By Steve Gordon
The road trips to find new golf courses are getting longer as my golf partner and I seek out venues outside the ones we have played many times. As Group Golfer comes up with attractive offers to play new courses for reduced rates we are always on the lookout for a new road trip. And that is how we found Crossgates Golf Club in Millersville, PA.
Opened in 1994 the course sits within a community of single homes and townhouses on rolling terrain. It appears that course architect Ferdinand "Fred" Garbin (1928-2009) was thinking of senior players when he laid out his design. Residents of the community get discounted rates after an initial free one year membership after purchase of a home.
Garbin is a Penn State graduate and has over a dozen designs to his credit in central and western Pennsylvania as well as a few in Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia. He learned the craft working with James G. Harrison who is a student of Donald Ross and Garbin was involved in the redesign/restoration of several Ross courses in Pennsylvania.
Former mini tour player Jared Tester holds the course record of 63 breaking the previous record of PGA tour pro Jim Furyk by one stroke.
It starts out with a downhill tee shot on the 321 yard (white tees) opening hole that doglegs left back uphill to the green. This hole gives you an idea of what you are in store for. Accuracy is paramount over length. After the 389 yard second hole all but one of the par 4 holes are 340 or less from the white tees and even from the back tees there are no par 4's over 400 yards after the second hole.
Because of the length and design of the holes long drives can get you in trouble. There is out of bounds on every hole but the third but that holes has it's own set of boundaries set against the Conestoga River. Also 10 holes have lateral hazards on them and yellow staked water hazards exist on four holes.
Crossgates is a very playable golf course but some holes need to be seen to understand how to play them like the par 5 fourth hole which is almost a horseshoe shape around a heavily treed hill on the inside and the River on the left on the outside of the hole. After getting a solid tee shot on the fairway you do not have a sight line to the green. A relatively easy layup shot to the left center of the fairway will leave a wedge to the pushed up green. For me it's a hole I would have liked to play over having seen it.
There is a nice collection of par 3 holes headed up by the aforementioned third hole pictured above. While three is short you have to hit the green or favor the right side and maybe get a kick off the hill. Anything short is trouble and anything left and long is likely a reload. It was my favorite and most memorable hole on the course.
The greens are basically average size and mostly flat with little rolls and subtle tilts that if you don't read properly you will have putts veering away from the hole. I had one putt that for sure had to turn left toward the hole and while it was hit good speed for the distance it turned right and appeared to break uphill. We looked it over after the putt and no way did it look possible, but that is what it did.
With the course mainly made up of short holes it was a fun course to play but not a pushover. It's defense comes in the form of tight tee shots and a handful of elevated greens where you could not see the putting surfaces (see 14th green below). I had no real preference for the front or back nine.
There were however three holes that seemed out of place for the basic make up of the course. The 389 yard second hold required a tee shot to carry nearly 200 yards from the white tee over a low area then a longish shot into the green.
The par 5 tenth hole played awkward so I think that is one you have to play a few times to manage the design of it. The tee shot on 10 is OK but the second shot was confusing as the fairways stops at the top of a rise about 180 yards to the green that is still uphill from that position.
Then you reach the elevated 18th tee 530 yards from the hole with a severely sloped fairway toward a lake to hit to. Chris Martin, GM/Superintendent, said the par 5 18th hole is considered a signature hole. "It can ruin a good round in a hurry," he said.
It's 561 from the back tee and 450 from the forward tee. No matter what tee you play from and how good you hit the tee shot, all second shots are aimed at the end of the fairway guarded by a bunker and a portion of the lake. That shot could be anywhere from a 9 iron to a hybrid for senior players to a blind green surface well above the end of the fairway.
That final hole is a very good golf hole and it plays very tough. The length and challenge of it however doesn't seem to fit with the overall theme of accuracy over distance on the other holes.
Overall I liked the concept of playing for position off the tee over just blasting driver on every hole. Don't get me wrong however, you can hit driver on most of the holes but it has to be controlled. Martin added that "Many people like our short par 3 third hole. It is a good birdie opportunity if you hit the narrow green, but lots of trouble if you don't."
The road trips to find new golf courses are getting longer as my golf partner and I seek out venues outside the ones we have played many times. As Group Golfer comes up with attractive offers to play new courses for reduced rates we are always on the lookout for a new road trip. And that is how we found Crossgates Golf Club in Millersville, PA.
Opened in 1994 the course sits within a community of single homes and townhouses on rolling terrain. It appears that course architect Ferdinand "Fred" Garbin (1928-2009) was thinking of senior players when he laid out his design. Residents of the community get discounted rates after an initial free one year membership after purchase of a home.
Garbin is a Penn State graduate and has over a dozen designs to his credit in central and western Pennsylvania as well as a few in Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia. He learned the craft working with James G. Harrison who is a student of Donald Ross and Garbin was involved in the redesign/restoration of several Ross courses in Pennsylvania.
Former mini tour player Jared Tester holds the course record of 63 breaking the previous record of PGA tour pro Jim Furyk by one stroke.
It starts out with a downhill tee shot on the 321 yard (white tees) opening hole that doglegs left back uphill to the green. This hole gives you an idea of what you are in store for. Accuracy is paramount over length. After the 389 yard second hole all but one of the par 4 holes are 340 or less from the white tees and even from the back tees there are no par 4's over 400 yards after the second hole.
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| First hole from behind the green. |
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| The 118 yard (136 yards from the back tee) par 3 hole. |
There is a nice collection of par 3 holes headed up by the aforementioned third hole pictured above. While three is short you have to hit the green or favor the right side and maybe get a kick off the hill. Anything short is trouble and anything left and long is likely a reload. It was my favorite and most memorable hole on the course.
The greens are basically average size and mostly flat with little rolls and subtle tilts that if you don't read properly you will have putts veering away from the hole. I had one putt that for sure had to turn left toward the hole and while it was hit good speed for the distance it turned right and appeared to break uphill. We looked it over after the putt and no way did it look possible, but that is what it did.
With the course mainly made up of short holes it was a fun course to play but not a pushover. It's defense comes in the form of tight tee shots and a handful of elevated greens where you could not see the putting surfaces (see 14th green below). I had no real preference for the front or back nine.
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| View up to 14th green from the fairway. |
The par 5 tenth hole played awkward so I think that is one you have to play a few times to manage the design of it. The tee shot on 10 is OK but the second shot was confusing as the fairways stops at the top of a rise about 180 yards to the green that is still uphill from that position.
Then you reach the elevated 18th tee 530 yards from the hole with a severely sloped fairway toward a lake to hit to. Chris Martin, GM/Superintendent, said the par 5 18th hole is considered a signature hole. "It can ruin a good round in a hurry," he said.
It's 561 from the back tee and 450 from the forward tee. No matter what tee you play from and how good you hit the tee shot, all second shots are aimed at the end of the fairway guarded by a bunker and a portion of the lake. That shot could be anywhere from a 9 iron to a hybrid for senior players to a blind green surface well above the end of the fairway.
That final hole is a very good golf hole and it plays very tough. The length and challenge of it however doesn't seem to fit with the overall theme of accuracy over distance on the other holes.
Overall I liked the concept of playing for position off the tee over just blasting driver on every hole. Don't get me wrong however, you can hit driver on most of the holes but it has to be controlled. Martin added that "Many people like our short par 3 third hole. It is a good birdie opportunity if you hit the narrow green, but lots of trouble if you don't."
