Some Donald Ross courses open with a “play away” hole, a simple one that allows the player a bit of leeway to get the round started. Glens Falls is not one of them. On the opening tee shot, the golfer is faced with a forced carry over a lake. Though it’s not a long carry, it’s a challenge to remove the looming lake from one’s thought as the club is drawn back. The second shot may be blind and this challenge is repeated over and again throughout the course. I counted four blind tee shots and four more where the green was not visible on my approach. I understand that they’re only blind once, but the phenomenon does not enhance one’s round.

I recognize that this is a review of the golf course, but having a player cut in front of me on the 7th hole and then spend part of his afternoon wandering around a green talking on his phone while I was waiting to hit didn’t enhance the experience either.

The routing is not strong, with four occasions where there’s a long walk to the next tee. And the 18th finishes by taking the player away from the clubhouse. Glens Falls is an enjoyable enough course, with some strategic choices and some interesting greens, but there aren’t enough to make me think it’s anywhere near one of New York’s top couple dozen courses. There are more than that in Nassau and Westchester counties alone.