OWASCO - The course's name indicates a bevy of foliage. The empty sleeves of golf balls littering your cart indicate an abundance of water. Our scorecard, which we promptly burned following our round, indicates that either we're bad golfers or Dutch Hollow Golf Club is no walk in the park. We're leaning towards the latter.
Dutch Hollow is almost two totally different courses. Things get a little damp on the front nine, with water coming into play on eight holes. On the back nine, the holes are more wide open but the yardages are longer and the terrain is anything but level.
But as bad as our scores were - you've got to love those tap-in triples - we actually enjoyed ourselves on the course.
Dutch is the type of course that stimulates the part of your brain that thinks you're a scratch golfer. Many of the holes are laid out in a fashion that tempts you into taking risky shots. If Phil Mickelson taught us anything at the U.S. Open, it's that punching out is the smart play. But this wasn't the U.S. Open and there were no galleries to impress so we decided to play high risk, low reward golf.
It may seem like a good decision to cut a corner by cranking a full 3-iron over a stream and a grove of trees. Of course, it's easier to just lay a 7-iron out in the open and have a relatively easy wedge shot into the green, but what's the fun in that.
In our case, Dutch made our decision-making look worse than Jean Van de Velde's. There's three holes on the front nine where a drive of 200 yards or more is required to clear a hazard. No caddy in the world would ever let us even near a driver in these circumstances but that's why we carry our own bags. We are quite capable of making bad decisions on our own.
No. 4 is one of the front nine's three par-3s and it is easily one of the best par-3s in central New York. A small pond guards the green on the front and left sides while a willow tree sits just off the right side of the putting surface. There is also out-of-bounds about 10 yards beyond the green. At only 168 yards, it's not the longest par-3 in the area but it could be the most intimidating from the tee box.
Dutch Hollow may produce a few high numbers but it's tough to blame the course itself. The greens and fairways are in terrific shape and the rough isn't long enough to be a factor. It's actually hard to believe where all the strokes go because the course doesn't appear all that difficult.
While beginners may struggle on this course, there's opportunities for all levels of golfers to get creative. There's usually three or four different ways to play the holes at Dutch Hollow. Do you go driver, 7-iron or 4-iron, 5-iron? Do you punch out or try to flop over?
These are the questions that most golfers will face at Dutch Hollow. In our case, we just try to stay away from questions like “what's the stroke limit on this hole?”
But as bad as our scores were - you've got to love those tap-in triples - we actually enjoyed ourselves on the course.
Dutch is the type of course that stimulates the part of your brain that thinks you're a scratch golfer. Many of the holes are laid out in a fashion that tempts you into taking risky shots. If Phil Mickelson taught us anything at the U.S. Open, it's that punching out is the smart play. But this wasn't the U.S. Open and there were no galleries to impress so we decided to play high risk, low reward golf.
It may seem like a good decision to cut a corner by cranking a full 3-iron over a stream and a grove of trees. Of course, it's easier to just lay a 7-iron out in the open and have a relatively easy wedge shot into the green, but what's the fun in that.
In our case, Dutch made our decision-making look worse than Jean Van de Velde's. There's three holes on the front nine where a drive of 200 yards or more is required to clear a hazard. No caddy in the world would ever let us even near a driver in these circumstances but that's why we carry our own bags. We are quite capable of making bad decisions on our own.
No. 4 is one of the front nine's three par-3s and it is easily one of the best par-3s in central New York. A small pond guards the green on the front and left sides while a willow tree sits just off the right side of the putting surface. There is also out-of-bounds about 10 yards beyond the green. At only 168 yards, it's not the longest par-3 in the area but it could be the most intimidating from the tee box.
Dutch Hollow may produce a few high numbers but it's tough to blame the course itself. The greens and fairways are in terrific shape and the rough isn't long enough to be a factor. It's actually hard to believe where all the strokes go because the course doesn't appear all that difficult.
While beginners may struggle on this course, there's opportunities for all levels of golfers to get creative. There's usually three or four different ways to play the holes at Dutch Hollow. Do you go driver, 7-iron or 4-iron, 5-iron? Do you punch out or try to flop over?
These are the questions that most golfers will face at Dutch Hollow. In our case, we just try to stay away from questions like “what's the stroke limit on this hole?”
The Citizens' Say
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