Course: Southampton Country Club

Location: Southampton, MA

Date Played: September 6, 2008

Played By: Jason

Overall Rating: 58

Friendliness of Staff: 3
Having never played here before, my expectation was that this would be a quaint course, family owned and run, and would receive stellar service. My first encounter with the gentleman in the clubhouse was made me feel as though I was a burden to him. I had arrived 5 minutes before the rest of my group and was just hanging around. When our group was ready, he emphasized a couple times that we needed to get going. While I agree that we needed to get going because of the impending rain storm that was coming in, we were still ready before our tee time. Not to mention that we needed to wait for someone to get our golf carts from that barn. Even then, the guy only brought over 1 cart and made us walk half way across the parking lot to get the other cart. Fortunately when we hit the turn in under 2 hours and stopped to get a hot dog, the guy was a bit more friendly.

Facilities/Pro Shop: 2
Just about everything that this category entails was non-existent here. The "pro shop" is actually a counter in the bar/banquet room that offers very little merchandise. I'm told there used to be a practice green, but it was torn up. The bathrooms are located downstairs, but watch your step, as it is another step down after you open the door. The bar is fairly large and there are plenty of table to hold a small banquet. There is also a nice big screen TV, but it was turned off today, with college football only shown on the smaller bar TV.

Quality/Value of Food/Snacks: 8
Bargain city here. I think it only ran me $4 for a hot dog, bag of chips and a Powerade. The dog was pretty good as well. The menu is limited, as it looks like only hamburgs and maybe sausage are offered other than hto dogs. No complaints though, as the dog hit the spot. The banquet room looked like it was set up for a buffett, so maybe they cater that out.

Fairway Conditions: 9
These are among the best fairways that I've seen for a public course in the area. They even rival some of the semi-private and private clubs. They were well groomed, very green and you really take a nice divot with your irons. Even the rough here was well maintained and there are hardly any weeds to be food. The only downer was that some spots were very water drenched from recent rain storms, but it looked like the course drained well.

Greens Conditions: 7
The one thing that I don't like about some public courses is that people show no respect to the greens by fixing their ball marks. On nearly every green, my playing partners and I were not only fixing our own ball mark, but 3-4 more that were left un-fixed. The greens here rolled surprisingly fast as they looked a little fuzzy, but you could tell that the grass was laying down and the ball would roll. A few of the greens are multi-tiered, but they almost all funnel to the hole.

Scenery: 5
There isn't much to report in terms of scenery. Fairly average. The holes run mostly side by side, with few trees lining the fairways. A road runs along the outter edge of the course, but it's not very busy. They have made some attempts to improve the view with a little gardening and hedge trimming.

Difficulty of Course: 6
This course can really give you an opportunity to go low with your score. Many of the par-5's are reachable in two and the par-4's are relatively short. The front was definitely much easier than the back, but still not too tough. I had heard that there was only one bunker on the course, but they have recently installed a bunch, with more coming in the next year. They also built a small man-made pond in front of the green on a short par-5. No worries for us though, as we were all pretty much on in two easily. The 11th hole is fairly tough, being a long dog-leg right with the fairway sloping heavily to the left. You need a pair of accurate shots to be positioned for a good approach.

Value Received: 7
It was $39 for 18 and a cart for a Saturday, not a bad deal at all. Fortunately you get all that you pay for in terms of the condition of the course. Do not expect to have a well running golf cart, as these things are ancient. The other cart in our group had an evident broken front axel, as the front wheels bowed out drastically. I'm not sure that is the safest thing you want for your golfers. It was obvious that they sink any profits they make right back in to the course.

Speed of Play/Design of Course: 7
With an impending rain storm, it was obvious that people stayed away for the day as there was no one in front of us. We flew through our round, finishing in 3.5 hours. The only design flaw would be having a par-3 as the 10th hole. I could see a lot of back-ups rigtht off the bat after the turn or for the start of leagues.

19th Hole: 4
Like I said before, the bar was a fair size, but it's right in the banquet area. They had some good beers on tap, but they also had plastic cups over them, meaning the kegs ran dry and they hadn't replaced them, so we were left to a small collection of canned beer. I didn't bother hanging out after the round, as the service and selection did not appeal to me one bit.

There was no beer cart on the course.

Comments:
It's obvious that any money this course makes is put right back in to the course, and I like that. While it would be nice to see the clubhouse updated a bit, I can't fault the owners for making improvements to the course. The condition of the fairways and greens made the golf enjoyable. If you're going to play here, make sure that you bring cash, as they do not except debit or credit cards. There is an ATM there, but plan on paying $2.50 to make a withdrawal.