Cavalier Golf & Yacht Club

Restored Charles Banks course with all of his wonderful template golf holes he learned from his time working with Seth Raynor and C B McDonald. The greens and worth the effort to play this golden age of golf gem.

I had little to no expectations for this course when I got there. I figured it was going to be just another short course marred by too many houses encroaching too closely on the fairways. I was so wrong. Cavalier contains tons of Golden Age template holes, which makes sense after finding out that the architect also worked on designing Yale Golf Club. The par 3's here are the best of any between the Gold Course and the Nicklaus Bay Creek course, and might even surpass those. Especially fun are the biarritz 5th and the redan 18th, although I wish the club would rework the contours a little on 18 to add more front to back slope. The restored bunkers also need a shout out, as they look and play phenomenally well. In true classic style, they tend to be very deep, especially next to the many raised up greens.

While the course is short and the fairways are pretty wide, you still need to work your ball to go low. It would be helpful if there were a driving range to warm up at to better allow you to get comfortable before teeing off, but there's no room on the property.

The course is easily walkable, although it can be surprisingly slow for a country club. I wish the club would play the greens faster to better protect what is a very short course. Still, definitely take advantage of playing here if you have the opportunity. There are too few courses left that have preserved and maintained this style of architecture.