[M. Shea Sweeney]

 Can anyone shed some light? Thanks.

[Phil Benedict]

I was a member for one year about 20-years ago.  Have probably played the course 25 times, although not recently.

The two nines were built separately and are quite different, with the back 9 being harder with lots of lost ball possibilities.  The front 9 is pretty flat but the back has a few elevation changes.  In club championship qualifying I shot 40/50 and made the first flight.  The 50 included a 10 on the last par 5 (the 15th or 16th, which isn't that tough a hole).  In general, I thought the course was a bit claustrophobic.  Finishes with a par 3.  You can see the course from the Merritt in the winter - they appear to have taken out a bunch of trees.  I once hit one on to the Merritt on the fourth hole, which is a long par 5.  You gotta be long and wild to achieve that mildstone.

I thought it was one tough, tight course.

Does this help?

[Michael Ryan]

I play Burning Tree about twice a year and while I don't love it, I do think there are some very good holes.  Phil is spot on about the nines being different and it being claustrophic.  They did begin a tree removal program recently (most prominent behind the 6th green) but it is still a typical Northeast country club that features tight tree lined holes.  One thing I have picked up in my time there is that its a course that would not be built today on that particular piece of property.  They struggle with drainage and on at least one of my trips there annually, the 4 and 5th fairways are under water to some degree.  They actually lost and had to rebuild a good chunk of the 4th green last year due to a sinkhole developing...I'm not qualified to speak on the cause of that.  During the heart of the summer season, they can get the greens running pretty quickly and depending on hole locations, can have some very challenging two putts.

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