Wednesday, August 31, 2011

An Island Green

We hadn't planned on being in Gettysburg, but Hurricane Irene forced our evacuation from our campground in Lancaster, Pennsylvania so here we were. Years ago we explore the national park and battlefields here so getting out on the golf course sounded good to us. I chose the Quail Valley Golf Course in Littlestown, PA because of its online coupon specials and because the golf course was about ten miles away from us (it would have been closer, but Taneytown Rd is closed at Rt.15 for repair near our campground.)The coupon allowed Denny and I to play eighteen holes with a riding cart for $28 each. That is a bargain compared to the $70+ prices of some of the area golf courses that are closer to our location. The front nine holes have some narrow fairways lined with tall trees while the back nine is more of the "cow pasture" ilk, but the wicked fast greens more than makes up for any advantages the wide open back nine provides. It's been a long time since Denny and I have played a golf course with greens this fast and we considered ourselves lucky when we were able to get off the hole with two putts. There are also several ponds scattered throughout the course, with the most fun/frustrating hole being the island green on hole thirteen. Quail Valley boast five sets of tee boxes with the longest tees having a yardage of 7027 yard with a rating/slope of 74.2/139. The "normal" men's tee box has a yardage of 6202 yards with a rating/slope of 70.5/130 while the shortest tee box has a yardage of 5095 yards with a rating/slope of 69.3/122. Well placed shots can avoid the many sand traps while the ponds are not so large that any level golfer can't play over or around them. The course is in pretty good condition for the weather we've been having lately, although they were just starting to aerate the front nine as we were playing. It's that time of year. The pace of play was a little slow on the back nine but players moved right along and the day was pleasant enough that we didn't mind the wait. This is a course we would play again.

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