The Kingsley Club embodies nearly everything I want in an ideal golf facility, from the small, functional, unpretentious clubhouse right down to the simple and elegant entrance & limited on-course signage. The bottle of scotch tucked away in the stone wall at No. 18 tee was a nice touch as well.
Maintenance wise, Dan Lucas has the course playing terrific. The ball yields to the contours of the land because conditions are firm, the fescue roughs offered a commensurate penalty for the missed stroke into it, and the greens rolled quick and true. One question for Dan however, how are the numberous punchbowls within the greens maintained so well? Many do not appear to surface drain, and with the ground frozen in early spring, how can the melting snow not cause damage to the turf?
With the wind playing a major factor in the golf on Sunday, I really appreciated the width Mike built into his design. Not only does it create preferred angles into certain hole locations, it allows one to play comfortably in the high winds that frequent the area.
The greens offered a real mixture from subtle (2, 6, 12) to extra-wild (9, 13), and most seemed to provide feeder-slopes to funnel balls onto the green when going for the pin presented a foolish decision. These same slopes were invaluable to offering a wide range of recovery shots around the greens. A simple up & down was anything but, as it seemed every situation could be played 3-4 different ways, depending on your skill & creativity. These are the types of green complexes that you never tire of playing.
Can you actually have the pin back-left on No. 13?
While the topography was wild, the course was extremely walkable. It took some courage to move such a small amount of dirt to build this course, with fairway contours that are out-of-this-world. And while blind shots were unavoidable in such terrain, properly placed drives could usually avoid this situation. The topography did conceal much of the width on the golf courses, making some tee shots look much less hospitable than they actually are (4, 7, 8, 14). The fairway contours demanded that players be able to play from a wide range of stances, could be visually intimidating at times (No. 6 landing area ~ although it is much tamer than it appears from the tee) and comforting at others (the ultra-speed-slot 17th fairway).
My hats off to Mike for such an excellent golf course, beautiful, strategic and FUN, a perfect trifecta!! I can't wait to get back to play here again, as I feel the golf course has only started to unveil itself to me.
TK