We caught some warmer weather on Thursday and decided to try playing the Longleaf course down in Fenney. Longleaf is the sister course of Loblolly, where we played on Tuesday.
Just like earlier in the week, our hope was that we could avoid the crowds that can flock to many of the executive courses at The Villages! As I mentioned in the post of Loblolly, Fenney is a decent drive south of town and not really “easy” to get to.
We got there early and sure enough, it wasn’t busy. We headed out right away and only saw three other groups. So, play down this way if you live in The Villages and want a relaxed round!
Longleaf turned out to be a fun course, but some good play always helps with the fun! The green complexes seemed more accessible than the usual greens at The Villages, so that was nice. I ended up liking Longleaf more than Loblolly because there is a par-4 (par is 28) and some mature oaks were left in play.
The 3rd is the only par-4 on Longleaf and has water to the right and a big tree that guards the center of the fairway. You really need to think about the distance and angle that you want into the green!
The 4th has another tree that guards the tee boxes and forced me to try to turn over a mid iron. The 7th is probably the other noteworthy hole because it is so tough! It is a long par-3 and has water to the right. The green complex is tricky, with a back tier and I wasn’t all that disappointed with my bogey.
The other par-3’s have a similar look and I mostly hit mid irons on those. Water lurks short and right on those holes, so the best miss is long or left.
The holes at Longleaf are closer together compared to Loblolly and therefore we were able to walk it easily. You cross two roads but there isn’t a big hike between those holes.
Like usual, the conditions were solid. The greens were smooth and the turf was still a bit firm as Longleaf is a younger course.
Longleaf is another decent nine-holer at The Villages. I heard that a pitch and putt course is being built down this way so I’ll be interested in checking that one out after it opens!
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):