The Club At Old Hawthorne, Columbia, MO

Have never played a course like this. First the clubhouse was very nice. Had lunch there and the food was very good and the staff was very nice. The course was in very nice condition and the greens rolled very well. It was the setup I didn't enjoy. Very wide fairways but even 1 foot into the rough found you in nearly 6 inch grass. The first hole I hit a drive down the fairway but it sloped and I nearly lost my ball 2 feet off the fairway. Only option then was hack it out. The entire course was this way, I guess making it like a US Open setup. Not a course I enjoyed even though I was hitting the ball pretty decent.

This club is more for someone looking for a "country club" than a fun, challenging everyday golf course. The clubhouse, practice area, pool and course conditions are spectacular, some of the best in the state. If anything, they may have over-built everything, given the turn in the economy.

However, the course design is quarky at best, brutal at worst. On most of the par 4s and 5s, you can't see the green from the tee You are driving blindly over or down a hill. Compounding that, is the fact that most of the fairways have bunkers in the middle. All this is supposed to be for the risk-reward challenge, but on most holes, it's difficult to determine which route is safe or which is risky.

I have played this course several time with members, and there never seems to be any consensus among them on how to play a number of the holes. Buy a yardage book and take a GPS or laser rangefinder.

Lastly, a number of the greens are just goofy. They are all large and have areas that are simply never used, because of the extreme slopes. Ungulated greens are fine, if they fit the course design and are symetrical with the hole. A number of greens at Old Hawthrone just appear to be crazy simply for the sake of being hard to play.