Manchester Country Club - New Hampshire - USA

Manchester Country Club is an original Donald Ross design that has been undergoing renovations that are expected to be completed in 2023.

The first hole is not welcoming. It punches you in the nose. A long narrow straightaway 428 yard tree lined par four. As with many Ross designs, the further one gets from the tee the narrower the fairway becomes. Thankfully, the short par 5 2nd seems like dessert. At 451 yards it is definitely reachable. The left is very wooded, so favor the right. The fairway ends about 60 yards short of the green. Play your second accordingly. The 3rd is a 220 yard par 3 with three bunkers. The 4th is an interesting par 4. There is a stream that slices across the fairway, from the tips it is about 250 yards out. There is also a diagonal cross bunker starting about 35 yards in front of the greens left side running at 45 degrees to the right side of the green. Oh, don’t forget the three greenside bunkers. Good hole. The 5th is another long par 3 with two front bunkers, right and left. The short par 4 sixth is a birdie oppty. Decent drive will give you a flip wedge to a green with bunkers left and right. The 7th is a dogleg right with a bunker on the inside elbow. Middle of the fairway is the way to go. A stream cuts across about 120 yards from the green with front bunkers left and right. The 8th is very benign. Other than trees left, there are no hazards. The par 5 9th may be the tightest hole on the course. Big hitters can get home in two. Couple of fairway bunkers left and the obligatory two front right and left.

The back starts with a goodie birdie chance. Hole leans a little left and that side also has the thickest trees. Favor the right off the tee and there is only one greenside bunker right. The 11th is an S shaped 530 yard par 5. It is tight. You can drive thru the fairway, best tee shot is a high draw. If you can follow up a high draw with a high fade you are in luck. Otherwise play it as a 3 shotter. The 12th is a straightaway par 4. However, the fairway runs out into a ravine about 100 yards from the green. The 13th is the shortest hole on the course, slight water carry with bunkers short, right and two pot bunkers left. The 14th is a slight dogleg right. You can drive thru the fairway so pick your yardage accordingly. Green side bunkers left and right. The 15th is a fun hole. A real short par 4 at 302 the challenge is the fairway hourglasses about 70 yards short of the green. This green is also protected by six bunkers. The 16th is a 220 yard par 3, slight carry over water to a kidney shaped green. The 17th is a long par four with OB right. A stream crosses the fairway about 120 yards out and the green has two bunkers left and right. The finishing hole is a dogleg right with fairway bunkers on the inside elbow. However, you want to be left of them. These bunkers had been removed years ago but where reinstated under Ron Forse’s watchful eye.

Good not great. A couple of fun holes, but fairly predictable.

Manchester has a strong sense of its history. The club, for example, recently unearthed the fact that its original colors were yellow and red and now each flagstick sports a yellow and red flag. The course has seen some changes since 1923, but the club has shown wisdom in its hiring of restoration specialist Ron Forse. Fourteen of Ross’s original greens remain and while a few are uninteresting, there remain some fine examples of the Scotsman’s work at 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17 and 18. Ross also managed to give the player doglegs to contend with on the tees shot on almost half the holes. So falling asleep with the driver in one’s hand is not a strategy for success. And another Ross favorite, the drivable par 3, is in evidence not once but twice: on the 232 yard 4th and the 221 yard 16th. The latter is the more difficult of the two, with the green sitting on a shelf above a steep valley covered in thick rough. Sixteen is just the start of a difficult finish as it is followed by a pair of stout par 4s, each of which is capped off by an undulating green. The home hole provides an interesting bit of local lore about a pair of yawning fairway bunkers called the Czar’s nose. The Czar was a rather heavy-handed club president who declared himself the only member of the Greens Committee and then used his autocratic power to have the two bunkers removed. Ron Forse’s restoration put the bunkers back—along with their unflattering nickname. Overall I don’t find Manchester to be in the top tier of Ross’s New England work, i.e. Charles River, Essex, Wannamoisett, but it sits solidly in the next group.