For the second year in a row my wife (Maria) and I headed south to Virginia for a fall vacation. This year however, we were being joined by friends (technically speaking we were joining them – but that’s a minor detail). And for the second year in a row we were headed back to Massanutten Resort near Harrisonburg VA. What that meant for me was an easy 10 hour drive straight down I-81, but limited options of adding more states to my play list, as we would be on the road most of the time. But ever the opportunist, I managed to squeeze in a quick round in Pennsylvania, right after we checked into our hotel in Maryland late Saturday afternoon (we were due at Massanutten on Sunday).
So at 3:30, we checked into the hotel. At 3:45 I was changed into golf gear and headed out the door, Maria not interested in joining me for this quick round. And I knew it would have to be quick if I planned on getting in a full 18. It was going to get dark around 6:30 and I had a 15 minute drive back up I-81 into Pennsylvania. I had pre-scouted a few potential courses I could play at, just depending on our schedule. The original thought was that Maria was going to shop for a few hours (on her own) in Wilkes-Barre and I would likely play there while she was shopping, but I opted out of that plan. Bottom line, I now really only had one course option to choose from, once we based ourselves in Hagerstown, MD.
Greencastle Golf Club in Greencastle, PA is a course that can eat you up pretty quickly. I didn’t know this prior to arriving, but it’s got some of the toughest greens anywhere and I would say without a doubt, the toughest I’ve played to date.
When I arrived at the course and walked into the pro shop and quickly explained what I was trying to accomplish, the two gents working first applauded me for my goal and then both started to laugh. It was a kind of snickering, sneering, you have no idea what you’re in for, kind of a laugh. I asked them what was so funny and they replied that I couldn’t have picked a worse day to play there. Now I quickly thought to myself that the weather was overcast, but nothing I couldn’t play through and it wasn’t that cold. NO, that wasn’t what they meant! “Today was our member’s closing and it is known as Superintendant’s revenge day”. “O.K., I’ll bite” I quipped, “what the heck does that mean?” – “Every hole has the toughest pin placement possible” was the response.
“The pro went on to add “Don’t be surprised if you end up with a number of three and four putts in your round”. “Well I’m a pretty decent putter” I replied, “so hopefully I can overcome that”. He once again snickered, but handed me a free logo ball and wished me luck, so I “forgave” him (LOL).
Off I headed to the first tee. With no time for warmup, I promptly shanked my tee shot off a tree and ended up just beyond the ladies tee block about 75 yards down the fairway. But a good recovery on my second shot left me just shy of the green. I chilli dipped my pitch, barely making it onto the green, leaving me about 18 feet from the pin. THREE PUTTS LATER, as the ball repeatedly went up towards the hole, fell short and came all the way back to the original spot I totally understood what he was talking about! Finally I drained my fourth attempt for a smooth 7 on the par four. The second and third holes saw a somewhat similar pattern, only I managed to limit the damage to three putts on both of those. Ten putts in three holes! WOW! I average around 30 putts per round. I had just used up 1/3 of my allotment and at this rate, I was looking at around 45 or 50 putts! I could have sworn I heard laughter as I marked a 5 down on my scorecard for the par 3, 3rd hole.
I quickly realized it was time for a new strategy. The slope and undulations on these greens, combined with the fact that they were extremely firm and fast meant that I had to make sure I was landing the ball on the green in much better locations. I figured if I was more than 10 feet away before I started to putt, I was going to see a whole card full of 3’s and 4’s on my putting tally, let alone 7’s and 8’s on my score tally! So, I purposely started coming up short of the green so I could pitch up an on and try to get the ball tighter to the pin. And that worked, because I only had one other three putt for the entire round. I ended up with 5, 1-putts and the remainder of the holes were 2-putts. Now my total score was no hell, but at least I mastered the greens!
As for the rest of the experience, the course is really nice and definitely worth playing. The 10th green is a very large, undulating L-shaped monstrosity that will easily add a number of strokes to your game if you don’t land your approach properly. I actually 2-putted it, but of course that was small consolation to the penalty strokes I took for putting 2 balls in the water that surrounds the green.
All in all it was a good outing. I was convinced at the 10th tee that my round was going to be cut really short as the skies got really dark and a light rain began to fall. In fact, I was having a lot of difficulty tracking my ball for the next few holes. But then the rain stopped as I was finishing up the 13th, the sun came back out and I could once again see just fine. That being said, I caught up to a foursome on the 17th tee and darkness began to creep in. By the time I lined up for my approach to the 18th green, I couldn’t see the flag at all. I ended up driving up to the green just to get a sense of where it actually was! But as darkness fell on the Mason-Dixon line, I refused to it affect my round! A 1-putt bogey was a decent finish in the absence of light!
