A cold front moved through yesterday and brought cold temperatures and quite a bit of wind so playing yesterday would have been a bit of a disaster. However, today (12/23/12) turned out to be quite a nice December day. The forecast was for low 50s and calm winds but honestly I don’t think it got warmer than 45 degrees or so while I was on the course. In fact, I think it got colder as the round went along as the clouds got a little thicker. The cold did keep many golfers away as I ended up going off by myself and did not have to wait on a shot until #16. It was one of the quicker rounds that I have ever played as I got around in 2.5 hours which included time taking pictures and writing down my thoughts about the course. The course is about an hour and 45 minutes from Charlottesville on the interstate and then on a state road for the last 40 miles.
The course is a simple layout and has a mom and pop feel to it. The person in the proshop who checked me in was a nicer old gentleman and I kind of wonder if he was the owner. Therefore I was not surprised to find that some of the maintenance was lacking as I do not think the course has a large budget. While standing on the 1st tee I noticed that the hazard off to the left of the tee was covered in moss and needed to be cleaned out. The fairways had some bare spots and maybe a third of the greens had spots that could use a good patching. Many of the bunkers were filled with water from a recent rain storm and not raked. Overall though, the ball sat up in the dormant fairways and greens, while slow, rolled fine for the $24 green fee.
The course is open except for the perimeter holes which allowed me to hit a couple wayward shots and still end up in play. The aesthetics were lacking as it actually looked like the developer took a bulldozer, cleared out as much as possible, and put in the course and a couple homes. The course was actually more interesting to play than it looked though. Doglegs, fairway bunkers, and hazards were the main challenge. I did not think that there was a stand out hole until the 8th which is one of the tougher par 4s that I have played in a long time. The hole played 470 yards with an approach to a slightly elevated green that was surrounded by trouble. As the course went along, the holes got a little more challenging. The 11th is a 618 yard par 5 that had a tricky green and the 14th is a double dogleg par 5. The 15th is a 354 yard par 4 that is a good birdie opportunity if someone can lay it up to the right spot in the semi blind fairway. The difficulty of the greens increased throughout the round too with more slopes on the back nine. I played the tournament tees at 71.8/125/6700 and there turned out to be a good mix of holes. After a bad hole I could look at the scorecard and have some hope to get a stroke or two back later on in the round. The course is a par 71 and normally I do not like par 71s. But, Hobbs Hole still has four par 5s. There are five par 3s and I hit a different club on four of them so it mixed the club selection well. The main criticism is the lacking maintenance and because of that I will not be going back. My other criticism is that there is out of bounds in spots where I think there should be hazard stakes. This would make it a little more playable for the average golfer. This would go on the avoid the list unless right next door and looking for a place to play.
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