I saw a mid-morning time on EZLinks at The Crossings for $36 and decided to give it a try on 11/03/12 as it is an easy hour drive from Charlottesville. I have played a couple other courses managed by Billy Casper Golf and I thought that the maintenance on those were just average. For the most part, The Crossings left me with the same feel, a course that could be in better condition. I did not have a very good day in general, but it did not really have much to do with the course so I will try to keep my review as objective as possible. It was a cool and windy day, and the starter put me with another single and a two some on a day when there were not many golfers out. I do not mind a little small talk but I would have rather just headed out by myself as I enjoy a time alone with my thoughts and to think through my approach to tackle how to play the course. All too often when paired with other recreational golfers I am looking for their wayward shots and there is too much starting and stopping in a group of 4 people. Plus, one of the others in my group and I were in a bunker on #10, he played and went to throw the rake to me and it bounced and hit me in the face. Thankfully the numbness in my mouth went away by the end of the round and all my teeth are still in place, but that put me a foul mood. Anyway, onto the course review now. I played the blue tees (71.6/135/6674) and by today’s standards the course is a short course, but it played a bit longer because of the longer fairways due to the overseeding. I would consider this a very tight course as most of the holes require an accurate tee shot and some almost require working the ball off the tee around the trees to get to the best spot in the fairway. So even though it is short I found it a challenging course off the tee. Holes #2 thru #4 really pinch in with a creek coming into play and holes #9 and #10 are basically played down a tunnel of trees (think Bayonet tight on these holes). The nines are pretty different and I think the front is the better nine as it has some minor elevation change, elevated tee boxes, and was routed better. The back nine was flatter with a parkland feel (many parallel holes) and I did not find it nearly as interesting as the front. The back did have hole #14 which was a 400+ yard par 4 with trouble left and then an approach over water. The approach needed to be hit from the right side of the fairway to avoid the trees on the left so it did require some strategy. The good news about the tree lined holes is that for the most part a missed shot did not result in a lost ball, just a pitch out to the fairway on the next shot. The greens rolled well and were the best part of the course in my opinion. Although the greens speed was not very fast, it set up fine because the greens had some serious slopes. Speedy greens with a bunch of slope would have made for an even longer day. The greens did not have very different levels, but many sloped from the back to the front or from one side to the other quite severely. The green complexes were interesting and had many smaller areas on them surrounded by bunkers (some greens were shaped like a clover leaf). I really liked that the course had homes only on some of the perimeter holes and it was an easy walk as I opted to walk. The variety on the par 3s were decent too as two were over water, one required a long iron, and one had a green which was not fully visible. I would not go so far to recommend the course because there are other nicer courses nearby that ask for a similar price, but I would not say avoid it either as there were some decent holes.

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