Review: Heritage Hills Golf Resort (Part 2)

We're back for the back nine at Heritage Hills, go here to see the front nine.

The tenth hole is a short 350 yard par 4. Since this hole is next to the first, the drive is pretty similar, with the drive going up over a hill, then back down to the green. The drive is best hit down the left side, as the green is guarded by a bunker to the right. But there is a bunker to the left of the fairway, so you'll want to watch out for that. But it's a big green, so there's plenty of room to bail out if you're not in prime position.

The tenth hole.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is basically the same as the second hole. It's a par 5, the tee shot is blind and uphill, and the hole is narrow and dead straight. This is 550 yards though, so it's noticeably longer, and it's actually the longest hole at Heritage Hills. The green also isn't very big and there's no O.B. in play. I'm not sure why they put two almost-identical par 5s in similar positions on each nine, but that's the decision that was made.

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is just under 200 yards, and it's a par 3 template you see a lot of. The tee and green are on high ground, and there's a valley in between. So ending up short, especially on the fairway, will result in a tough pitch. The green is quite large, but there's a lot of undulation, so if you do hit it in regulation but you aren't close, two putting will be tricky.

The twelfth hole.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is a mid-length par 4 at 380 yards, but it plays downhill the whole way, so you can hit some pretty long drives here. There's also a bit of breathing room, which is nice. You shouldn't need more than a wedge, if that, on the second shot. This is an excellent birdie opportunity.

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is somehow not the narrowest hole at Heritage Hills, but that's only because it's got some stiff competition. The fairway is tiny, and that one tree to the right is so close in, it's hard to not think about it. And you can't go too far left either, or you'll be blocked out on the second by another cluster of very tall trees. The green has two bunkers in front, and there's a dropoff into nothingness past, so going long is not recommended.

The fourteenth hole.

Approaching the fourteenth green.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is the final par 3 at Heritage Hills, and it's just over 200 yards. It's a lot like the twelfth, playing from high ground to high ground over a valley. But the green is also sloped pretty severely from back to front, and that tree halfway between the green and tee is definitely something to worry about. I imagine it's even more in the way when the hole is on the left side of the green.

The fifteenth hole.

The sixteenth hole is a fairly short par 4, measuring just under 360 yards. At least, that's what it looks like from above. When you get to the tee, it's something else entirely. For one, it plays ridiculously downhill. So much so that I'm pretty sure you could drive the green if you took a direct line. But that's not all. The sixteenth is also incredibly narrow, with a stream and jungle right and O.B. left. And you have to use a fairly long club or you won't reach the fairway at all. The second shot, once you've descended, isn't so bad, but the drive is just goofy.

The sixteenth hole is ... something else.

Approaching the sixteenth green.

Looking back down the sixteenth hole.

The seventeenth hole is supposedly 430 yards from the back, but I have no idea where that tee was, since there really didn't seem to be room for another tee. From the whites, the hole is a much more mild 345. There's water left and a stream that cuts across the fairway, so a lay-up is in order. From there, it's a wedge to a big green protected by a marshy area long, a bunker short, and a stream right. It sounds tough, but it isn't terrible. Also, there's a statue behind the green, don't ask what it is or who it's of, I didn't look.

The seventeenth hole.

I'm not sure what the statue behind the green is.

The seventeenth hole.

The eighteenth hole is an outstanding example of one of the things I hate about most modern golf courses: The absurdly difficult and water-filled long par 4 finisher. It's 470 from the back, and even from the white tees, it's 455. The whole course is only 6,200 yards from the white tees. I suspect that most people just play it as a par 5, because that's effectively what it is. Not only is there water left of the fairway, there's water in front of the green, so if you don't hit a solid drive, you're pretty much stuck laying up. They could so easily fix things by changing the par, but then you'd have a 470 yard par 5 and that's just silly. However, unlike some other courses I've reviewed where the course was slightly ruined by bad finishing holes, Heritage Hills wasn't good before this hole, so the experience was tainted less.

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the final green.

The eighteenth green.

One thing kept Heritage Hills from being as colossally stupid as my brother indicated: The greens weren't fast. Actually, I quite liked the pace of the greens, they weren't that slow, but they were slow enough that I was comfortable being aggressive with my putts. Otherwise, yeah, this wasn't a particularly good course. Most of the holes were okay but not very memorable or interesting, and there were some really narrow holes thrown in which are just kind of dumb. And of course the ninth and eighteenth holes are just terrible because they throw copious amounts of water at you.

The problem with Heritage Hills that there's just not enough space on the property for 18 holes. At least, not a "championship" 18. A quirky and funky 6,000 yard course could have worked, the property has plenty of movement, but since this is a resort, they went for something more serious, and it just didn't really work. This course isn't cheap either, so I can't say I'd ever recommend it. I haven't played much in York itself, but I'm confident saying that there's almost certainly better options than Heritage Hills.

Review: Heritage Hills Golf Resort (Part 1)

When I go to a new course for one of these review, I usually hope for the best. I hope the course will provide interesting design so that I'll have something to really dig into. More rarely, I hope that a course, if I can tell beforehand that it won't be the pinnacle of golf course architecture, will be offbeat and quirky, so that at the very least I'll have something to laugh at. The "so bad it's good" golf course, like Westminster National. I think, however, that my round at Heritage Hills Golf Resort, located in York, Pennsylvania, was the first time I was hoping for a golf course to be terrible.

I should explain: Years ago my younger brother played in the Pennsylvania state high school golf championship at Heritage Hills, and he hated the course. Hated it. I've heard multiple rants about how stupid and how difficult the course was, and after a while, my other brother and I developed a certain curiosity about it. How bad could Heritage Hills possibly be? Well, after a couple years of batting the idea around, I decided we should do something about it. So here we are, Heritage Hills. This should be an interesting review.

The first hole is a fairly long par 4 at 430 yards. The tee shot is blind and you definitely don't want to miss left. There's a bunker and O.B. to that side. The second shot is back down the hill to a wide and shallow green protected by two bunkers. Not a particularly exciting opening hole, but nothing terrible either.

Not much to see on the first tee.

Approaching the first green.

The first green.

The second hole is a par 5, but it's less than 500 yards so it's definitely reachable. Much like the first hole, the tee shot is blind. There's O.B. to the left, but other than that and some trees, there's no trouble on the drive. This isn't a wide fairway though, so you can't exactly swing freely. If you lay up, there's nothing to worry about, but there are bunkers left and right of the green. The green is pretty big, but it's got some decent slope to it, just like most of the greens at Heritage Hills. Once again, nothing particularly good, but nothing terrible.

Another blind tee shot on 2.

Approaching the second green.

The second green.

The third hole is another fairly long par 4, about 10 yards longer than the first hole. There's plenty of room out to the right to miss, and there's O.B., a very tall tree, and bunkers left of the fairway. Guess what side I decided to miss the fairway. Go ahead, guess. Anyway, provided you don't miss left like an idiot, the second shot is slightly uphill to a big green guarded by two bunkers with quite a bit of back to front slope, especially in the first half of the green.

The third hole.

The third green.

The fourth hole is a short par 4 at 325 yards, which is definitely not long but not really driveable. In fact, a good drive would end up in a bunker in front of the green, so laying up with a wood or long iron is definitely the way to go on this hole. Just avoid the big fairway bunker left of the fairway, it can easily cost you multiple shots. And for once, I'm not speaking from personal experience, I was merely an eyewitness. The green isn't large and you do have to carry it the whole way, so the second shot isn't easy, but still, this isn't a tough hole.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is where things start to get weird. Though this hole isn't too bad. It's a 170 yard par 3, but the green is way below the tee, so you don't need much more than a wedge to get there. There are no bunkers, but there's a small native area past the green that you don't want to end up in. And that's easy to do since the hole plays so short. The green itself is pretty undulating, with some severe slope from back to front, so staying below the hole is advisable.

The fifth hole.

The fifth green has plenty of slope.

The sixth hole is quite possibly the narrowest hole I've ever seen. Between the trees and steep dropoff left and the big hill right, there's maybe 20 yards of roughly level ground for a ribbon of fairway. But the hole is just over 300 yards, so if you think you can hit your driver in a straight line, you can go for the green. If you're not so confident, the hole is a simple long iron and wedge.

The exceedingly narrow sixth hole.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is 510 yards, uphill basically the whole way. I'm not sure what the architect had against par 5s, but all three have blind tee shots. At least this one isn't dead straight through a chute of trees. There is O.B. left, but otherwise the fairway is pretty wide. A good drive will take the fairway bunkers right of the fairway out of play, as they're too far away to reach from the tee, but far away enough from the green that a lay-up won't go in them. The green is pretty typical for Heritage Hills, medium sized, two bunkers.

The seventh hole.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole isn't so bad when you use anything other than the back tee, but if you are, have fun. From there, the tee shot to this par 3 is blind as there are trees directly between you and the green. And its nearly 240 yards long. We weren't playing the back tees, but even if we were, I think I'd have chosen not to use them here. From the other tees, this is a fairly standard par 3.

The eighth hole.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is not as narrow as the sixth, but that's not much comfort. This hole is 420 yards, so you really do need to hit driver, and there's water right and O.B. very close to the fairway left. There's maybe 30 yards of room, and that's just not very much. That pond continues up to the green, and there's a bunker left as well. The green is large, but this is an extremely tough and not very good hole. And since we started on the back, it's a brutal finishing hole.

The ninth hole.

Some nice branding behind the ninth green.

Looking back at the ninth hole.

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

Review: Royal Manchester Golf Links (Part 2)

It's time for the back nine at Royal Manchester, here's the front if you haven't seen it yet.

The tenth hole is another medium-length par 4, and it presents the player with the classic strategic dilemma. The closer you get to the fairway bunker on the right, the better angle you'll have to attack the green, which is guarded by a bunker to the left. Do it right and you'll have a good chance at a birdie. All in all, a very solid hole, if not a particularly revolutionary one.

The tenth hole.

This is a good place to approach the tenth green.

The eleventh hole is a medium-length par 3 playing over a shallow valley to a green defended on three sides by bunkers. If you can be below the hole, that is a big advantage, this green slopes pretty sharply from back to front.

The eleventh hole.

The twelfth hole is, if you're playing the blue/white tees, the longest hole on the golf course at 540 yards. If you're going to miss this fairway, miss it right, the mounding is very significant and the grass is cut short enough that golf balls are pretty findable. Thick jungle runs the entire way down the left side of the hole. If you're going for the green in two, a fade is going to be the better shot, and lay-ups are best hit from the left side of the fairway. The green is best approached from the left side.

The twelfth hole.

Don't go too far left on the second.

Approaching the twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is the shortest par 4 at Royal Manchester at 350 yards. It's also the most well-bunkered hole here, with sand running down the right third of the hole up to the green. Those bunkers gradually eat away at the fairway, so the further you hit your drive, the less space you'll have to work with. You can lay back behind the sand, but you'll have a longer second shot than you'd probably want to have on such a short hole.

The thirteenth hole. Lots of sand to the right.

The thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green, with the eleventh in the background.

The fourteenth hole is a medium-length par 4 that doglegs pretty sharply to the left around a big fairway bunker. This is a narrow hole, so using a 3 wood or long iron is probably a good idea. The green is big and multitiered, and when the hole is on the back tier like it was when we played there, it's very difficult to get an approach all the way back, considering the proximity of both the tall fescue and thick forest beyond the green.

The rightmost stack is a pretty good place to aim your drive on 14.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is a medium-length par 3 to a green with small bunkers in front and behind. As you can see from the picture, there are a fair number of trees around the green, and while they don't come into play, it's a noticeably different aesthetic at work here. This is the only hole on the course that doesn't have the tall fescue along the sides, and while there's nothing wrong with the hole itself, it feels very out of place.

The fifteenth hole, with its out-of-place trees.

The sixteenth hole is a 520 yard par 5, and this month's exciting addition to our running series: "Oh crap, we've run out of room on our golf course". You wouldn't expect it from a par 5, but that's how Royal Manchester does things. After you finish 15 you are taken down a long path through the woods to the sixteenth tee. A very long walk. We're talking several hundred yards. And guess what? The hole plays in the exact opposite direction we just walked, and the green is actually right next to the fifteenth tee. I took a look at the satellite view, and I'm very confident that this irritation could have been avoided if a par of 72 had been sacrificed. Keep 15 where it is, have 16 as a long par 4 running in the opposite direction as this 16 but keep it on the same corridor, extend 18 a bit to make it a short par 5, and connect 16 and 18 with a par 3. This is the only time the course is distinctly walker unfriendly, but it comes at the end of the round, so it really sticks in my mind.

Anyway, that's enough about hypothetical routing changes, let's look at the hole we actually got. Left is quite obviously a bad place to be, thought if you can get close to it, you will have a shorter second shot. Otherwise, it's a reachable par 5 with some significant greenside bunkering. I'm not sure if this green is actually the smallest one on the course, but it feels like it.

The sixteenth hole.

This is the last time you get to see the electric station.

The sixteenth green, small and flanked by bunkers.

Looking back down the sixteenth hole

The seventeenth hole is the longest par 4 on the golf course if you're playing from the tips, but is a more mild 391 yards from the blue/white tees. This is an interesting change of scenery. We haven't exactly been in the trees the past few holes, but trees have been in view, and even almost in play on a couple of occasions. And then you come to this hole, and there is literally nothing sticking up above the horizon. All you can see is this hole, set in a little bowl, framed by brown fescue. It's almost desolate in a way, though that's more unkind than I'd like it to be. There's one bunker, a fairway bunker that is quite easily avoided, and the entire hole plays uphill. The green is big and very undulating. It's tough, but not in an annoying sort of way.

The seventeenth hole. It's a very spartan view.

This picture looks like I was almost lying on the ground, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't.

The eighteenth hole is the longest par 4 on the golf course from the blue/white tees, and unfortunately, it is tough in an annoying sort of way. There's nothing too wrong with the drive, but much like the ninth, the second shot plays over a pond. Much like P.B. Dye, Royal Manchester suffers from lackluster conclusions to both nines, and at both courses, the reason is egregious and unnecessary water. It was bad at P.B. Dye, but it's even worse here. The ponds are in front of the green on both holes, and the ponds clash even more with the overall course aesthetic. At least P.B. Dye had ponds elsewhere on the course, Royal Manchester doesn't. As a hole itself, it's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but it doesn't fit with most of the course, and it's a terribly cliched way to end a round of golf.

The eighteenth hole.

The pond even has a fountain.

We may have ended on a harsh note here, but let there be no question: Royal Manchester is the best course I've played this year. By a wide margin. There was strategy and thought on a few holes, the greens were interesting, it was walkable, there were no trees or narrow fairways, it was a generally very solid golf course. And I will say, the course conditions were excellent. The course was running pretty well, and despite the large amounts of rain the Mid-Atlantic has gotten in the past few months, it was pretty dry and firm out there, and the long fescue was nice and brown.

I haven't even gotten to Royal Manchester's little secret: The value of a round is extremely good. To play at 12:30 PM on a Saturday, I paid $40 per person. That is extremely reasonable, and much less than I would expect to pay for a golf course of this caliber. This is a full-length, very well maintained "championship" golf course about halfway in between two reasonably large Pennsylvania towns, one of which is the state capital. The closest analogue I have to Royal Manchester that I've played is the Iron Forge course at Penn National. They're in similar environments, both aspire to be linkslike, both are similarly upscale, and both are in rural southern Pennsylvania. I won't get into a detailed analysis, but Royal Manchester is essentially always the cheaper option. Royal Manchester is a better course than the Iron Forge course, and it's more convenient to play for a larger number of people.

So, is Royal Manchester the 11th best public golf course in the country? Does it stand up to the hype Golf Advisor has given it? Uh, no. So if you do go there, don't expect anything spectacular. That's not necessarily a bad thing, like I said, up to this point it's the best course I've played this year. It was well-maintained and well-priced, interesting in a few spots, and the round took less than 4 hours. I'd definitely considering driving an hour and a half to play it again. Can't ask for more than that, right?