A friend of mine sent these pics of what I believe is another below the radar Stiles and Van Kleek course. His description:Rutland is the longest 6,100 yards I’ve never played. And deceptively so. Starts with an attractive but presentable par 4. Nothing missing from view, straight and slightly uphill. The second is a wonderful par 4 back towards the clubhouse (more on that disappointment later) over a creek and a blind downhill second shot to a highly contoured green. Wonderful little hole. Then the third, a beauty of sorts at par 3. over a hill guarding and hiding the left side of the green. Neat little hole. Four is an uphill par 5, with more great movement in the land. One interesting point, up till now, the land was mostly benign, but now it started to bounce around and rise and fall tremendously. After 4, we head to the 5th tee and look across the river. A beautiful hole, augmented by the fisherman in our foreground on the river. Another green with good movement to it too. 6 is a bouncy ride, one of my favorites on the course, while 7 is truly great, crossing back over the river and uphill to a green with tons of movement in it. 8, a downhill 4 is ok, and nine a neat little short 4 that plays with my head. Lunch, at their Caddy Shack is good, and has a nice server wench. 10 is really great, a short hole played with ground uprising and falling everywhere, confusing my little head into not knowing where or how far to hit it. I loved it. Then we entered the long slog uphill from 11 to 14. Yet, I liked it all. 11 is a 90 degree dogleg left; a so-so hole. 12, a wonderful risk/reward 3, I got the risk outcome down in the sand well below the hole. 13, a beautiful and challenging par 5uphill to a tough green. 14, so much movement in the fairways, and a green perched on top of a plateau on top of the hill. Just special. 15, a short steep downhill par 3; I have to ay it is nothing special; but for my shot that hit the stick before careening off to the right into the rough. I loved 16. Uphill,movement everywhere in the fairways, and another tough green to hold. Being above holes on 13, 14, and 16 were asking for big trouble, and I found it on 2 of the 3. 17, back down the mountain, was a fun short par 4. and 18 is a hard uphill par 4 back to the ugly and out of place clubhouse.
Overall impressions:
Favorite holes were 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 16. 2 is in my thoughts, but it needed to be later in the round to acquire favored status. 3 is 10 at Friars Head. Go look at pictures. Come to think of it, I liked 8 a lot too.
No range, just a net to hit into
Great movement in the greens
Tons of fairway movement in all the holes after 5, little before (except 2 which should have told me what was coming)
Interesting use of hillside green locations, forcing lots of downhill lie chips (at least for me) that were killers down onto severely sloped greens away from those hillsides
Interesting movement in the greens.
Loved crossing the river 4 or 5 times.
Clubhouse? Somebody explain to me how such an old and historic place ends up with an ugly utilitarian facility. Where’d the old early 1900’s building go to be replaced by a hideous 1950’s building? Yuck!
Well, I loved Taconic even more, thoughts on that place if you want them, but Rutland was a pleasure, and a great day on a clearly loved spot. The views of Killington and Pico from the 14th tee weren’t too bad either.
He thought this was the inspiration for Friars Head #10!
http://www.rutlandcountryclub.com/