Fox Ridge’s signature fifth hole is a welcome respite from the traditional links style that awaits golfers on the back nine of the Auburn course.
AUBURN – If someone tells you about just finishing playing links golf, a plausible first reaction might be to ask to see their bag tags or plane tickets from the British Isles. For the past five years, though, golfers in Central, Southern and Western Maine have been able to play a course in their own back yard with similarities to links courses you might find across the big pond.
Welcome to Fox Ridge Golf Club of Auburn, where the fescue grows as tall as some houses, the fairways roll gently over the natural hillside, and a green is surrounded by a pond.
The course is challenging – 6,814 yards from the back tees – but provides golfers of all abilities the chance to score well with four separate teeing areas on each hole, and the fairways are, for the most part, forgiving enough to cushion errant shots. The two nines, while built at the same time, feature different characteristics.
The front nine is slightly shorter than the back nine and demands more precision with the approach shots.
The greens on the front are, on average, smaller than those on the back, and some of the carries and placement of tee shots make it more difficult than the distance might imply.
The front side is also a bit more enclosed. Tee shots on the fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth holes are all guarded by trees on both sides. The gem of the front is the fifth hole, a downhill par-3 to an island green.
Escaping that hole leads golfers to a tight No. 6 and an even tighter No. 7.
The back, on the other hand, is built more in the traditional links style, with wide-open space between most holes. There is, however, plenty of fescue (long, thick, reed like grass) in the way to gobble up stray drives and approaches.
Even the par-3 holes, while short, will test a golfer’s wedge game.
The par-3s are challenging, the par-5s are long and the par-4s are tougher than average if you play from the wrong set of tees, but the reward is worth the risk as you roll across beautiful countryside while playing one of the newer courses in the area.
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