LITCHFIELD – Covered bridges are now a rare commodity across the Northeast, and even though one of the newest additions to this collection isn’t made for passenger cars, it is still a unique and special addition to the landscape at the Meadows Golf Club.

“It really makes that one of the prettiest hole around,” said Meadows manager Roland Gleason. “People are starting to find the course now, and it’s been a bit busier this year than normal, which is great.”

The bridge went in last year, and is one of several aesthetic designs that continue to sprout up along the seven-year-old, 18-hole track that sits less than 20 miles from both Lewiston and Augusta.

Also included in the upgrades are several stone walls and a clear-cut of much of the low brush that used to line the fairways, making some of the red stakes unnecessary and making finding golf balls much easier, which in turn speeds up play and makes rounds more enjoyable.

“That’s the biggest thing is that it speeds up play,” Gleason said. “One of the biggest complaints at any golf course is slow play, and by making it easier to track your ball, we took a step in preventing that problem here as it gets more popular.”

The course itself is cut out of a tract of woods off of Huntington Hill Road in Litchfield, and several holes look like someone struggled at the controls of a steamroller as it carved a tight path through thickets of trees.

“There isn’t much room for error on a lot of holes,” Gleason said. “It gets pretty tight, even off the first tee.”

The course

The first hole appears to be open from the tee, but narrows quickly on both sides as groves of trees edge in at about 175 yards, making the downhill par-4 a challenge from the tee.

The second hole, though, is where things get tricky.

“I tell people that you shouldn’t hit a driver there,” Gleason said with a smirk. “Too many people just don’t listen.”

The 333-yard hole (from the white tees, 354 from the blue) seems tame on the scorecard, but if a ball travels down the hill any more than 230 yards (again from the white tees), it finds first a patch of white birch trees which act as excellent markers for distance and then a large grove of trees.

“All you need there is an iron off the tee for most people,” Gleason said.

The second shot on the picturesque hole that is also guarded on the left by a large elm tree that discourages long hitter from driving the green. The general tendency of the green is from back to front, but there are several bumps and valleys all over the green, leaving golfers without a straight putt.

The fairways on the fourth and sixth holes are two that have been re-designed with fewer shrubs and more creative stonework, and the ninth hole travels back up the hill that the first descended, a tough 370-yard uphill par-4 to finish the front nine.

On the back, golfers will find that the 12th hole is easily one of the most scenic in the area. The view from the tee is a downhill to a covered bridge that takes golfers over a small stream (more like a dry ditch in the late summer). That stream makes longer hitter think twice off the tee. From the white tees, a drive of 240 yards will reach the front edge of the hazard, while a drive of 255 or 260 will clear it.

“It really adds to the course,” Gleason said. “It’s things like that that we’ve been doing that add to the golfers’ experience.”

The green on that hole is also brutal, with a severe false front and a tiny back portion of the green which is difficult to hold if the pin happens to be on top.

“One of the biggest things on this course is to know where to miss,” Gleason said. “If you miss in the right spots, it’s not so bad.”

What’s next

In the next few years, as the course approaches its 10th anniversary (they opened nine holes in 1997), more aesthetic improvements are being planned, including the complete paving of all of the course’s cart paths as well as more brush clearing and stonework.

“There’s always something we want to try and do, it’s a matter of time,” Gleason said.

At seven-years-old, the course is still in its infancy, and with so much work already done, the little things are all that appear to solidify its position as one of the top courses in the area.