The high school golf team that I coach played a match at The Elkridge Club this week. The proper 18 holes were built by Seth Raynor in 1925. I captured as many holes as I could. I hope you enjoy the images.


The first hole plays straight uphill to less than 350 yards. Bunkers pinch the fairway nicely. Play short of them, hit a longer shot. Drive past and have the awkward lie. Some beginning.







The Alps hole is #3. The hill line is natural, but I wonder if ther were ever any cross bunkers.


The 4th is titled Short. Designed to test the short iron, left and long are absolute death as it falls off some 10 to 15 feet.



The 290 yard 5th hole is a great match play hole. The mower strips in the rough indicate the line from the tee box. The opponent drove the green. My freshman girl hit driver and then wedge to 1ft. He conceded the putt and they halved the hole.



The 6th hole demonstrates again that a short hole can present a challenge. This is an excellent use of topography.


Note the tiny fairway at the bottom of the hill. Is this a target or window dressing?


Titled "Road", this hole uses the bunker in the rough to define left side of the fairway. Nice use of the blind shot (there are several on this course).



This is "Double Plateau". It is the 11th hole and my failure to bring a wide angle lens does not do this green justice.







Featured on this site before, the 13th is titled Biarritz. The trough in the front middle is best revealed in image 3.



This is the best shot of the Punchbowl that I could get with a telephoto lens. The hole plays uphill and the raised front does a decent job of hiding the green. It looks better in real life.



Playing a little shorter than other Redans, the 16th hole has the same square bunker as number 9. Not sure why, but it's still a great hole.

Elkridge is a short course that maximizes every acre of land. I would never have appreciated it without having loitered on this site.
Thanks Ran.
 
 

jeff - I only get the first picture.  don't know why.

What team do you coach? I hear my old school, Gilman, is looking pretty good.

I can only see the 4th and 5th picture.

Thanks Jeff. My brother coaches the Spalding lacrosse team. Small world. What is your home course?

My brother works with me and does not teach there either. Does Spalding play out of Crofton too?

Thanks and good luck with the rest of your season.

I know I am repeating myself, but the routing is so appropriate. It seems so simple but so correct. It is a lot of golf course for a little bit of land.

Thanks for taking the time to share the pictures with us.  I really enjoyed them. Hope you had the chance to educate your team about some of the unique features of the course.  If they're like a lot of people I know, they knew there was something special about the course they were playing but just didn't know what it was.

Thanks John. Surprise, the kids were oblivious to the nuances of the golf course. They had to be told that they were playing a great golf course. Most of them hated the idea of the Biarritz. Kids these days are used to flashy bunkers and Trent Jones type greens. They feel they should hit driver on every non-par 3. It takes a while to get them to actually see what they playing and why.
I guess that is the point of coaching.

Interesting history. The scorecard describes # 3 as Alps. I did a little research before posting and the description of an Alps hole fit the landscaped of # 3 in some respects. The final product seems faithful to that design and if done after the fact does a pretty good job. I wish I could have played it.

I may have misnumbered "Double Plateau". The high school match is 12 holes. Double Plateau was the next to last hole. The green fits the description and I do recall the name from the scorecard. Unfortunately I forgot to take it with me.

I took pictures of 6 but none of #7. Come to think of it, they were on the far side of the golf course.

We coaches tend to sit where we can see several holes at a time. I missed # 2 completely as well as #7, 10, and 14-18.

I hope to go back one day and get a feel for the entire track. It would also be nice to find more detail on the building of the course (if it exists).

This project makes me want to photograph all the old courses of the area. Maybe I will take that up sometime. Would probably make a good book.

Thanks for the info.