Previous Installments:
Kincaid Lake (NLE) 4th hole:
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,58913.msg1384099.html#msg1384099Devou Park 5th hole:
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,59525.msg1401953.html#msg1401953For nearly four years now, I've worked in an office just a mile from the clubhouse of Hartwell Golf Club. And yet, I had only even driven by the course once. It's tucked on a hillside on a long and narrow plot of land next to a major highway, and with a Duke Energy power station right next to the parking lot, most of the course is bisected by huge powerlines (which are in play on no less than 5 holes - maybe more but I honestly stopped noticing after a while).
For instance, here's the tee shot at four. Not pictured is the giant electrical tower that abuts the left side of the tee box. Yeah, it's an awful picture. But a good one wouldn't make the hole look much better.
The drivable fifth:
The tee shot at 6 reminds me of why I always felt like puking when I drove past Hoffman Estates between Chicago and Wisconsin…
And the home hole plays to a backdrop unmatched by any in golf.
Between the electrical towers and the one-of-a-kind third hole, the course stakes an easy claim as one of the worst courses I've ever played, architecturally speaking. And yet, I had a great time. I walked on at about 5:00 and played the first hole with an older gentleman who couldn’t make the climb up the hill to the second hole anymore, but who knew the course well enough to give me a few pointers (including the exact yardage I should hit my tee shot on the par 5 3rd – 135 yards – and he was exactly right). A few holes later, I caught up to a couple guys named Doug and Matt and joined them for the rest of the round. Matt was playing golf for the first time, but you would have needed more information than that to figure out which of them was which. No matter – we didn’t hit many good shots, but golf was fun enough for Matt that he decided to stick around with Doug and play nine more after we finished. I genuinely wished I could have stuck around as well.
The best reason for another loop around Hartwell is the opportunity to play the first hole again. I didn’t get any photos of it, but I’ll head out later this week and grab one or two. It’s a straightaway 250-ish yard par 4 with impenetrable woods to the right, and a few trees scattered down the left side of the fairway. Drivable for the foolish or for those making the turn on a hot streak, the better play is a controlled mid-to-short iron off the tee. And there’s enough width to pick an angle, which is important…
Because the green is really unlike anything I’ve played before. Perched on a little knoll, with steep fallaway edges short and especially to the left, it’s an exacting target with quite a bit of slope. The older guy that I played the hole with placed his tee shot wisely down the right side, not far from the woods. Meanwhile, I pulled mine to the left a bit. I was left with no more than 80 yards, but would have to negotiate the steepest part of the embankment guarding the front of the green. I hit a pretty solid 60 degree wedge, landed at the top of the embankment, and bounced unceremoniously back down and short.
The older fellow, on the other hand, had set himself up with a wedge approach from an angle that was practically parallel to the embankment. He used the hillside just past the green and the steep back-to-front slope to bounce his ball in to about 8 feet for a birdie opportunity. And he made the shot look easy, because it was. He had positioned his tee shot in the absolute perfect spot.
For me, the severity of the embankment only became clear when I arrived at my ball, now sitting at its base. The 7th green at Lawsonia is a little more severe than the 1st at Hartwell, but only a little. I was hitting straight up a vertical wall of sod, only able to see the top portion of the flag, and sitting in a Hartwell lie (which is to say, my lie was pure garbage). With a shallow green and woods long, and a chance to practice the shot again if I came up short, I opted for the latter. Twice. And then hit my third… well I don’t know if it was a pitch or a chip or what it was, because I’ve never really had to hit a shot like that until yesterday. But whatever kind of shot that situation requires, I tried it for a third time. And this time I hit it too hard and ended up a good 10 feet further from the hole for my run at double-bogey than my playing partner would have for his birdie look. I two-putted for triple on a 250 yard par 4, and felt embarrassed for wearing a bucket hat like a real golfer would.
Later in the round, Doug told me that Hartwell will be closing for good on July 9th to make way for soccer fields and a dedicated footgolf course. There are For Sale signs on the property, so even those developments may not last. It’s probably no great tragedy to lose this one, but that first hole really is pretty cool. Where have we ever heard of a short par 4 with what amounts to OB right, another hole’s fairway to the left, and a giant swale short left of the green that dictates playing strategy? Golf doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that, really. Matt could have picked a better course for his first round of golf, but he wasn’t likely to play a more elegantly well-conceived maiden hole. I’m glad I got to see it before it gets buried under a soccer field.