My Summer Caddying at The Country Club
This past summer was my spent outside the friendly confines of Chicago. I spent the summer in Boston taking summer school in order to finish up my business degree a little early. Considering that I had class almost all day four days a week Monday through Thursday I didn’t have much other time for a proper internship. Being a long-time, sometimes full/sometimes part-time caddy, I thought that a victory lap of caddying would be a good way to make a little money on the weekends.
In my research of where to put up my hat for the summer, I found that the closest golf course to me was The Country Club of Brookline…just 4.0 miles away! So starting in early May I started my long (uphill) bike rides from the Back Bay, down Rt. 9, and to the golf course.
Over the whole summer I have probably caddied the course upwards of forty times and have played it about eight/nine times. I will have to admit something, the first time I walked it, and I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about! I had read so much about the course on GCA so I felt I knew about the course and club and knew how highly regarded on here. While my opinion of most courses I have played in the past have usually stayed the same as the first time I played it, for the first time I found myself enjoying The Country Club the more and more I got to see it.
The following are my thoughts on the golf course, both the Members course and the Championship course;
Members;
Hole #1 – A long par 4 of about 450yds that probably plays one of the toughest on the course for the average golfer, not that it is an overly difficult hole, but it is long and most golfers are not fully warmed up before teeing off. While almost completely flat (both #1 and #18, which form a semi-circle around the range, was once the horse racing track) it is a pretty neat hole in that off the tee you almost instinctively take the easy route off the tee away from the bunkers on the left. While it is very open on the right, this leaves you with two extra clubs (usually a long iron) into an awkward angle to the green. The green itself is not overly hard but from a long iron approach you can sometimes be scrambling for an up and down.
Hole #2- Member’s Par 4 (280yds) or Champ Course Par-3 (190yds)- This is a hole that they play around with a bit when a tournament comes to TCC. However I have to say that I enjoy the hole much more when it is played as a Par 4. The whole itself is uphill, bunkers on the left, and surrounding a very small green with a false front. Anything long goes back down the hill and there is a large oak tree just right of the green. Usually you can hit a 2-Iron, Sand Wedge. I think the little sand wedge shot is very fun to hit. As a brutally hard par 3 I really think it looses its strategy and becomes a hit-and-hope hole.
Hole #3- Another pretty long Par 4 of about 450, it doesn’t really play that long because it is a good amount downhill. It is a really neat hole that plays through two large mounds and to a green with a large pond directly behind, and in play, of your second shot in. (As a side note on this hole, when playing I hit my second shot over the green by about 70 yards into the completely dried up lake, after a sand wedge to four feet, I made an up and down from the middle of a lake!)
Hole #4- “Hospital” is called that because at the time of the 1913 U.S. Open there was actually a mental hospital directly behind the green. Now I consider it one of my favorite holes on the course. While very short, only 330 Yards, the semi-blind tee shot is played to a second shot that is many times blind as well! While it looks open from the tee, it is actually much more tight once you are in the landing area of your tee shot. The green is unique in that it is probably the smallest green I have ever seen on a par-4. Bunkers guarding the green are some of the toughest up and downs on the course.
Hole #5- I really enjoy this par-4 as well. The semi-blind tee shot over a large mound (which now contains a new ladies tee on top) is blocked on the right side by trees and open on the left side. However for an open shot to the hugely sloping right to leave green you need to be in the right center of the green. When the green is up to tournament speeds any putts from the high right to the low left side are next to impossible to keep on the green.
Hole #6- This short very uphill par-4 is one that you see a lot of golfers trying to drive, however I have never seen why you would want to either put yourself in one of the deep bunkers surrounding the green. I usually play a mid to long iron off the tee and a short wedge up the hill. The green is interesting because it is almost a complete bowl green. Too often when the pin is on a side of the green golfers take their shots directly at the pin, which if short sided leaves a fast downhill putt. Almost 90% of the time the best play is to put the ball as close to the middle as you can.
Hole #7- what I consider the hardest par-3 on the members course. The whole plays anywhere from 175 yards to a front pin to 200 yards to the back. The green reminds me, but obviously is not exactly, a Biarritz green. The high points of the green lie in the front and back of the green. A front pin is one of the hardest pins on the course. A huge bunker left of the green sucks up anything left of the pin and makes an up and down tough.
Hole #8- I enjoy this hole the more I play it. While the average golfer will hit a driver or 3-wood in the left side of the fairway, I have almost always hit a driver either directly left of the bunkers, or way right of them (on purpose of course!). Anything left of the fairway, especially the green, runs down a steep hill to the winter lake. While only a short hole, it is a very hard birdie. The low iron or wedge shot is almost always blind in that you can only see the pin.