North/South at Elmridge Golf Club

I have played here before and it seems thecourse conditions are improving. Friendly staff. nice course to play

Had a good time. Course was a tough play. Would Definitely return and recommend to a friend.

Very green! Clubhouse food was much better than average for a normal round.

A quartet of par-fours begins what becomes a solid nine at Elmridge: the Blue. The first one, a stunning looking hole, drops steeply from its high-tee to a well guarded fairway (pond right, trees left) then back up to a perched green. The first hole’s look is parkland perfection: a serene pond; trees of various shades scattered along the margins; a bending fairway with three big bunkers flanking it. This happens to be the #3 index, and it plays like it. A moderately difficult 377-yarder follows, by contrast rolling through woodland as the fairway undulates, a bit like a links course, throughout the landing area and beyond. Green number two, small and difficult to hit, has a few pronounced humps that may make chipping tricky around it. A 403-yarder, the third ranks as the toughest hole and may also be the best. Now the fairway ‘waves’ look like large ocean swells, and you’ll appreciate the forward bounce to be had, as long as the drive is flown onto this fairway just right. A roller-coaster hole with a nice green complex to boot (watch out for the big falloff in the back), this is an outstanding par-four. The fourth hole’s fairway undulates with equal boldness, only this time you’ll face a camelback landing zone, its hump situated at the dogleg’s bend. Landing your drive correctly will take some finesse, and the surrounding woods await missed tee shots.

After this terrific four-hole start, things let up, if only slightly. Next comes a reachable 527-yard five-par, but the hole’s brilliance lies in the fairway’s contours at the leftward bend. Play the drive well and you’ll enjoy a forward kick for some 20 extra yards or so down the small hill. And the green is open in front, tempting you to fire away on the approach.

Two of the next three holes are straightforward, uphill three-pars: the sixth features a small green, which is what supplies the challenge for this 200 yarder, while eight has a slightly less tough-to-hit and larger plateau green. The par-five between these two counterpoints the fifth: this time the hole doglegs right, then travels far more steeply downhill to a small, peanut-shaped green--a much tougher target from long range. Over the hole’s second half, a big downslope on the wooded left side might mean that an overdrawn golf ball will disappear permanently.

The Blue closes things out with a fine finisher (par-4, 384) that is the opening hole’s opposite: the tee shot is uphill; the approach drops down a bit to a green flanked by a pair of big, deep traps.

The Red Nine, which I played for the third time today, is a good layout that doesn’t quite match the Blue’s routing or ground movement, although both are visually interesting. What stands out about the Red is a pair of excellent par-4’s, the third and eighth, as well as two tough three-pars. Still, the Blue pushes boundaries a bit more, though in general Elmridge may be called solid old-school design (built and designed by Joe and Charles Rustici, it opened 55 years ago).

Conditions:

BLUE Nine: Excellent on the smoothly rolling greens; good overall around fairways/tees; average for roughs and some greenside areas. RED Nine: About the same, but it’s also notable that the Red keeps improving since it’s drought-blighted conditions last fall; I’d infer that those conditions weren’t sitting well with management. And this time the Red’s putting surfaces and fringes were much smoother than in late May.

Some conclusions: I was impressed today with the Blue’s level of design and craftsmanship, along with its playable yet challenging layout. It gets all the tee-to-green details right, and I like the fact that it doesn’t depend on too many water hazards, as so many modern layouts do, to generate false excitement. This excellent routing seems the best of the three at Elmridge. I hadn’t played it until today. The greenskeepers have done an excellent job of reinvigorating conditions in 2021. The combination of White/Blue is best here, probably, but all of the three options give you a chance to score well, provided you drive the ball in play. Years ago, I remember a friend of mine, a scratch golfer, praising Elmridge as a fine place to play. If the overflowing parking lot has been any indication each time I’ve played here, it continues to please golfers in 2021.

Nice wide fairways. The cart paths and some of the fairways that you drive on are pretty bumpy but not horrible. Staff was very friendly and got us out early. I will play here again.