The Hollows Golf Club (Montpelier, VA on 12/09/12)

I do not normally play back to back days on a weekend. A lot of that is the cost of an extra round but also because I need a day to clean up the house, do laundry, etc. Earlier in the week I booked a noonish time at The Hollows Golf Club (played here 12/09/12) for $26 as I was not sure if I was going to be able to play yesterday. I knew that the course was on the short side (par 70 and around 6,000 yards) so while I was not the most wild about playing here I did not see any other tee times at new courses that worked and I really wanted to play. However, it was a course that I wanted to play eventually as the reviews looked pretty decent and I thought that I might be able to put up a good score. When I left Charlottesville it was a bit cloudy but a decent day for this time of year. Over the hour drive the weather turned from cloudy to foggy and got colder, maybe around 50* or so. It actually was the perfect day to sit at home with a big jug of coffee. Driving in you pass by maybe 3 or 4 holes and can see pretty much the whole course . From what I could see it was a parkland style course with a lot of parallel holes separated by pine trees. The course did not look in the best shape plus the driving range looked in pretty rough shape. I checked in and headed to the first tee. The course has 3 different sets of 9 holes (Cottage, Lake, and Road). All play a similar length and have a similar rating and slope. I played the blue tees on the Cottage and Lake nines (68.2/119/5965). After playing the Cottage and Lake it was pretty clear that the Road is a very similar set up as it ran right next to the nines that I played. Due to the weather I was hoping that not too many people would be out and while there was not a bunch of people out I got stuck behind a couple foursomes playing alone. I actually got around in 3.5 hours which turned out to be pretty quick. One thing that I noticed early on in the round was the average maintenance. I did not think that the area got a bunch of rain recently so I was surprised that the course was wet. Combine that with the thin fairways and it was tough to hit a solid iron from a somewhat muddy lie. The fairways also had a lot of divots. The conditions around the greens were a little better and the ball sat up a bit in the fairways nearby the greens, but it still was average condition at best there. The greens rolled okay but were slow, especially putting uphill so it did require some effort being firm with a putt to make it. The green complexes were the most interesting part of the course as they had some pretty big slopes and different tiers. Most of the time a short sided shot resulted in a bogey so the course did test the accuracy of short iron approaches. Because it is a parkland layout, most of the holes were close to each other which would make it a good walking course, but play from the other holes was a distraction to me. The 5th and 6th holes on the Cottage nine head towards the perimeter of the property and change elevation slightly. I thought they were the only interesting holes on the course. The 5th is a long dog leg left par 4 that is heavily bunkered off the tee and has a green guarded by a tree. The 6th is shorter par 4 up the hill that is also heavily bunkered with a large rise in the green. The Lake side had a couple water hazards come into play but nothing too difficult. The only other challenge was some more trees guarding greens which is not my favorite design feature. Even if I lived closer I would not play here much due to the lacking conditions and short distance. I think it could be a good course for a beginner as it was pretty open so most likely a bad shot would still be in play. I drove by The Federal Club on my way today and that looked like a great golf experience so I do hope to get back to the area to play that one.

Cottage #1: