Longest Public Course in Rhode Island

Posted by John

July 2, 2010

Rhode Island’s newest and longest public course opened in April of this year. I had the chance to play it with a couple of friends last week. We’re geezers so we played the Green tees at a little over 6500 yards. Had we been feeling our Wheeties we could have teed off on the Blacks which come in at just over 7400 yards.

This course is owned by the Hendrick family who have been in the golf business in the state for over 40 years and own two other good 18 hole layouts. A rarity these days in the golf business, they’ve proven that they know how to make money. Unfortunately, they started building Meadowbrook before the recession.

What else to do but soldier on and complete it. The Rhode Island golf market is difficult these days with player rounds down and many private courses struggling to keep up their membership numbers. The Hendricks will have the tough job of bringing this course along without digging further into their own pockets.

Once you set foot on the course it’s clear that it’s brand new. The greens, tee boxes and fairways are in good shape. The rough and the finer points of landscaping are a work in progress. Overall, I like the layout. It has potential, but reaching it will depend on how much stomach the owners have for investment. We’ve already seen what happens at a very good course, Newport National, that runs out of cash. That one actually went under, was sold to another owner and has stayed open, though they still are using trailers for a clubhouse and have only the most basic facilities.

I don’t think anyone would deny that Meadowbrook could become one of the premier golf destinations in the state, but it needs a lot of finishing touches to get there. The rough is sketchy, but that’s to be expected in the first year. I’d say the course could use another 15 traps to make it really interesting. These don’t have to be the giant traps that US courses most often build. With Meadowbrook’s rolling fairways, a few carefully placed, small pot bunkers would make a lot of difference, forcing players to shape shots, manage distance and play more thoughtfully.

For a new course, the greens were excellent. They are hard, as in very hard, but this makes for more challenging golf. If you fire at the pins from any distance, you’re very likely to find yourself off the back. I thought the greens rolled fair. With their tremendous size, over 9000 square feet, you can end up with putts that feel they should be teed up. Needless to say they have an almost endless selection of pin locations. Add to this five sets of tee boxes (yes, you read that correctly – 5) and this course can play different every day for the entire season.

I loved the 8th hole which reminds me of something you might find in Scotland. The tee box is elevated and looks on a gradually rising fairway that turns right. Where you’d like to land your tee shot are a couple of middle of the fairway bunkers. If you avoid these you have a dicey shot to a steeply mounded elongated green that angles away from the golfer. This is the kind of hole that challenges you every round.

On the back nine, the course moves more into the woods, but also has large open fairway sections where holes come together. Ultimately I’d like to see some landscaping to separate the fairways, but then again I’m not the one who has to pony up the dough. One thing the course is missing, as it is at many public tracks, is a practice area/driving range. If you’re going to be a top notch course, good players will expect a place to warm up before they play. I’d also like to see some seed mixture on the par 3 tee boxes and more rakes in the traps. It’s a real pain to have to walk to the far end of a twenty yard bunker to clean up after yourself!

Bottom line, the course could become a classic or just a very long public course that will attract outings and the once or twice a year visit from the average amateur. I don’t envy the Hendricks having to negotiate a course greening during an economic downturn. They ultimately have plans to build a big new clubhouse, but for now the remodeled version of the old one will have to do. By the Fall we should have a much better idea of where Meadowbrook is headed to greatness or just another very long loop.