I grew up playing golf at Lake Cora Hills in Paw Paw, Michigan. I think it used to be farmland. On one side of the gravel road you'd have the rather hilly but short front nine, par 35. The layout was such you'd return to the clubhouse every three holes. The hilliness and smallish greens provided the "defense" of this nine.
I really liked the 4th, a tempting par 4 over a deep valley (though thankfully they kept it as short nubby rough, we still called it Death Valley), with slices going into a grove of well-spaced trees and hooks or too-long drives dropping over small cliff to the left and into some really nasty tall grass and pines.
The 6th was the toughest, a long 4 with a blind tee shot and the approaching second shot going over said Death Valley. The hooker would find shrubbery to the left, but the slicer would face a horrible uphill lie from Death Valley. This green was also the fastest due to it's very sharp back to front slope, so much so that I'd rather face a 20 foot downill putt rather than a 4 foot pin-high side hill putt with incalculable break.
The back nine was wonderful. You'd open the 10th with a par 5, an elevated tee looking down to a generous fairway running along the left side of a large retaining pond. This body of water ran all the way down the length of the hole, with the gargantuan green tucked around the dogleg right at the end, making only the most heroic 2nd shot possible to reach the green. A large bunker thirty yards short and left of the green gobbled up the careless long straight shot that failed to navigate the narrow isthmus between the water and a large hill at the outer turn of the dogleg. Still, it was an easy par for the average conservative player who didn't leave themselves too long a putt on the undulating green.
I liked the quirky double-dogleg par 4 11th. The hole started with a drive over a 160 yard fairway valley to a dry patchy plateau, with a road out of bounds to the right - luckily, trees lining the road often kept the wayward slice in play. The hole then doglegged left into a valley, then right and up another hill into the long diagonal green complex protected by moguls and a couple of tame bunkers.
This hole had so much strategy to it. The long hitter could drive a draw down into the next valley, but they'd face a blind shot coming up the hill and around two large trees at the top. At least this provided the best entrance into the green. The straight drive would trickle over the plateau and into an apple orchard if hit too far, and while from the plateau you could cut off the valleyed dogleg and save some yards, you'd still have a blind shot due to the large blue aluminum equipment shed blocking the view of the green. While shorter, this approach was yielded more unpredictable results due to the moguls in front of the diagonal green.
A long straight par 3 12th provided a bit of a breather.
The 13th hole was possibly the most strategic 3 shotter I've ever played. Coming down the right side of the retaining pond featured on the 10th, a generous landing area would support most drives. The fairway then angled to the right, following the water left and encroaching trees right. Again the green was tucked behind the pond, only this time more so. As such, the average player would have no hope of carrying the pond on their second shot. Instead we were faced with the most strategic shot of the day - navigating a narrowing isthmus between the water and woods, and doglegging sharply back to the left for the last 20 yards to the green. The reward was a shorter carry over the intimidating water, or even going around the water altogether. I usually flubbed this second shot, then I'd get scared by the water and just dub my way around the pond for a likely 7. It was still just so much fun!
Three medium fours come up next, dogleg right, straight, then dogleg left. Except for some moguls and small trees between the fairways, we had plenty of room for our errant shots.
Another boring shortish 3, and then the finishing par 5, a long hole which required your drive to split a narrow gap through the trees to a wider (but still challenging) landing area, another shot up a long hill, and a blind third shot for the great majority of us not within 50 yards of the large green complex. The drive was the thing here, and while you could play a draw or a fade through the gap, it was a narrow gap only ten or fifteen yards wide, about a hundred yards out from the well elevated teeing ground. That gap was evident from the 17th tee, and its mind games caused many a bogey or worse on the easy 3 preceding it.
I played there a few years ago after an absence of over ten years. They switched the routing of the back nine, making 10 through 12 into 16 through 18, which I thought diminished the psychological effect of that final magnificent par 5. Yet they couldn't erase my memories of growing up there, and I sank 6 putts from forty to sixty-five feet that day, giving me my then best-ever round of 83.
It's a short course - 5500 to 6200 yards - yet we found it consistenty entertaining for three generations of average golfers. A first time player to the course would usually gripe about all the blind shots provided by the hills, but I thought it made for some riveting repeat play. I'd even go so far as to say that the blind shots were fair, because the fairways always indicated the route to play (except on the maddening 11th!)
I always wondered why I liked this short quirky course. Now that I've come to understand the basics of classic golf course architecture, I understand why: Wide fairways and short or non-existent rough, manageable but riveting carries, a variety of strategic holes, and important course knowledge gained only through repeat play.
Who would've thunk!