12. Crumpin-Fox Club

Location: Bernardston (2:00 NW of Boston, 1:32 NE of Pittsfield).
Architect: Roger Rulewich, 1977/1990
Yardage: 7007 (black) / 6508 (blue) / 5432 (red).
Weekend Rates: $74. Cart + $18.
Best Deal: $44 (weekdays before May 14 or after Oct. 19).

Looking back on Crumpin-Fox's 8th hole: wow.

Crumpin-Fox Club is located far from major Massachusetts cities, costs nearly $100 in the summer, and yet their tee sheet still fills up every weekend. If gas prices stay down, I'll strongly consider a return trip out route 2 to join the crowd at Crumpin-Fox this summer. The club delivers an excellent golf course on top of its laid back, small town atmosphere - it's no wonder it is a destination for golfers across Massachusetts. The eighteen holes ramble across hundreds of acres of rural land, and almost every hole is isolated from its neighbors by thick woods. It takes an orienteering master to figure out in what direction each hole plays and where you are in relation to the clubhouse! Though cut through woods, the trees don't overly encroach on play; instead, a steady diet of elevated greens and a number of creeks and ponds combine to make Crumpin-Fox's layout noticeably difficult.

The first 9 holes at Crumpin-Fox opened in 1977, but the second 9 holes did not open until 1990. Despite the front nine being built 13 years after the back nine, the course enjoys a harmonious feel that can only result from a single steady hand guiding the design. The steady hand in this case is architect Roger Rulewich, who designs courses all over the country, but is headquartered in Bernardston. Golf courses shaped by architects in their own backyard have a storied history: Alister Mackenzie and brilliant Pasatiempo, Donald Ross and renowned Pinehurst, Henry Fownes and brutal Oakmont - the list of pairings is long. Crumpin-Fox is Roger Rulewich's cherished local design, and not surprisingly may be his best work. The watery 592-yard 8th hole is one of the best par fives in Massachusetts, the other three par fives are also outstanding, and the par threes and fours attractively zig-zag through the hilly New England forest.

Fall foliage frames the downhill 193-yard 3rd.

The course opens with two dogleg par fours before arriving at the picturesque par three 3rd hole. The difficulty of the hole is not especially its 193 yards, but its segmented T-shaped putting surface. Attacking a hole back right or back left either requires a high shot of incredible precision, or a bent shot using the greens slope to find the desired quadrant of the green. The front hole location is even more of a bear, as two deep bunkers bracket the extremely narrow target. The 5th hole would be the best hole on many Massachusetts courses, but it isn't even the most memorable par five on Crumpin-Fox's front nine! A white picket fence running up the right side gives the par five great definition as well as wonderful charm. The fairway and flanking fence swing left halfway up the hole's 528 yards, the fairway broken at the dogleg by three bunkers and rough. The hole's green is attractively located on a hilltop, sloped back to front, and guarded by four deep bunkers - the combination of the difficult green complex and the interrupted fairway ensures very few eagle putts. The 448-yard 6th hole plays down and up through the same valley the 5th plays through, and provides balance as it elegantly slides to the right up to a perched green. The 7th hole caps the army-like right, left, right, left dogleg pattern of holes 4 through 7, twisting sharply over bunkers before hopping a small pond to a green placed hard by the water. Just a little warmup before number 8!

One of Massachusetts best par fives is Crumpin-Fox's 8th.

The par five 8th hole places immense pressure on every shot. If a hole as demanding as this were located too early in the round, or in the midst of a string of very difficult holes, it might overwhelm you. But once or twice a round a huge challenge can be a good thing. At 592 yards, the green is not reachable in two shots, especially as the target is located just on the other side of a lake. The goal with the first two shots is to A) avoid the ever-present water on the left and B) advance as far up the fairway as possible to make the approach manageable. With the lake reaching to the very end of the valley, past even the green's distance, every golfer must carry the water at some point. It is not often a great hole forces players into doing a certain thing, but much like the 17th at the TPC of Sawgrass, the 8th at Crumpin-Fox demands an airborne shot to the green or a lost ball is the result. This hole is beautiful, strategic, and tough as nails.

A sliver of green is the elusive target at the downhill 9th.

Any hole would be a letdown after the colossal 8th, but the 9th hole holds its own as best it can by being very different. It measures 188 yards, to a noticeably smaller green located well below the tee's elevation. The design of the green complex, narrowing to the back right and protected in front by an angled creek and bunker, clearly calls for a high fade.

I found the back (original) nine of Crumpin-Fox to be more demanding, but less memorable, than the front nine. A full six of the nine holes have either creeks or ponds in front of their greens, making aerial approaches the only option. The woods seemed to encroach a little more overall and pinched a number of holes in the driving zone quite tightly.

Most of Crumpin-Fox's holes are isolated by woods.

The 10th, 12th, and 13th hole are mid-length par fours, broken by the 161-yard 11th hole. The demands are great despite the reasonable distances, as three of the greens are located just beyond water features. The 14th hole is an excellent reachable par five whose fairway snakes its way around intruding bunkers and trees before terminating short of a pond. The green is large but set hard behind the water, making the heroic second shot an all-or-nothing proposition. The par three 15th hole is a forced carry across the same idyllic pond; the shot measures 175 yards and is angled perpendicularly to the 14th's direction of approach.

The 16th greensite is a beautifully symmetric saddle.

The 16th hole covers 457 yards from the back tees, with a bit of an awkward late dogleg into its inspired hillside greensite. Because the hole turns to the right far (perhaps too far?) up the fairway, only drives down the left side have any sight of the green - drives safely down the right side of the fairway may have no shot at all except a vicious slice around the encroaching trees. The 565-yard 17th hole completes a wonderful collection of par fives. The drive should be faded to hold the left-to-right fairway, and the second shot poses a dilemma with a tree in the middle of the landing area. Confident shots into the narrow gap left of the tree leave a clear view and simple approach down the long axis of the putting surface. Second shots to the right of the tree have a larger landing area, but leave an angled approach over a string of four bunkers.

Left or right? Hazards abound in the last 100 yards of number 17.

Crumpin-Fox closes with an arduous par four, the green located on the far side of yet another small pond. The green itself has a couple great hole locations - a front right tongue that brings the water very much into play, and a back left plateau that requires a high soft shot to carry the pond and stop quickly.

Crumpin-Fox is an excellent golf course, but one I probably wouldn't want to play every day. The profusion of demanding shots, especially on the more clausterphobic back nine, make the course tremendously taxing to play. Individually, many of these tough holes are excellent designs; however, strung back to back to back the forced carries to elevated greens becomes tiring. Crumpin-Fox was clearly built in the era of "championship" golf courses - it features large tiered greens elevated from their surrounds, an abundance of doglegs (I count 9 out of 14 non par threes!), and water fronting fully 9 of the 18 holes. Compare this to nearby Taconic Golf Club, which presents small targets, includes a mere 5 doglegs out of 14 non par three holes, and has water or frontal bunkers in play only on a few holes. I understand the properties are different, of course, but even more striking is how much the ideology of course design has changed from 1925 to the present day. A course being "hard" has become an important measure of its greatness - just look at all the excessive lengthening being done at classic venues like Bethpage Black, site of this year's U.S. Open, or Torrey Pines, site of last year's championship. Is the relentless assault of target golf over ponds and fronting bunkers as fun as it is challenging? I would say no. Crumpin-Fox, while an unquestionably gorgeous and testing layout, is one I wouldn't frequent every weekend.

Course Rating: 7 stars out of 10

Bang for your $74 bucks: 6 stars out of 10