I'm going to say, with a reasonable amount of certainty, that when I do my 2019 round-up of all the courses I've reviewed, Cumberland will be at the very bottom. Sure, this is the first review of 2019, but I would have to work quite hard to find a course worse than this.

Does Cumberland have anything going for it? Well, it wasn't very busy, but it was a weekday and quite dreary when I played. I can't vouch for what it would be like on the weekend. It was only $20, which isn't a steal but it isn't bad. An appropriate amount of money for what you get, I think. But the area south of Harrisburg is littered with inexpensive public courses, you can do much better than Cumberland for not a whole lot more money.

Bottom line, Cumberland Golf Club really isn't worth your time. The only reason I'm not completely against the course is because I played well there, and frankly, that's not a good reason. If you're looking for a cheap round in Carlisle, look elsewhere.