St. Anne Country Club

The golf course was nice for the winter conditions. Layout was great for walking.

Pace of play was slow. Very busy but can be expected cause it’s one of very few courses still open during winter. But the course was is decent shape for the time of year.

Look. For the money, it was fine. But we had a 10:10 and didn't get off until 10:30 and we were waiting on a TWOSOME in front of us on every single shot.

Love the course and the staff was great. We will be back.

Loved it! Will be back. Thank you.

St. Anne Country Club has been one of the better Agawam-area courses over the past few years. Beyond its solid layout and very good conditions, the course should be playable–yet quite challenging–for a broad spectrum of golfers.

The course’s property seems a hybrid of what is pure New England: forested area balanced by a tract of farmland. In this case, the look of most holes suggests repurposed farmland. Facing directly down the first fairway, on the left side of the hole is the woods; a hundred yards or so to the right are largely more open areas punctuated frequently by oaks and maples.

The first six holes, then, are mostly sided by dense treelines, but the last twelve tend to be more forgiving, typically, when you miss a fairway: you’re far more likely to find your ball. Although St Anne is generally a parkland type, seven of the last eleven holes epitomize this style, as these seven have fairways with only modest undulations, if any. When the wind blows and you’re out on this part of the course, you’ll feel it. Or when hitting off a high tee into a stiff breeze, ball control may suffer and distance will be compromised. Most of the holes are defended by the woods or the lines of trees, along with some elevated greens at the top of steep uprises. Bunkers, however, are on the sparse side. Many holes have none at all, but the bunkers on those that do are all singular and situated greenside. These tend to be large and deep. Water is also used to a limited degree, in the form of a couple of modestly-proportioned marshes, some small streams, and two small ponds.

Despite some minimalist qualities and despite being shorter than what is average (which is 6600 yards), this course still puts up an ample defense of par. From the blues, the scratch versus par rating is 70.9 against 72; the slope is a slightly above average 124. I have not played the whites here until today, and found the course significantly easier from here than from the blues, as I was hitting 8-iron through SW into about seventy percent of these greens.

The strong holes at St. Anne are markedly tougher than those that fall on the side of weak. Of the latter, most of those come on the back, especially thirteen and fourteen. These are two flat, short par-4s without significant hazards. Ten and twelve are more rigorous four-pars, but they’re also sub-350, and eleven is the easiest par-3 of a quartet which boasts none that are truly rigorous. Many of the tough holes, though, are brutal, and led by a pair of par-5s. These are the woodland fifth and the exceptionally long, hilly, and dog legged eighteenth. Seventeen, on the other hand, is the toughest short par-4, and will challenge you from tee to cup. Six and seven are the kinds of long par-4s that can also put big dents in your scorecard. The sixth usually seems the tougher of the two, a 384-yarder that not only plays uphill all the way from tee to green, but also affords no view of the putting surface on what is a longish approach shot.

The greens here are of moderate difficulty and ran today at medium/quick speed. Some of them tilt wickedly–especially 17 and 18–and several moderately. A minority are relatively flat.

Conditioning: Mainly ranged from very good to excellent. Tees, fairways and greens were all consistent. Only a few places–typically some of the roughs around the greens–could be called fair or satisfactory.

BEST HOLE: Ten is a terrific short par-4. The tee shot is blind, so beware of the downward slide of this fairway into the rough on the left. What impresses most, though, is the approach shot into a highly elevated green set into a hillside shelf on its right flank. There’s a big dropoff to the green’s left, making any recovery shot daunting from down below. The trouble is even worse on the right.

PACE: Disappointingly slow. So much so that the front-nine lasted 2 and ½ hours with waiting on every hole; the backside was comparatively better, yet the pace was still somewhat lethargic and punctuated by waits at the tee. You know things are dismal when someone from the group behind you asks, on the fourth tee, “I hope you don’t have anywhere to go later today.”

SOME CONCLUSIONS: Glacial pace of play, unfortunately, dampened what should have been a thoroughly enjoyable round. Still, there’s much to appreciate at St. Anne’s, and of course I’ll return based upon good past experiences. The atmosphere is unpretentious and friendly in the clubhouse, and on the golf course as well. Course conditioning is also impressive. Scenery is first-rate, and doubly so on an autumn day as was this.