Melody Hill Golf Course

First time here and we really enjoyed the track…wide, well groomed fairways, greens were large, smooth and true. Great bang for the buck.

FRONT NINE REVIEW: This morning I played nine holes at Harrisville again, some 40 minutes away, and then came to Melody Hill Country Club. Playing these layouts back-to-back meant changing gears. Though both are relatively short, Melody (6004, blues) has a bit more width to most of its fairways, and most of these (unlike Harrisville) are completely surrounded by imposing woods. But the woods, thankfully, don’t impinge claustrophobically from tee to green. Only one fairway here—at five--narrows down to some 25 yards; this mainly affects longer hitters.

The mature trees here are eye-catching, sometimes appearing on the edges of fairways or apart from woods. Greens tend to be moderately curving, and they run just short of average in speed unless you’re putting downhill, where suddenly they quicken more than I expected. What struck me most about Melody were its beautifully secluded hole settings and the accompanying views that these afforded. The course looks wholly natural and features ponds, some sweeping hills, and pleasant, longer vistas on occasion.

This outward nine boasts a nice mix of straightaway holes, those with minor bends, and others with more severe doglegs. Unless you can hit pronounced fades or draws, be careful with the latter set. Having been careless in calculating distances (I didn’t) on the second, I blew through the dogleg, and then had to recover by wedging over huge trees. Four bunkers make an appearance on the front. Two of them at nine, both cleverly hidden, may make this short par-4 painful if you slice or push the tee ball.

Melody Hill seems to me a very worthwhile course, and I’m anxious now to come back and play the whole eighteen. In fact, it was strongly recommended to me by a man I met today in Woodstock. A quick overview of some of key front-side holes should further delineate its quality:

FIRST: A pleasant, uphill opener running uphill to an undulating putting surface, it offers the prospect of an opening par when carefully played.

SIXTH: Striking-looking, downhill three par tests your ability to hit a precise iron, which may have to narrowly miss the rightward woods—should the pin be set on the green’s right-hand side. The putting surface is generous enough in proportions and relatively flat.

SEVENTH: Another long 4-par demanding a solid drive to its landing area, and an even better approach into a green—with a falloff in back—that is surrounded by woods.

EIGHTH: A cool hole featuring a switchback fairway, best played with a fade off the tee and a draw if you hope to reach in two (the hole has two big, opposite curves). The driving area is open enough, but beyond this, fun and challenge are introduced when dealing with the trees en route to the green.

BEST HOLE: Three: 360 yards, back tees; par-4

How anyone could fail to appreciate the beauty and quality of this hole would be a mystery to me. Doglegging right, the landing area complicates things by throwing in, on each side, a couple of trees that may punish even slightly erring shots. Stay left of center, but you’ll need a near-perfect drive to thread the trees and land beyond them. The hole’s second half features a superb, lengthy vista beyond the green, a green that is slightly perched (see photo).

HARDEST HOLE: Five: 426 yards, back tees; par-4.

The rigorous downhill fifth is also spectacularly beautiful, with majestic trees and enveloping woods. With its fairway narrowing over the second half and awkward lies everywhere, this is the hole most likely to damage front-side scorecards. Your straight-downhill approach will likely have to be bounced into a large, rolling putting surface. Misses are tolerated less on this green’s back side than the other three.

A couple of holes are uninteresting here; they could be improved—lending both playing strategy and defensibility on approach shots—by some added sand traps or perhaps some rolling, varied ground movement greenside. But this is still a fine layout in a gorgeous and serene natural setting. For anyone living within an hour or so of Harmony, Rhode Island, it’s a must-try golf course.

Other notes, comments, and opinions:

(1) Today was a lucky one for me, as I was fortunate to join an excellent threesome over these nine: a wife and husband—Michelle and Ricky—and their friend Bob (see photo). All were personable, friendly and fun, and they’re members at Melody Hill. We extended our conversation after the round. I’ve always thought that meeting new and interesting people this way is one of the greatest benefits of this game.

(2) Conditioning here was most impressive on the greens, which were excellent. As is typical for most public courses, fairways, tees, rough, and some of the greenside fringes lagged behind somewhat (these were good).

(3) Excellent and careful precautions taken in all respects for Covid-19. One of the best responses at a golf course that I’ve seen since April.

(4) Very friendly and helpful course manager here, who assisted courteously both over the phone and and at the course itself. My takeaway is that the staff gets how to treat customers well at Melody Hill. No surprise that “Friendliness” rates very high as GA category here.

Course is always in great shape. The staff are always polite and helpful. Don’t miss this hidden gem!

Great layout with wide fairways. I had my best round this year. The only issue were the dry spots

I’ve played here all my life and it’s been in rough condition. Especially the greens. However, today, after not having played there in years, I felt the greens were night and day different than previous experiences. Rolling great and holding shots nicely. Great job. Brought back memories of my father and I playing together when I was a kid. Today was his birthday so I went out to honor him today. Thanks so much.

The layout is great for those who have distance issues. Most of the holes is an iron or hybrid from the tee due to the dog legs.

Course is in excellent condition, but we waited on EVERY hole. No rangers to speed up play. Price is too high for a public course when there is no supervision!

For starters, the course was great, staff was as well and joined a threesome of brothers that were a blast. I booked my tee time at 6 am on the golf now website and was charged their fee plus 20% ahead. When I arrived at the course I was told that the first tee time is at 6:30 which the attendant worked around and got us off. He was also not aware of the 20% I was charged ahead of time.

I certainly don't blame the course but I do blame the app.

Course was perfect for what we were looking for. Got the twilight rate and teed off as a threesome at 5:15pm and finished 18 holes before 8pm.

Measures 6000 from the tips and there are allot of doglegs.Would play there again.

Had to take a cart. Would like to walk but not allowed. Has no effect on pace of play had to wait a little on each hole.

Also the golf now reservation was not in the system when I arrived so we had no tee time. They let us out luckily.

Several tricky doglegs. Fairways decent, rough average. All in all enjoyable day.