Nine holes, twice around

This past Tuesday I played Riverton CC in Scottsville for the first time in a while. This is a semi-private course that has only 9 holes. You play one set of tees on the front and the other on the back. It has some pretty good holes, especially the first, a par five that doglegs left for about 3,000 yards or so. It just keeps bending and bending to the left. For a player like myself, who cuts the ball, this hole can play pretty tough. Oh, yes, then there is the big pond on the right that you cannot see from the tee.

The first time around I sunk a 6 footer for par on #1, a 30 footer on # 2 for par and a 15 footer for birdie on #3. Not a bad start. I doubled #4 and came back to reality after a poor drive and a worse approach from about 60 yards.

The 8th is a tough par 5 with a pond protecting the right side all the way in from about 250 off the tee. I stuffed a wedge to about 18 inches on my approach and birdied that one to get back to one over. A par on #9 ended the front at 37. Very nice.

After a beer at the turn, we hit the return trip around this 9 holer. I made a lucky par on #10 after my second shot hit a tree and bounced into the middle of the fairway instead of dead left into the Genesee River. Bogied #11 and parred 12. I managed to avoid another double on the second time around on #13 but had to settle for a bogey after 3 consectutive swings involving trees. After parring #14 and 15 I birdied #16 and finished up with two more pars for a 39.

That would be 76 on a pretty tough layout. It was about as good a round as I have played this year so far. Even though you play essentially the same 9 twice here it is a pretty good test of golf. They have talked about adding the second nine here for years now, but I guess that has pretty much been discarded.

I never think to play Riverton but when I do make it out there I find it to be in good shape (even though the traps are pretty bad) and fairly priced.