When you stand on the very first tee at Sterling Farms Golf Club, a single of Stamford’s two 18-hole municipal layouts, you get the feeling you happen to be about to play a private course.
Behind you, on the other side of the ticket workplace and cart shack, the more agile populace compete on six tennis courts whilst, to your suitable, golfers attempt to fantastic their placing strokes on a compact practice green outside the pro shop.
Additional to the ideal, previous the ninth hole and across the parking lot,is a vastly improved and constantly packed green-carpeted driving variety, where hackers and low-handicapped golfers alike take benefit of the 25 stalls to warm up.
I had arrived early for my 12:33 p.m. tee off time on a current Friday so I could get acquainted with my playing partners — Patricia McGrath, a Stamford Golf Authority member, Don Hill and Rose Palladino, 3 Stamford residents. watch club singapore hoped they could show me the ropes to the 5,922-yard course (from the White tees.)
On the way in from Newfield Avenue, I took note of the two restaurants on the course. The Fairway at Sterling that characteristics fine dining and the Tenth Tee Grill, where golfers can sit and enjoy a sandwich or hot dog and a cup of coffee before, through or following a round of golf.
As I gazed down the very first fairway, driver in hand, I was disappointed to see that the old battered tree that for years had challenged golfers by overhanging the fairway was gone, a victim of also numerous stray golf balls. In its place stands a grove of little trees.
The very first hole is a short, quick par 4 (effortless, that is, if you never best your tee shot the way I did) that calls for a extended iron or wood down a narrow fairway followed by a brief-iron down a steep incline to a fairly flat, unguarded green.
Stepping onto the second tee is a genuine treat. This hole is one particular of the ideal — on a course that can boast extra than a few really good layouts, exactly where the fairways are nicely manicured, the greens are fair and correct, and the challenges are substantial for us weekend hackers.
A 499-yard downhill par 5 demands a good drive from an elevated tee with out-of-bounds on the left, trees on the right, and a strategically placed bunker on the left side of a fairway that doglegs left-to-correct. If you happen to be out far enough on your drive, you can try to go more than a modest watery channel to attain the green otherwise, you have to have to lay up, use a quick to mid-iron and stay clear of the bunkers guarding the greens, front left and middle proper.
The third hole is a quick par 4 that calls for a straight, but not extended, drive and quick iron, avoiding the out-of-bounds on the left and water on the correct, if you are quick.
My playing partners informed me that the genuinely lengthy hitters nonetheless cut the dogleg on the 333-yard fourth hole, but for most of us it really is a medium iron more than a drainage ditch and uphill to the green. The fifth hole is a nice, 198-yard par three from an elevated tee to a green guarded by water extended and to the left.
The par five sixth, Sterling Farm’s signature hole, is only 415 yards, but it’s up a steep hill that rises significantly over the final 100 yards to a green whose surface is not visible from the fairway.
I was specifically glad that I was riding a cart as we worked our way up the sixth, and McGrath informed me that a study by The Northeast Golf Company commissioned by the golf authority gives a comprehensive, hole-by-hole enhancement plan that will be utilised as a guide to modifications in the course as funds become obtainable. The plan suggests dramatic alterations in the sixth hole, from tee to green. (I hope they know what they are undertaking!)
The final three holes on the front nine comprise a difficult dogleg correct from an elevated tee (seventh) a straightforward, uphill long iron or wood to the eighth hole, and a longish, uphill exciting-to-play par 4 ninth that takes you back to the clubhouse (just aim for the American flag.)
Hill and Palladino, accustomed to playing only nine holes, mentioned their goodbyes and following a fast snack at the grill, McGrath and I mounted the 10th tee to attack the back nine. It starts down a steep hill — dreaded by these among us who have a tendency to hook the ball mainly because the building that houses the grill, on the left, seems to jump out at you.
