Played Little Mill CC with some good friends the other day and have to say the course conditions were as good as any in the Philadelphia area. Greens might have been a tad too fast for us but it was a treat. I don't know a whole lot about Garret Renn, the architect but I'm old enough to have seen it grow almost from it's inception in 1968. Of course we've got the team of Bausch and Cirba to fill in the blanks for us !
For those who haven't played it Little Mill is about 40-45 minutes from downtown Philadelphia , north of Pine Valley but right on the edge of the huge natural forest which is the NJ Pinelands. Development of housing to a great extent ends at the borders of the forest, with some exceptions, but what is beneath the ground here is one of the greatest natural reservoirs in the country stretching for miles and miles to the south north and east. Surely if you aren't familiar with NJ you would never imagine that such a bucolic stretch of nothing but primal forests and scattered lakes and bogs could exist in one of the nations most populated states per acre. But it is here in all it's splendor. As children many of us camped and fished in places such as Batsto and Medford Lakes and they remain pleasantly rural to this day. As many here know the train running from Philly to Atlantic City carrying George Crump and hsi golf "buddies" ran thru just such a forest in Clementon NJ. The rest is history!
Little Mill is wooded , each hole encapsulated in trees with peeks at the other holes from hole to hole. Some places would feel cramped and uncomfortable but I don't get that feeling here, and I drive it crooked !
There's plenty of room to drive it and the greens are sophisticated enough to make one side of the fairway a priority on the tougher holes. Some lone trees block angles to the greens but I'm ok with that . It's a nice course , bordering on difficult, and many of the best South Jersey players grew up or emigrated to Little Mill. They have won multiple GAP Team Match championships , no small feat in a good golf area!
Little Mill's has three distinct nine holes , a real 27 hole facility. As a rule this prejudices me as to the architecture as it's hard to get a feel for the ebb and flow. I would much rather judge 18 or 36 holes where you can say how about that 13th hole or isn't number five a fabulous one shotter? But I like Little Mill today more than I ever have , perhaps the outstanding playing conditions , as much as I try to look past them in an architectural review, made me enjoy it that much more today. Sure as hell the hole's are longer for me than when I played it in the 80's.
I'm alway's interested in hearing others feelings on local courses , what say you?
p.s. Garrett Renn per CIrba instrumental superintendent in Philadelphia in charge of all the public courses... did a nine holer in
Vineland named Latona .....renovated Brigantine LInks in the 1950's did Little Mill opened 1968 / 3rd nine 1974