Waumbek Golf Club

Waumbek is my favorite golf course. I love that it is so spacious and challenging. It gives "in the rough " a new meaning. Absolutely fabulous views. I wish I lived closer so I could play there every week.

At Waumbek, what immediately makes a strong first impression are the classically-styled yet brand new clubhouse and how its siting supplies a superlative view far off into the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, with several handsome golf holes lying below. The course, however, is historic and has withstood the test of time: the original Waumbek nine opened in 1895, making it New Hampshire’s oldest golf course. Closed after 2022, Waumbek Golf Course has been renovated under new ownership–and reopened last year. Now properly conditioned (with two new holes added) and so playing presumably like the original architects had planned it, there is a jaw-dropping difference between the last time I played here four years ago and today!

Waumbek’s short, gorgeous opening hole seems simple, but in reality requires real skill and finesse to play well because the drive must be accurate and the approach well-judged. Still, it should get you off to a good start. Playtime is quickly over by the second tee, where you face a stern, uphill par-4 that culminates on a raised, forbidding, green that looks much like a Seth Raynor design.

The rest of an utterly compelling front side follows, and it features several large swings in uphill/downhill movement, greens that are cleverly positioned, and fairways that sometimes prove tricky to hit and hold. The back nine lets up, if only mildly, by allowing you some real opportunities to score on a trio of short par-4s (10, 13, and 16) and a postage stamp par-3 of 125 yards. Yet these holes are counterbalanced by a pair of difficult par-5s, along with the formidable par-4 twelfth, which runs 400 yards–playing uphill all the way.

The course is a driver’s paradise by virtue of well-designed fairways, a variety of hole shapes, and plenty of downhill and uphill shots where the targets are quite visible–all of which help to narrow the focus. Perhaps four holes here are driveable, but a couple of them are only hittable for quite long and very straight hitters.

One of the marks of most great courses is that few, if any, of their holes are routine or predictable. Not only do all of the holes hold at least some interest at Wambek, many of them are of strong design. These include 2, 3, 6 and 9, along with four or five more on the back nine. Even the short holes here–and there are several–have been well-conceived, yet their variety, too, is outstanding, and each one puts forth a different test.

Nearly all of the Waumbek greens are impressive, and only a few relatively flat. Many undulate and tilt markedly. Green complexes also benefit from clever use of ground movement, and some of the falloffs (most common off the backs of the greens) can make your next shot quite hard after a missed approach. A good number of them run away from the player on approach shots, and so a high, spinning shot may yield the best result.

The three par-5s are memorable, with the brutal and devilish closing hole perhaps hardest to forget. Hole three also requires great skill to play, running downhill to a superb–but not overly generous–driving zone from the tee. Allowing for strategic options, the second shot may be your attempt to reach the putting surface. The third’s small and imaginative green complex is distinctively old-school.

Two Top-Notch Holes:

Best par-3: The ninth (202 yards). From the box, the hole struck me as if it were hitting uphill, but on the green I saw that it had clearly played downhill–an optical illusion! The green itself runs downhill away from front to back, making it tough to hold with a longer club, yet the large putting surface is perfectly proportioned to accept a longer iron or fairway wood.

Best par-4: The twelfth (404 yards). This bucolic gem of a par-4 is beautifully scenic, disclosing a mountain backdrop behind its green. It is also as good as a par-4 gets: a long curving fairway makes this a first-rate driving hole; the approach requires precision. Twelve plays uphill from tee to green, and the putting surface strongly tilts back to front.

A Hybrid Style?

You generally won’t find yourself pitching back to the fairway from the trees at this course, although that is quite possible; instead, it more often will be–after an errant drive–out of long, thick rough. Waumbek would commonly be called a “links-style” course in American parlance, and indeed it is so to a degree: a certain openness; toss and roll to the fairways; bump and run golf around the greens. Yet it also fits a more comprehensive British style: heathland, an inland creation which itself adopts quite a few aspects of links courses. Heathland courses are a bit more expansively open than parkland courses, but not as much as true links, because a heathland contains far more trees than their seaside counterparts. As such, this is a hybrid style. Heathland courses also lack the pervasively manicured look of parkland courses, and specifically this pertains to the coarse grasses of their deep roughs. The deeper roughs at Waumbek resemble those of the heathland style; moreover, in many ways this is more of a

hilly layout with some extended and steep slopes—far more rugged than the typical links, more akin to a heathland.

In short, then, Waumbek certainly demonstrates several of the key qualities of heathland courses, a style which originated in southern Great Britain. There, many outstanding heathland courses have been created by James Braid, Hebert Fowler, and Harry Colt. The British Open rota course Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s partially fits the heathland definition. Exemplifying this style well In America is Tom Doak’s Legends Heathland in Myrtle Beach.

Some Conclusions:

The newly renovated “Waumbek Golf”–which is mostly unchanged since Ralph Barton’s mid-1920s modifications to the first iteration of the full eighteen holes by Arthur Fenn–is a seriously fine example of Golden Age American golf architecture. I enjoyed every minute of my attempt to subdue these fairways and greens, and look forward to returning. The fine conditions and quality of the layout support its excellent value, and I would count it among the most desirable venues to play in all of New Hampshire. Whichever you prefer to call it, links or heathland style, this golf course is a winner.

Although Waumbek Golf Club impresses with its fine layout, the course also boasts dramatic vistas to the spectacular Presidential and Cherry-Dartmouth Ranges not far in the distance. I enjoyed my round on a pleasant summer day, having fun trying to outmaneuver these clever holes devised in stages by three ‘turn of the 20th century’ or Golden Age architects: Willy Norton, a Scotsman, and the American designers Arthur Fenn and Ralph Barton. Barton was the last of the three to put his imprint upon this course--as the club’s website details, along with its fascinating history. The excellent New Hampshire-born designer was also instrumental to some degree in the creation of a few C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor masterpieces.

This scenic course begins on a high tee with a breathtaking view of Mount Martha (Cherry Mountain, elevation 3,557). Mount Washington, nearly twice Martha’s height, is visible from the second hole and the clubhouse’s front deck. Winding its way past maples, white and black birches, spruces and pines, the layout supplies excellent ground movement for golf. It rises or falls--or both--on every hole. It’s routing moves around unpredictably (follow the signage closely) as the architects apparently designed each hole around the best available green site. The course features excellent variety, small greens, wide fairways that allow for strategic play, and an openness favored by Scottish designers, whereby the trees are never overwhelming. The latter quality also lends most of the holes excellent views to the enormous mountains behind them.

Par-4’s:

Part of Waumbek’s strength comes from three par-4’s, all measuring about 400 yards. Two, a grueling uphill tester with OOB left and its green perched upon a plateau, requires a sound drive and well-judged approach. The uphill sixth threatens even more in the hilly driving zone, while the twelfth is equally stout tee-to-green, where the tee shot is faded around some trees for an ideal line of attack on the second shot. The approach is well played, I found, by running the ball onto the surface. The hole culminates at a larger, pitched green, so tilted that three-putting may be the rule.

The shorter four-pars generally require finesse, especially with a wedge or short iron, rather than pure power. No less than eight of these holes, ranging from 300-350, appear on the card, and they vary in intensity from the drivable, downhill, picturesque 13th to the ornery 16th (the one hole on the course I disliked, primarily for its awkwardly strange landing area). But fifteen is a great short hole, especially for its plateau green, which is nonetheless shallow and small. Any miss leftward will require a strong recovery up to the putting surface.

Critics may find Waumbek’s short par-4’s outdated, but I would disagree with them: their small, sometimes radically sloped surfaces make every approach a bit dicey, and gauging exactly how far to hit, whether uphill or downhill, will test you. The fourth, for example, has a diminutive punchbowl green set by the road, so missing the approach by much will likely be damaging. These are sound drive-and-pitch holes.

Par-5’s:

3, 11 and 17 are well-designed, and only the last of these three, playing uphill, is unreachable for all but bombers. The third, a classic, runs downhill from a high tee to that falls gradually in tiers, with woods guarding the fairway on the left. It can be played as a two-shotter without great risk, as long as your miss is to the right.

Par-3’s

Of the four, only one is short, but it’s a corker: the 120-yard 14th, flanked tightly by large-ish bunkers and elevated above grade. Unsurprisingly, the small green demands a precise tee shot. I also like the back-to-back 200-yarders before the turn, made challenging again by seemingly undersized greens to be hit from long range. Then there is the stringent closer, possibly the course’s best hole, a 220-yard brute travelling straight uphill to a green defended by the tall, steep knoll upon which it sits. I hit a 3-wood that landed just before the surface and bounded 40 feet past the pin, leaving an intimidating downhiller.

Course Conditioning;

The one fly in the ointment today, conditioning did not match this layout’s quality. The central problem was the fairways: some were good, yet most had light patchy areas with some bare spots. The roughs were also inconsistent; they weren’t helped by grass clippings left behind in too many places. Greens were better, though running at below-average speed and a bit wobbly on some short putts. Fringes and greeside grass could be patchy. All in all, the course was playable but disappointing in this regard.

Some conclusions:

Waumbek is a good value choice despite conditioning shortcomings. Some golfers won’t agree, and I get it. For me, though, playing these eighteen delivers a solid experience, a point that supersedes the matter of weak or middling fairways. Waumbek’s mountain vistas are unbeatable and the friendliness of the Course Managers, Maryann and Joe, is outstanding--easily the best I’ve experienced this year.

Waumbek is a short course with very small greens and stunning mountain views. The course conditions left a lot to be desired. Very shaggy beat up tee boxes, bunkers that need attention, and fairways that seem more like first cut rough. This course really needs some TLC. This was our third time playing it in a 8 year span and the course seems to be going downhill.

Course is interesting. Plays quite a bit shorter than it's stated yardage. Small, challenging greens that roll reasonably well, though a bit bumpy in places. Nothing stands out as great, but the variety of holes keeps your interest throughout the round, which is nice. Well worth a try.