Shaker Hills

Shaker Hills has been ranked the *Best Public Course* in Massachusetts. Above is the signature 13th hole - a short par-3 that drops a whopping 90 feet tee to green.

I drove 65 miles to play it early the other day. Alarm clock went off at 4am.

So, is the course good?

Yes, definitely. I can see how it the *critics* can rate it so highly.

There are lots of elevation changes; tall trees line the fairways and preclude lofted recovery shots; the greens are fantastic; they are fast, sloped, and true; the clubhouse is nice; and it's relatively reasonable at $85 for a weekend round.

Despite some bursts of fantastic golf, I shot a disappointing 88 from the blue tees - which played a *long* 6500 yards on account of zero roll. I simply missed every single putt but one 10 footer on the first. This is a part of my game that's, still, in dire need of attention. I don't miss short putts and seldom 3-jack....I just don't EVER make midrangers or long bombs. Putting is 43% of the game, right? Over my golfing career I'll bet I haven't committed 5% of my practice time to it.

What's frustrating is that I KNOW what my problem is. It's handsiness once again. I flip the ball a bit; probably just enough to lessen solid impact; and just enough to twist the putterface at impact. Yeah, my misses are more to the right like a total bleepin' Hacker. That's it, my putting track is coming with me to the course every week henceforth.

It was tough to enjoy this round given my mediocre play, the long drive (got killed in *Cape Cod* traffic on the way back to boot), the five hours it took to play, and *cart path* only. Yeah the course was soaked from the preceding 6 weeks(!) of rain. I'm probably at risk of trench foot given how much of my past two weeks I've been walking around in saturated golf shoes. See my prior post.

Anyway, I can now cross this course off my list. I'd play it again but only if I was staying closer to it. There is another highly rated course in the same area called Red Tail that remains on the agenda.

By the way, anyone who thinks Shaker Hills is a *tough* course will be disabused of that misconception after playing Widow's Walk. Widow's is a good 5-10 strokes tougher depending on your handicap.