Spuyten Duyval’s Spectacular West Course

Spuyten Duyval’s West course offers two of the most spectacular and challenging holes in all of northwest Ohio.

 

The entirety of the West course has great holes, but the 7th and 9th holes are our favorite. The West course starts out with a few easy holes to challenge golfers. But once you get to the 6th hole, the challenge is on.

 

The sixth hole is dogleg left. Off the tee, you have to decide how far and in which direction to hit the ball. there is an immediate pond in front of you and to your right. There are woods down the entire right side. There is an opening in the fairway about 250-260 yards from the blue tees. You want to end up here and lay up to the heavily guarded and protected green. The left side of the fairway has very mature tall trees. If you end up too far left, you will struggle to get back to the green. It’s our third favorite hole on the West course.

 

The next hole is our favorite hole in terms of layout. The 7th hole presents a challenge right off the tee box. It’s a narrow fairway guarded heavily on both side. See the yellow circles below.

 

You start out on the tee box near the maintenance sheds. There are tall reeds and water to your left and the woods from Secor Metropark to your right.

 

What makes it even more challenging is the large water feature about 250 yards away that guards the front of the green. Do you go driver and try to get over the water to the green? Or do you want to go 3 wood and land at around 230-240 yards and then lay up?

 

The satellite pictures don’t do the hole justice. It’s an absolutely gorgeous green that is a bit sunken and surrounded by hills. You can’t really appreciate the beauty of it from satellite imagery. There is a high backstop as well as hills all around the green. It’s a really fun and challenging hole that’s always challenging.

 

The 9th hole, the red circles in the picture above, is one of the hardest holes in northwest Ohio. You need 5 perfect shots to par the hole.

 

You start out on the tee box that is set in a narrow corridor of trees. You have to be very careful. It’s a dogleg right with water features on both sides. You can’t see it in the satellite pictures, but by summer, tall reeds line both water features and make the hole even more challenging.

 

If you go right off the tee box, you’ll end up in the woods if you are short, or in the water if you are longer. It’s very risky. Try to stay left.

 

Most players will probably need to use a 3 wood or 3 hybrid to get out about 210-220 yards or so to the landing area right in front of the hills and mounds that protect the water feature on the left of the fairway. Then you could take a straight 200 yards shot down the fairway to the area just before the creek.

 

The green is heavily protected by a large pond in front of it and to the right of it. There is one bunker to the right and a lot of trees to the left. Once you lay up and land in front of this pond, you’ll need your short game and accuracy to go up and down to an elevated green, which makes it even more challenging. There isn’t a huge lip around the back to save you if you fly over the green. You need accuracy and you need to stop the ball.

 

There is a short cut you can take, but it’s really hard. You can try going over the trees and to the area just past the large pond. You need to be able to easily hit 290-300 driver shots that climb quickly and get over trees. See below picture.

 

This would be the trajectory you are going for, but it’s exceptionally difficult to go over the trees because they are so close to the tee box. We’ve watched hundreds of people try this, they are never successful. We don’t recommend this.

 

These two holes have been our favorite to play in northwest Ohio and they are on a public course. What else could you ask for? Green and cart fees are reasonable, about $16 bucks and you can play unlimited golf after 5PM for $17.

 

Spuyten Duyval is a well manicured course. Even in the dog days of summer, when we haven’t had rain in 30 days, you still have very green greens and tee boxes. This is definitely one of our favorite course and we will be back here often!

Doc
Author: Doc

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