The routing at Lexington begins with a sloping fairway, a sign of things to come.

Lexington Golf & Country Club, Lexington, VA

by Tim Gavrich

The Lexington Golf & Country Club is a private course located adjacent to one of the town's most upscale communities, with home values averaging in the mid six figures.  (The median value of houses in Lexington is $230,000.)  The houses, however, do not encroach at all on the golf course.   Housing prices in Lexington have escalated in the last few years as people from Washington, D.C., and Richmond have begun investing in Lexington's downtown property and some of the horse farms in the area.

The original golf course was laid out in 1902 by the club's charter members and redesigned and expanded to 18 holes in 1971 by Ellis Maples and Ed Seay.  It is located just south of town and a few miles from Interstate 81.  The club permits some outside play at times of low traffic (call ahead as we did; the folks in the pro shop are very friendly and accommodating).   

Lexington is home to Washington & Lee University and Virginia Military Institute.  It is a charming town with good restaurants, interesting shops and a friendly vibe.  It is a nice place to visit, to go to school and to live.

Golf Course Setting: 7 ~~ Lexington Golf & Country Club is set on approximately 150 acres of rolling hills.  Trees come into play on most holes and make positioning off the tee critical to a good score.  Views of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains provide nice framing to many holes.  The driving range is barely 225 yards long and, therefore, permits only iron play off the practice tees.  The clubhouse sits on a hill overlooking the 9th and 18th greens and 1st and 10th tees.  

Golf Course Conditions: 7 ~~ The greens at Lexington were medium speed, mostly owing to the recent rains that had also softened the fairways that had not been mowed in a few days.  The course, whose rating and slope are fairly high for a short layout, would have played even tougher with slicker greens.  Though a little hairy, turf both on and off the greens was in fine shape.

Quality of Green Complexes: 7 ~~There are some "classical" movements in the greens at Lexington.  Most of them are pitched from back to front in varying degrees of severity. You won't find the dedicated chipping areas prevalent in modern course designs, but missing Lexington's greens left, right and especially long will make bogey a real possibility.  Lexington saves its most challenging green (by far) for last at the 18th, a kidney shaped surface with three tiers that make it tough to land an approach shot on the same level as the pin.  But it also makes for creative bank shots from off the green.

Quality of Par 3s: 5 ~~ The par 3s are not terribly compelling at Lexington.  Holes 4 and 17 are of similar length (about 170 yards), and both play across ponds to fairly mundane greens.  Holes 2 and 8 play downhill and are within six yards of 170 from the back tees.  The best of the five par 3s is the 14th, which has an interesting oval-shaped green that is slanted away from the tee and offers a narrow landing surface.

Quality of Par 4s: 7 ~~ The par 4s at Lexington are a fair challenge, but only two extend beyond 400 yards from the men's tees (total yardage 6,068).  The narrow fairways, however, demand precision tee shots.  Even for the grip-it-and-rip-it players, there are no drivable par 4s.  The most compelling four-shotters at Lexington are holes 10 and 12, both of more than 430 yards from the tips that call for the player's best drives and accurate long irons.

Quality of Par 5s: 6 ~~ The four par 5s at Lexington provide the golfer with four great chances to gain ground on par.  They are all reachable in two, although the 6th green is protected by a stream and should be approached with caution.  The strongest of the par 5s is the 11th, which calls for a tee shot that bends right to left to a fairway that tilts down in the same direction.  The second shot is a downhill thriller to a green benched into the side of a hill; shots that run through the green will leave the player with a steep uphill pitch.

Routing of Golf Course/A Good Walk: 7 ~~ Because of its relatively short length and the proximity of most tees to the previous greens, Lexington is an enjoyable course to walk.  The presence of ample trees and shade also provides welcome relief from the summer heat.  There are a few healthy walks from one green to the next tee, but they are nothing like the distances on more modern courses.

Overall Rating: 6.5-7 ~~  On its small scale, Lexington Golf & Country Club is an enjoyable course.  It has classic good looks, a well-groomed landscape and enough variety of shots to retain a player's interest over many rounds.  In styling, it stands in stark contrast to the brawny Vista Links, the other quality course in the area that was reviewed here earlier.  Lexington requires more brain than brawn.

Lexington defines classic private country club...except non-members can play it. 

Lexington Golf & Country Club, 141 Country Club Road, Lexington, VA, 24450,

(540) 463-3542

Yardage, Rating, Slope:

Back tees:          6,365, 71.2, 135
Men's tees:        6,068, 70.0, 131
Women's tees:    5,293, 71.5, 126

The 2nd at Vista Links features a large rock outcropping that guards the left half of the fairway, setting up a risk-reward lay-up shot.

by Tim Gavrich

The Vista Links, a daily fee course located about six miles from Lexington, VA, and Interstate 81 in western Virginia, opened in August of 2004.  Designed by Rick Jacobson -- a former member of the Nicklaus Design team - the course provides an engaging trip through the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills, with heaving fairways, rugged bunkering, and undulating greens.  I judged it on a 1-10 scale (1 being ‘repulsive' and 10 being ‘incomparable') in the following categories:

Golf Course Setting: 8 ~~ Vista Links is sited on a large and hilly piece of property just under 1,000 feet in elevation, which adds a little distance to the longer shots.  The player is afforded many wonderful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains at points throughout the round.  Despite the haze on the day we played, the scenery was well worth the trip and certainly worth the modest greens fees.

Golf Course Conditions: 6 ~~ The greens rolled fairly true, but they were not terribly fast.  They were reasonably firm, to be expected in a three-year-old course, but most well struck iron shots stopped just a few feet beyond their pitch marks.  The fairways were quite wet and had not drained very well from the previous afternoon's rain.  In addition, the grass on the fairways was quite long, so we were not able to enjoy as much roll over the wide, dramatic landing areas.  On days of firm, fast fairways and greens, shot making would be at more of a premium, with extended drives but also with the risk of rolling through fairways and into Vista Links' deep and large fairway bunkers.

Quality of Green Complexes: 8 ~~ Undulations-subtle and marked-dominate the greens at Vista Links.  The greens are of average to slightly larger-than-average size, but designer Jacobson has built some nooks into the corners of the greens, making for challenging pin positions and the sense the greens are smaller than they actually are.  Bunkers are generally large and deep but fairly easy to negotiate around.  Shoulders and small chipping areas at most greens compel extra thinking on recovery shots (e.g. whether to pitch into or over a slope bank, or to chip or putt).  However, because the grass at greenside was not cut low, balls hang up on the down slopes, limiting some of the variety of recovery shots and making up and downs a little easier.  With less grassy slopes to carry the ball down the hills, Vista Links would play significantly different, and harder.

Quality of Par 3s: 7 ~~ The four par 3s at Vista Links were each different and interesting.  Two of them (the 5th and the 13th) played significantly downhill.   We would have liked to see more variation in length among the par 3s; from the back tees they play at 148, 186, 152, and 181 yards.  The highlight among them is the 5th hole, which plays sharply downhill to a large green above a small valley.  It is the most visually intimidating hole on the course and, interestingly, the only hole on the course without a bunker.  The green is situated such that any shot hit beyond the back edge will kick down a hill into an unplayable lie (assuming the ball can be found in the high and thick grasses).

Quality of Par 4s: 8 ~~ Vista Links' 10 par 4s are of high merit.  Though none of them bend sharply to the left or right, gentle turns in the fairways necessitated a solid array of approach shots.  The two shortest par 4s-the 4th and 11th-are not drivable, but they provide risk-reward opportunities that can leave the golfer with either a very reasonable birdie putt or a hard-fought par.  Each nine closes with a 460 yard-plus par four, with the 18th-a 467 yard hole that challenges the player to cut off as much of a deep complex of bunkers as he dares on his final tee shot-being the longer of the two.  The best feature of the par 4s at Vista Links (the par 5s, too) is that the golfer may hit driver on each.  There are no forced lay-ups, and the boldest players may "swing for the fences" (but beware if you go over one of Vista's few fences).

 
Quality of Par 5s: 7 ~~ The four par 5s at Vista Links are each a nice change of pace from the other holes.  They vary in length such that for lower-handicap players, two of them are generally reachable in two.  The most compelling par 5, though essentially unreachable in two, is the 2nd hole.  At 587 yards from the backmost tees, it is the longest hole at Vista Links.  The fairway is a few stories below the tee, and a well-placed drive sets up a fantastic risk-reward lay-up.  The conservative play is to a wide (though sharply tilted) fairway, leaving a blind third shot of about 150 yards.  The aggressive play is to challenge the rock shelf that dominates the left half of the fairway, leaving an open approach of less than 100 yards to the green.  It is the beginning of a pleasing set of par 5s.

Routing of Golf Course/A Good Walk Not: 5 ~~ This is the area of weakness at Vista Links.  It is not a golf course that one would be happy to walk, as there are many switchback cart paths on the steep hills that are laid out like the famed Lombard Street in San Francisco, as well as some very lengthy journeys from greens to tees.  The essentially treeless course offers little protection from the hot sun during the summer.  The heat, combined with long walks over many hills, makes Vista Links a golf course best enjoyed from a golf cart.

Overall Rating: 7 ~~ Vista Links is a solid golf course, and a tremendous bargain, with greens fees and cart under the magic $50 mark.  On wet days, the course requires more muscle than it will on days when tee shots are getting some roll down the fairways.  Nevertheless, Vista Links overcomes its less-than-compact layout and walker-unfriendly nature by being challenging, fair and great fun.  If the true test of a course is whether you would like to play it again, then we liked Vista Links and hope to play it many times in the future.

The Vista Links, 100 Vista Links Dr.,Buena Vista, VA 24416, (540) 261-4653
Par 72
Yardage/Rating/Slope:
6855/72.1/127
6447/70.1/124
6057/68.1/118
5466/65.9/105
4924/67.7/111

 

The dike at Pawleys Plantation holds the tee boxes for #13 (shown here) and #17, two challenging par 3s.  New sod will be added to tees next week.

    Some of my fellow members at Pawleys Plantation in Pawleys Island, SC, are starting to grouse about course conditions and apparent plans to add more rough to a Jack Nicklaus Signature course that is already tough enough.  The recent departure of the club's pro and the serious illness of the course owner have just added to the sense of anxiety.    
    The coastal areas of South Carolina have received little rain over the last two months, and the fairways and greens at Pawleys are starting to show the effects.  We are used to almost universally good lies in the fairway, but yesterday we had to move the ball a few times from bare spots.  The greens were also a little thin in the grass category, although few putts rolled anything but true.  Frankly, coastal courses like Pawleys Plantation go through these cycles with the grass, and we are not overly concerned about the long-term conditions.
    But what members seem most concerned about are the painted white lines that signal gnarly Bermuda rough will narrow the fairways and be brought much closer to greens that already have more than enough trouble around them.  Pawleys was built early in 1988, at a time when the still-learning designer crafted his layouts to suit his personal playing style -- i.e. to hit high shots into greens.  Pawleys' greens are firm, well bunkered and not very deep.  The few greens that are deep are also narrow side to side.  Add the complexities of ocean breezes to a course that is less than a half mile from the Atlantic, and encroaching rough will make the already brutal course even tougher, no matter what tees you choose. (From the tips, at 7,000 yards, the course has a 75.3 rating and 146 slope; from the blue tees at 6,500 the rating is 72.5 and slope 137.)
    The club's management has made a number of improvements to the course over the last year, investing in sodding to improve the off-fairway areas and replanting a few greens that were having trouble growing grass.  Next week, they will re-sod the dike that holds the tees for the 13th and 17th holes, both signature par 3s over the marsh.  These are all improvements that are good for members and for attracting resort play that helps keep dues low.  But unless club owners are expecting to host a U.S. Open, they should leave rough enough alone.

As if narrow, well-bunkered greens are not challenging enough, Nicklaus puts a live oak in a large trap that guards the right half of the fairway just 70 yards from the green on the par 5 11th.  Course management plans to bring the rough in closer to the fairways and around the greens.