My bride and I visited the Adirondacks this weekend for a mini-break and we really enjoyed the pleasant temperatures (65 degrees high / 45 degrees low) while she hiked and I played a few rounds of golf. My first few rounds were at my old stomping grounds, Malone Golf Club, on their East and West Courses, and my last round was Lake Placid Club's Links Course which I previously posted about in this thread.
I was able to play two courses that I've either driven by countless times (
Cobble Hill in Elizabethtown) or read about (
Westport).
Westport was fantastic. It has some tremendous terrain for a golf course...certainly among the best terrain I have played on this year to date. It's been reported to have been built in 1898 by Thomas Winton. Their former PGA Professional (he sadly passed away this year) believed Willie Park Jr., who Winton worked for, was involved with at least nine holes, but I am unsure if there was any documentation to back that up. The course is routed very well across the land and requires strategy and skill to shoot a very good score, but it is also fairly wide open and provides golfers with plenty of recovery options. The course played very firm and fast, which was a ton of fun and really forced you to think about how you wanted to try to shape your shots or where to land your golf ball.
I have posted a few photos from my round there this past Saturday below.
Westport - No. 3 tee
Westport - No. 6 approach
Westport - No. 7 approach
Westport - No. 7 green
Westport - No. 8 green
Westport - No. 15 approach
Westport - No. 16 green
Westport - No. 17 green
Westport - No. 18 approach
Westport - Clubhouse
Bonus: Westport uses a flock of sheep to help maintain its rough! Here is a
video I took of the flock, located in between hole Nos. 11 and 14:
Click here to watch. I have also included a picture below.
As I previously mentioned, I have driven by the Cobble Hill course many times while I lived and worked in the North Country. It looked fairly simple from the road and had not heard much about it, so my expectations were fairly modest. The first thing that surprised me after I determined which day I was to play Cobble Hill was its age: built in 1896! I was not aware it was anywhere close to being that old. I haven't been able to determine who may have built it, so maybe someone on this site has that knowledge they could share. I did read that a gentleman by the name of Dermont E. Mine was their first pro, so it's
possible he may have been responsible, but again, I cannot be sure. As for the course itself, I enjoyed it! There aren't too many doglegs, so it doesn't require
a ton of strategy off the tee, but the greens were pretty solid, particularly No. 6 green, which plays very much like a Redan approach. There's a fair amount of "quirk" on the course, which I appreciate, most notably the approach to the par-5 fourth hole. There is also some extreme elevation changes, like on No. 4 and No. 7. I would be curious if those back tee boxes way up on the hills were always part of the course, or were added later. I would suspect the latter. It is certainly a course I wouldn't mind playing often, especially for the value: $14 to push for nine holes on a Saturday afternoon...pretty solid! Select photos from my round are below.
Cobble Hill - No. 1 tee
Cobble Hill - No. 4 approach
Cobble Hill - No. 6 approach
Cobble Hill - No. 6 green (seen from No. 5 tee)
Cobble Hill - No. 7 tee
Cobble Hill - No. 9 green