The Donald Ross-designed course at Glens Falls Country Club appeared in two stages, with the initial nine debuting in 1914 and the second nine following eight years later.
The Donald Ross-designed course at Glens Falls Country Club appeared in two stages, with the initial nine debuting in 1914 and the second nine following eight years later.
5.5
You can always tell when Donald Ross was on a property or not. Did he visit the land, walk the property, visualize the green-sites, experience the routing with his own eyes? At Glens Falls – the answer to each of these questions is absolutely Yes!
Expanding the course from a 9 hole to an 18 hole course circa 1920 is essentially the course we play today.
Prior to my arrival, I had little exposure to this course in terms of information or reviews. I walked away from it wondering how in the world it stays hidden from fame.
The setting for the opening tee box is truly spectacular with a wooden bridge taking you to the teeing grounds framed with beautiful trees and Round Pond meandering all around you. While the setting is stunning, the architecture is even better. I don’t always love par 5s as the starting hole, but this one is a beauty. It’s a raised dog-leg right with a blind landing area and the fairway is split into two sectional landforms. Your opening tee shot is across the pond and leads you into the framed dog-leg.
After crossing Warren County road, the presentation of the index 1 second hole will take your breath away. It’s a long par 4 that heads downhill from the tee before sweeping back up to the right. Bunkers short and adjacent to the nicely perched green-site are a fierce deterrent. Playing through the corridor of trees, especially with Autumnal colours is truly beautiful. In every direction, Glens Falls CC gets off to a blistering start. The par 3 3rd hole is set into the corner of the property and is framed quiet beautifully with the surrounding mounds and trees.
Upon reaching the par 5 4th hole, you get your first exposure to the many blind tees shots at Glens Falls. There is a very large ridge (hill) that traverses across the golf course with at least 7 holes running back and forth across of it (4, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15). On each of these holes, the landing area is essentially blind until you reach the crest of the ridge and can see over the hill. Many of the views down to the greens are delightful, and it takes a lot of local knowledge to know where to land your approach shot on sloped terrain running away from you. You may think that almost half of the golf course is repetitive back and forth over the same hill, but that couldn’t be further from the truth given the shot-making variety that I felt you needed to hit the greens. The Ross design and angles on each of the holes is among the best I’ve seen, and holes 1, 2, 6, 9 and 17 (to name but 5) are on the short-list of the best holes that Ross has ever designed – anywhere!
The major area for improvement is the need to eliminate thousands of trees, especially along the parallel holes running over the ridge. When I think of the many other high-profile Ross courses around the US (especially in similar climates/growing conditions) of this same vintage, almost all of them have been restored – or at least a masterplan in progress. Glens Falls CC has never gone through a dedicated restoration, which would immediately eliminate trees. The potential on this site is bursting at the seams, and in my humble opinion, the justification for a restoration is sitting on their laps.
I understand that the par 5 16th green had to be moved, and I do agree that the walk to the 17th tee is much longer than it needs to be (especially having to cross a road), but this was really the only significant disturbance to the routing flow. Finishing on a par 3 back over the Round Pond is thought-provoking despite playing away from the clubhouse and walking back again. The land that Ross was gifted with at Glens Falls is superior than 90% of the Ross courses that we are all familiar with – and it’s with this basis, that I was blown away by this hidden gem. I fully agree with Ran’s inclusion of this club in the ‘147 Custodians’ and would further support the theory that no player’s education is complete without a trip to see this absolutely spectacular underrated golf course with endless possibilities for greatness.
Overall rating
5.0
Overall rating
5.0
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