Course Review - The Links at Gettysburg

By Steve Gordon

General George Meade and his union army at Gettysburg expended great efforts to fortify the left and right flanks from attack back in 1863. When Lindsay Ervin was designing The Links at Gettysburg, just minutes from the famous Civil War battlefield, the designer paid great detail to protecting the flanks of the holes he designed on this South Central Pennsylvania gem.

The first shots were fired here in 1999 and the defensive line stands firm over all 7000 yards of it. I played with a long time golf partner and after nine holes head professional Jason Pandoli told us at the turn that the front nine was a warm up and the back nine was the real challenge. He wasn’t wrong.

As seniors we played a combination of white and green tees called Members tees which shrink the course to about 5800 yards with a hefty slope of 135. No matter the tees being played this course demands to be played with a combination of sound thinking and execution. This is not a course for beginners or players who spray the ball.

That said, I was in love with the course after three holes.

Many courses start you out with a couple of relatively benign holes before hitting you over the head with challenges to your abilities. Here the first hole is not really that kind of hole, and then the second hole is a 372 yard killer rated the third most difficult hole on the course. The Links at Gettysburg rocks you right out of the blocks.

Third hole from white tee

Third green with rock backdrop

I don’t want to go hole by hole in this narrative but the third hole is their signature hole. It is a downhill par three that is 160 yards from an elevated tee and all carry over waste area and a creek to a green set into the natural red rocks indigenous to the area. Miss short and you are wet. Miss long and there is a bunker between the rock wall and the green that runs away from you back towards the creek.

  

House with a view

The course winds its way through the natural terrain of the area and the homes built around it are there… but they aren’t. That is to say they don’t intrude or encroach on the golf course to be a distraction or come into play with an errant shot. The house pictured here sits atop a hill overlooking the 7th hole.

In addition to the outstanding layout and routing of the course there is a lot of water. It starts on the par 3 12th hole that features a picturesque stone bridge.

7th hole from whit tee

When I mentioned protecting the left and right flanks I had holes 13 thru 18 as well as number 7 in mind.

The elevated white tee on seven is dramatic and what you see (pictured right) is what looks like a ribbon of fairway squeezed between water hazards. The fairway is bigger than it looks but that doesn't mean it's easy to find.

The decision is how much do you want to flirt with or do you opt to play it safe. However if you hit a nice straight safe tee ball two things come into play. First is you have longer route to the green on this 560 yarder (it is 602 from the back tee). The second thing to consider is if you pound that straight drive you run out of fairway around 220 yards out.

As far as the six closing holes you better not be allergic to water. All of them have water and or 

woods on both sides with forced carries on the 161 yard par 3 15^th and the 393 yard par 4 16^th holes.

Par 3 12th hole from the tee

Overall I would rank this course in the upper tier of public courses in Pennsylvania and one I would go back to play without a second thought. The four par three holes are all very playable but beware of the 154 yard 12th that played longer than the yardage the day I was there. The water between the tee and green could have had something to do with that. 

Actually I think the entire course is very playable even with it's lofty slope rating of 136 from the 6277 yard white tees. As senior players my partner and I found it more playable and enjoyable from the Member tees with is a combination of white and green (senior) tees set at 5740 yards. 

There are a handful of par 4 holes like the second, ninth, thirteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth that play long. All of those holes are softened up using the green tees. The second and sixteenth especially with forced carries to the green that are basically hit the green or reload while on the ninth it takes a good tee shot to carry a chasm to get to the fairway before an uphill approach shot to the green.

The course closes with a shortish par 5 but that doesn't mean it's reachable at 454 yards (539 from the back tees). Once you find the fairway you have to decide how far you want to hit your next shot as the layup area is narrow guarded by water right and very little room to miss left. It is a fitting finishing hole to the round with another green carved into the natural landscape of the property.

The Links at Gettysburg is part of what is called the Raspberry Golf Trail that includes 16 top notch courses from central and southern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and down into Virginia. A membership gets you a free round after three paid rounds at these courses. You can explore that at www.raspberrygolftrail.com. 

If you just want to visit the Links at Gettysburg go to www.thelinksatgettysburg.com.

The 18th green with the clubhouse upper right overlooking this closer

Bridge on par 3 12th hole as viewed from the clubhouse

18th green and hole as viewed from the clubhouse

             
(Photos by Steve Gordon taken on a heavily overcast early spring day.)