Conference 7.286::golf

1023.0. "Ipswich Country Club" by DEMSUP::BLAISDELL (Sign up for Challenge Cup 90) Sat Jul 21 1990 11:37

    Had the opportunity to play a brand new course designed by Robert Trent 
  Jones this past weekend thanks to my brother-in-law who is a member there.
  It is Ipswich Country Club located in Ipswich, a Mass. Northshore town.
  The club itself is situated in deep woods off of old Rte. 1 .  

    The course meanders in and around a home development complex.  The houses
  are huge, with 1/2 acre lots going for $300,000 ! That's just the land.
  Needless to say, the golf course is exclusive and membership dues are way
  out of the reach of us regular mortals.

    With great expectations I teed off and was impressed standing on the 1st
  tee.  The tees were better than most greens that I normally play.  But as
  the round enfolded, it became clear that the course was not living up to
  my expectations.

    The fairways are extremely narrow.  Accuracy is a premium.  I rarely 
  used my driver or felt the need to.  Most of the holes play quite short.
  Without a big wind, all the par 5's are reachable, in fact, 3 of them
  I was able to reach with two long irons.  However, I should point out 
  that I was playing from the white tees (6523 yds.).  From the tips (7023),
  Ipswich would play differently. Instead of long irons off the tee, you
  would be hitting fairway woods.  The yardages seemed off though. The 
  course did not play as long as the yardages indicated, and we were playing
  into gusty winds on most of the holes. The yardages are marked on all
  the sprinkler heads, so getting exact yardage to the hole was simple.
  Wish more courses did that.  

    Traps are everywhere!  Lots and lots of fairway bunkers which come into
  play on almost every single tee shot.  Even though most of the holes go
  right to left, I found myself playing fades to the bigger landing areas
  away from the traps. This made for longer second shots than I would have
  liked.  The driver was a temptation but with narrow fairways, a slight
  mishit and you bring the dense woods(aka jail) into play.
  
    The greens were the biggest disappointment of all.  They were slower
  than I expected and were very choppy.  Maybe most of the blame should
  rest on the membership, as there were unfixed spike marks all over the
  place. We started off in the morning as well!  Putting was an adventure.

   All in all, it is a good course, not great, but good.  In that area,
  Ferncroft is a much more difficult course and more interesting. Many
  of the holes at Ipswich had a sameness amongst them. Ferncroft has 
  a more diversified blend of golf holes.

   Oh yeah, green fees (w/cart which is required) is $50, but you have to
  know a member to get on.  I believe they do accept company outings.  


-rick_you're_roving_reporter
    

     Don't know about Ferncroft Rick, but I agree with your reply. I played
    it last year with one of the RT Jones guys who was in on the original
    building of the course (which was great, 'cause it was a freebie...)
    and our Pro. I liked the par 3's, but that was about it (even though I
    hit the first 6 greens & made 6 pars; still ended up losing money
    though...).
     I understand Jim Rice is a member. He an Bob Montgomery teed off a few
    minutes in front of us.
    
    --Jack

    Jack,

         Yup, Rice is a member there.  Saw him on the practice range with
      his two children.  Looks to be in good shape and can he ever hit
      a golf ball a looooooong ways!  Won't do him any good at that course
      though.,

         Watch out for hidden rocks at Ipswich.  On lucky #13 which has
      a big rock pile jutting into the right hand side of the fairway
      about 200 yards out,  I caught the rough on the other side.  The
      lie looked ok and I tried to muscle a pitching wedge out.  The
      wedge bounced off a hidden rock, damaging the sole extensively.
      Stuff like that, ruins the round.

   -rick