Played here during the family vacation to Maine last week. While this course won't make anyone's top anything list, it validated my dictum on the "Are you having any fun?" thread from a few weeks ago:
I find something to like on every course I play.
In this case, there was some interesting use of natural features, a few bold carries, some neat back-to-front sloping greens, a compact routing that was easy to walk (save for one long, uphill trek from 10 green to 11 tee), and plenty of quirk (more on this later). There is also some internal OB, to prevent golfers from purposely playing along adjacent holes. Not a feature I love, but understandable given the available land.
Bath CC is nine holes from Stiles and Van Kleek from the 1930s with an additional nine and some routing changes by Cornish in 1994. The predominant landform feature is a high ridge that is used on holes 2, 3, 11, 12, and 13. There is a large wetland that comes into play on the closing holes and a small creek incorporated into a few holes.
OK, on to some pictures. All distances are from the 63xx yard blue tees.
1st Green (359 yard par 4). Nothing extraordinary here, but it does show the second tee hard against the high ridge I mentioned above. The green slopes sverely from back to front. I three putted from only about 8' above the hole.
Approach to second green (400 yard par 4), nested nicely into the ridge. This hole is a dogleg right where there is no benefit to cutting the corner or hitting down the right side. From the tee, however, you can glimpse the green through the trees and is awfully tempting to try cutting it. I wisely followed the advice of my playing partner (a regular) and played to the left center and was left with a 9 iron up the hill.
Tee shot on 525 yard par 5 3rd. Pic is from the very front of the blue tee box. 289 yards to the far left bunker. Neat risk/reward tee shot. Take it close to the trees and draw it and have a long iron home. Otherwise, hit it straight and play it as a three shotter.
Par 4 10th (298 yards). Tee shot (sorry, photo didn't come out well) is straight up hill. A good long iron will reach the top of the hill leaving this down hill approach. I hit driver and was in the rough surrounding the bunker just short right of the green. The tee shot is totally blind.
Par 4 11th tee (358 yards). The height of quirk. One of the most f-ed up golf holes I've ever seen. Tee shot across a big gorge to a bi level fairway. 90* degree dogleg right. The lower portion leaves something like 175 yards, totally blind and uphill, to the green. The upper section is a 230 yard carry to reach but is only like 12 paces wide.
I hit 3 wood to the upper fairway. Here's the approach shot. The mounding is really only found on the Cornish holes. In this case, it protects errant shots from a road just behind the green.
Par 4 12th (302 yards), third of three straight short par 4s on the back. Hit it at three distant bunkers with a cut and you can get on the green.
These are the bunkers I mentioned above. Notice the little ramp that will feed a well struck ball towards the hole. Lots of contour on this small green, as it should be on a short par 4. I pulled my drive and had a pitch from here. Again, the mounding marks this as a Cornish hole.
Looking back from the par 4 (420 yard) 15th fairway. A great cape hole. You can make out the golfers back on the tee in the middle of the picture. The lefty in the fairway was in our group. Tremendous right to left fairway. An optical illusion from the tee makes you play to the right but there's actually a lot of room down the left side - not to mention flatter lies and better angles.
And here's the 15th green. No bunkers. Again, notice the severe fairway slope. That's my ball front right of the green. I bailed right on the tee shot and had a blind 7 iron.
Par 3 (186 yards) 16th. One of the Cornish holes. All carry across the wetlands. Cool hole. Again, a little bit of illusion as the green is actually 15 yards or so back from the wetlands.
Looking back down the par 5 (528 yard) 17th fairway. Again, the natural slope of the land is evident.
And if you should try to play the natural slope to bounce the ball in, you better not go too far right or the hidden bunkers might get you.
And finally, the par 4 393 yard closing hole. This hole used to dog leg left to the current practice green. The new green benched into the hill is neat. Road right, wetlands left, a small creek about 190 yards out off the tee.
Overall, a fun day on the course. $35 to walk, nice people. Conditioning was a little suspect. Greens were fine but some of the fairways still had tractor/mower damage from all the spring rain. Fairways were also very soft. Tees were long and very sandy underneath. Made me wish I had taller tees a few times.
A few other cool holes where the pictures didn't come out-
175 yard par 3 6th. Uphill to a plateau like green. Very deep bunker left, severe drop off right.
Back to back long par 4s (450 and 432) #7 and #8 give the course some teeth although neither is anything extraordinary from a GCA perspective.
393 yard par 4 14 (a Cornish hole) is cool. Down hill tee shot across wetlands to an uphill fairway with an apple tree in the middle. Play left or right of it. All but the longest drives are left with a blind approach (somewhere between 160 and 130 yards) that accepts run ups nicely.
Tim