This week with a warm Thursday that melted the snow from earlier, I went out to play the public course in Pottstown, PA, called Raven's Claw. RC has been open for coming up on 5 years, I think, and I played it right after it was open when the conditioning was perhaps as expected. I thought a revisit was in order. It is routed among a housing development that now has many homes finished and looks like more left to build. There are a couple of long green to tee walks, but it overall isn't that hard of a carry although the terrain is a bit hilly in many places. Raven's Claw was designed by Ed Shearon. Yes, I think that has already resulted in some visceral responses with more than a few in the treehouse.
If you wish to view all 130+ photos of RC, I've created my usual photo album with commentary here:
http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/Ravens_Claw/index.htmlBut rather than post a few pics from each hole on this thread, perhaps I'd rather talk about one hole in particular there, a par 4 (#9) that I really like. I wonder what others think and perhaps weigh in with their opinions and perhaps suggested tweaks if they could do so.
Here is an Google Earth aerial pic of the hole, which plays 404 yards (although I think that might be overestimated a bit) from the tips:
The purple route is the more conservative route off the tee, which is about 230 yards. A more agressive route for the right-hander requires a cut shot of about 260 yards (the blue route). Here is the view from the tee:
I took the more aggressive route with my drive and pulled it off. It leaves this view in to an elevated green which is about 32 yards deep, BUT has a significant false front. The pin this day was just a few paces past the false front. A fun shot.
Here's a view from that spot back to the tees:
If you try to really get too aggressive and hit a driver dead straight, you can be in those bunkers left of the FW shown earlier, or end up over them on a hill to leave a very tough 2nd shot in:
If you really smoked a drive over the trees (or if you're a dub then this might where you would be after your 2nd shot), you've just got a wedge shot in:
From the left edge of the green this pic shows the little collection area where balls that land on the false front end up residing. Yes, that area has a few divots in it (and a drain for water to get down to the creek below):
Here's a view from just over the green:
And one from just long and left of the green:
So, I like this whole lots. Do you?
