Maplewood Golf Club

If you want breathtaking views beautiful mountains as your backdrop, and challenging holes dropped in you need to play Maplewood. And a Par 6 16th hole I have birdied twice !!! The lodge/ clubhouse is a special stone fronted Victorian era masterpiece. Must see and play....

The first hole at Maplewood sweeps gently uphill alongside Route 302. On the other, right side of the hole marches a rhythmic line of huge pines. The open fairway ahead invites us to swing away. For the second shot, though, the hole's complexion changes. No longer so inviting, the right tree line tightens all the way to the green, which sits hard by the road. Such a threat may make one's choice a conservative hybrid or mid-iron, leaving a short pitch for the third. A bold player, instead, may hazard a direct strike at the green, but the shot had better be precise. The first hole's defenses remain firm around the green, pitched as it is above grade and crowded by flanking bunkers. A pitch shot run onto the surface from green's front, narrow left side crosses uneven ground; it supplies an element of risk even here. At least the green itself presents only minor difficulties.

The artistry of a Donald Ross golf hole impresses from the first stroke at Maplewood. Playing here—a pure delight—demands high skill and an almost ingrained patience. Each golfer must analyze the options a Ross hole suggests, then decide on and play confident shots, often adapting them to certain key hazards and threats. In this regard, good choices will lower the final number on his or her scorecard.

Today my son and I enjoyed playing Maplewood on a lazy summer afternoon. This was his first time here and he came away impressed, as did I. Maplewood again demonstrated to me Ross’ infallible sense for what tests good golfers. After all, he himself competed at the highest levels, winning tournaments nationally and in the New England region from 1903-1911.

Over a stretch of 29 years (1910-1929), Donald Ross built twelve New Hampshire courses. The first nine at Maplewood was completed in 1914; another was added in 1928. In 1914, Ross was just coming to prominence as an architect; by 1928, he had just finished masterpieces such as Seminole in Florida and Aronimink in Pennsylvania.

MORE ON THE LAYOUT:
Another good shot-making option at Maplewood comes at the downhill 3rd (338 yards), where the possibility of driving the green presents itself: draw the ball around the bend, where huge trees reside, or hit a straight and shorter shot to the right, a safe layup. The more tempting, but quite dangerous option is the first. Pull off a draw well, though, and be rewarded with a much shorter, simpler pitch into the tiny green, a surface heavily protected by large traps.

Similarly, the 361-yard downhill ninth is within range of longer hitters; still, my son the bomber came up 40 yards short; I myself could manage 60 away. Nine's miniscule green, without bunkers but sunken and best reached by running it on, may confound even the careful golfer. Landing the ball in its center may well yield a poor result: a shot that rolls off and down the rear embankment.

Twelve is a cunningly-built Ross special—a 201-yard downhill par-3. Smacking a mid-iron or hybrid should suffice for most. With the pin anywhere near the front, however, a problem crops up, with the green dropping away decidedly from front to back. Running the ball onto the surface works, or maybe hitting a high fade; the trees will block a draw.

Another hole that requiring careful thought is fourteen. On this short and ultra-tight 286-yard par four, you may consider going for it, especially because there's breathing room on the green's right side. A simple 5-iron down the middle may be the better choice, given the out-of-bounds left, the marsh right, and a fairway thirty yards in width.

BEST HOLE: SIX (411 yard par-4): Maplewood has a number of burly par fours on the front, but the best may this uphill blockbuster. The drive emerges from of a chute of trees and into an open fairway which bends slightly left around a small copse. Fair enough, but after this, Ross pulls out all the stops: uphill approach through two sentinel trees before the green; rolling slopes and ridges to deflect greenside shots; the green itself a punchbowl and no easy two-putt. Tee through green, this par-4’s brilliance continues to glow.

MOST FASCINATING HOLE: ELEVEN (168 yard par-3): Hmmm, what possessed Ross to come up with this oddity? Extend him credit for unconventional thinking. From 168 yards, we are expected to strike an absolutely laser-straight tee shot steeply downhill to thread the narrowest of openings for a GIR. With the front 'tongue' of this green a mere eight yards wide, and the back lobe 14, the green's dimensions are stingy. Some may say it resembles a glorified pitch-and-putt creation. Just to put an exclamation mark on things, Ross edged the majority of green 11 with wall-like, flowing mounds. Short pitches played onto the carpet here are anything but routine ones.

MOST EXCITING HOLE (16: 614-yard par-6): On the tee at 16, the distant green appears to be in the next county (you may need a good pair of binoculars to sight it). For the Brooks Koepkas of this world, a driver/3-iron combo might well be adequate to reach the putting surface after two routine swishes at the ball. For the rest of us, it's an invigorating challenge. I wonder what clubs Bobby Jones was hitting at Maplewood’s 16th (?) when he played here, at age fifteen, in a 1917 exhibition.
Ross has populated Maplewood with several other holes that generate intriguing options—some subtle, others complex—along with often severe, undulating greens, all promising a full test of your ball-striking abilities and short game. Further, smart planning along with adequate course knowledge will go a long way toward shooting your best score. Maplewood may appear ‘short’ by modern standards at 6,167 yards (blues), yet this is more than offset by the difficulties of the layout’s contours and its strategically-placed hazards.

It is not alone the attraction of a shot-maker's layout that should bring serious golfers to Maplewood; just as seductive is the course's beauty. The vintage hotel sits at the entrance, basking in the summer sun, exerting a majestic presence as golfers play the first, sixteenth and eighteenth under its gaze. Beyond this, the parkland vistas, the New Hampshire forest, and the solemn mountain backdrops once and again fall in and out of view.

Other comments, facts & opinions:
(a) The staff is friendly here, both at check-in and around the clubhouse. I met one of the cart attendants, Spenser Stephens, who talked golf with me. A two handicap who has won a tournament at Hooper (which we happened to play yesterday), Spenser’s favorite holes here are 4, 5 and 16.
(b) First-rate amenities, led by a spacious veranda and indoor lounge (with bar) and décor fitting the era in which this hotel and course were built. The Donald Ross statue is a great touch. If we didn't have a place In N.H., I'd stay at this resort without hesitation.
(c) Conditions improved over 2019, and it’s excellent for a public-access course.
(d) On the drive north to this destination, views of the White Mountains are incomparable.
(e) I've played Mountain Washington, another highly rated Ross gem nearby, many times. Maplewood is comparable—and an even better value. It's ranked #9 among the top ten New Hampshire "Golfer's Choice" selections from Golf Advisor. Clearly, Ross was at home in New Hampshire mountain settings. Links magazine calls the feel of his Balsam’s Panorama resort course, critically acclaimed and arguably the best of its type, as having a “palpable sense of Ross’ genius.”

Had a nice round at Maplewood. The covid19 restrictions were oddly over the top compared to other courses - i.e. can't go inside or use the bathroom without a mask on, must take out even unused scorecards, pencils out of the cart at the end, not allowed to touch the flagstick, rake any traps or touch anything else. Was just uncomfortably odd, but course in pretty nice shape.

It's always a great time at the Maplewood. Considering the weather we've had and the time of year the conditions were very good. I will be back multiple times this year.

Great views, good variety of holes, a Par SIX!? Play this course!

It's always a treat to play a course designed by one of the greatest golf course Architects ever in Donald Ross and Maplewood, Golf Course delivers. Having played a few of his courses and watching the pros play at his venues, I can see various Donald Ross touches throughout. From the natural use of the terrain to the smallish size, shape and slope of the greens, to the use of gently rounded, shallow bunkers that penalize errant approach shots. I can't help but think of what he must have been thinking more than 100 years ago as he walked these grounds and made his many decisions.

Maplewood begins with short "gettable" par 5 followed by a very difficult and long par 4 that is lined tightly with some of the oldest and tallest pine trees I have ever seen. Naturally I had to snap hook into them, punch out, and eventually take a double bogey. The course then leads gently upward with some seriously sloping fairways that will seriously test your abilities. #5 became an instant favorite and the Par 3 #11 hole is gorgeous. The final 7 holes remain relatively flat but each has something to offer.

While Maplewood may not fall into the 'pristine' category, There is a definite level of quality golf conditions that I can appreciate including greens that are well cared for, consistent, and true. There are opportunities to score and there are opportunities where you will be tested. The 656 yard Par 6 # 16 being one of them. That's not something you see every day so it's just fun. I've never before carded a bogey 7, but I did on this day.

The only issue we had all day that the "turn" doesn't exist in the traditional sense at Maplewood. To get to the clubhouse after 9 requires stopping before teeing off at 10 and crossing the road and then back again. Not being at the clubhouse at 9 feels like an interruption. It's not a big problem, just unusual. As we missed this move after 9 and we had to run to the Clubhouse after hole 11 with a trek back through Hole#1. I imagine the regulars have no problem with this. Lesson learned!
I wish we had more time to hang out at the clubhouse which did look inviting and there has to be some history there that I would have loved to learn more about.

Finally, I do suggest taking a moment to enjoy the view from time to time. I believe especially around holes 9, 10, and 11. It's these moments which remind us that golf offers not only a unique crafted challenge everywhere we play, but also the very simple joys of being outdoors and immersed in nature. Enjoy!

Maplewood Golf Club is the kind of place that I didn’t at all mind travelling for an hour to play. The drive itself, up through the mountains, was gorgeous on a perfect summer day, and playing the course was a rewarding experience. One might be tempted to call the course the proverbial “hidden gem,” but, as it was swarming, virtually, with players (and this in a remote locale in which you’d never expect to see this many golfers) it would be inaccurate—grossly so—to call the course ‘hidden.’ Despite the swarm, however, pace of play was just fine. The course itself was even better, as one might expect from a 1914 Donald Ross classic. Having played several hard Ross courses, I found this one to be somewhat less demanding but still full of challenge: it struck a nice balance, it seemed, between tough holes (plenty of them, and a few of them even downright unlikable) and kinder, gentler holes that could be attacked without a great deal of trepidation.

It came as a minor surprise that the first three holes, though well designed, made for a slightly mundane start to the round, though things turned dramatically better after these. A short par five, the first hole begins with a wide open landing zone, then tightens down as the hole is approached, but its main appeal lies in the complex and undulating, if small, green. Its narrow opening to the left makes this side ideal for a run-up approach. Hole two, which earns the number 1 index, is nonetheless a tense slog straight uphill for nearly 400 yards, and it clearly intimidates. Its straight, very tall tree lines on both sides of the fairway create that intimidation, but monotonously so. This hole does give you the strange aura of being in a medieval cathedral, but the tightly packed trees feel like they are pressing in on you despite their natural beauty. The subsequent approach to a false-fronted green on this hole will require your best lofted mid-iron—at least. This brute is followed by its near opposite, a short, downhill par four that is only a drive and pitch affair, its fairway relatively open on the right side. Again, though, the green lends interest to the 318 yard hole. A small target 17 yards wide by 20 long, it is guarded by three round and shallow bunkers, which await the erring approach, an approach that typically will be played to the front of a surface that slopes away from the player.

So far, the course has mainly called for a plodding sort of golf, governed mainly by aim-and-shoot target golf, but over the next four holes, all par fours, a more thoughtful and careful form of shot-making is required, as Ross begins to exercise his considerable imagination. The fourth, a brilliant mid-length par-four, will demand your best drive to the right-center of a fairway that pitches down from right to left. Push or slice the drive too far right, though, and you'll be visiting the woods. Your approach must be even better, because the elevated, plateau green is again narrow and made seemingly narrower by its left side fall-off. It is also easy to miss long, given its front-to-back down slope, cleverly concealed because it is blind from the fairway. The 388 yard fifth hole, like its predecessor, sweeps down handsomely off its elevated tee to the most undulating fairway on the course, which will likely leave you an awkward lie from which to approach an equally awkward green, tilted steeply, as it is, from the higher right side. From any distance, two-putting this green is no small feat. Number six is the course's finest par-four, a beauty with a blind drive from the tee to a relatively open landing zone. Most golfers will use a short to mid-iron on the uphill approach, yet this shot must negotiate what appears to be a thirty-yard gap in two massive, sentinel trees before the green; the actual gap between the most widely overhanging limbs is a mere 17 yards. The green itself has a semi- punchbowl effect, and its complex and subtle undulations may leave you guessing about how your putt will break. Seven is the type of hole that often gets overlooked, but it is another brilliant par far, arguably the best short one on this course, leaving you plenty of room to hit driver with little fear, as the left side is relatively open and the right tree-line does not encroach tightly. A solid drive will leave a wedge shot that must be gauged accurately, given the eight foot rise in the fairway from thirty yards prior to this hole's plateau green. And, yep, another green will invite you to three-putt (sounds like a theme).

Hole eight is a fairly routine, short par-three that does have a tiny pond, whose closest hazard line sits 14 yards in front of the putting surface. The ninth is also about as straightforward as a par four gets at Maplewood, but the open driving zone will liberate you to smash your driver down the hill, while the green's unique surroundings, created by some artificial sculpting of the landscape, will make things interesting nonetheless.

The back nine does not quite match the front for overall quality, yet it sports several impressive holes. After the somewhat predictable uphill, straight tenth, a short par four, you reach the course's best par three. While it is not world-class, this hole still demonstrates Ross' ingeniousness: It trundles downhill to a magnificently constructed green, nearly surrounded by a wraparound bunker, edged and encircled by low mounding, and allowing you a narrow opening by its merely 8-yard-wide front lobe. Only a laser-straight approach shot will find the target. The back lobe widens to 14 yards, and playing this hole may feel exhilarating if it is birdied; but I could also sense the fury a bogey—or worse—might instill in one, as the small green complex may make for many an awkward or delicate or failed pitch shot.

The excellent twelfth creates back-to-back par threes of distinction; this much longer hole of 201 yards will demand a mid-iron or hybrid or more to land safely on its putting surface. Twelve’s well-defended green (big trap to the left; woods in back), thankfully, has a comparatively flat surface. The fourteenth hole, a short par four, is serviceable but falls below Ross’ usual high standards. It is a dogleg right and does include a water hazard threatening the landing area, but the flat and unimaginative green seems to have been designed by the architect's apprentice. For Ross, this is about as easy as it gets.

The short fifteenth, a mere 276 yards, atones for this, as, when you step on the tee, the view contains thick woods with out-of-bounds stakes lining the left side, matched by, over to the right, a daunting row of trees and, further down, a sizeable, reedy pond. Forty-five yards is what separates the right-side pond from the left woods, and the temptation, of course, is to take dead aim on the green. Yes, there is enough of a landing zone around this green itself to bomb away, creating a fantastic, beautiful-looking risk/reward hole, but not one for the faint-hearted.

Can we expect a finish with a flourish over the last four holes at Maplewood? While they indeed are very good, fifteen and sixteen fall just short of first-rate long holes, seventeen surprises with its pleasant quirkiness, and eighteen, though solid, is more workman-like than astounding. The long fifteenth is good test of straight driving with a pond right and a tree-lined border to the left, but there is little to impede the second shot, while the third traverses over more flat ground to a modestly defended green. Sloping left to right, this is a challenging, complex surface and the only green on the course of modern proportions: it 32 feet long by 21 wide. Though technically a fairly basic hole, the ultra-long sixteenth, a 614-yard par six (!), does supply some pesky but minor ponds to skirt, along with over-hanging tree limbs (for those who have departed the straight-and-narrow route), but it is a pleasure to attack as a three-shooter, yielding a birdie if you have the length to play it as such. Purists may quibble that this is, by modern standards, only a three-shot hole, but let's face facts: this is not so at all for the average player, who will struggle to earn her or his par six.

The seventeenth may appeal, as well, to the aggressive long-hitter, but in an entirely different mode: this short, par-4 hole's green is driveable from the tee, but your shot must fly arrow-straight, avoiding woods tight to the right, to cross the narrow opening onto the green's right side, as a frontal, gaping bunker with a three-foot lip will corral all missed shots to the left. Chalk it up as another risk/reward classic. Most players will not expect a course this good to finish with a par-three, and a notably short and tight one that almost rubs elbows with the clubhouse, but surprise: Eighteen, exactly that kind of hole, is challenging enough, with bunkers (best identified from the yardage book since one or more is invisible from the tee) fortifying the last green, but it all feels a bit anticlimactic after the two previous, much more exciting five-pars.

When I arrived at the course and went inside, the gentleman behind the pro-shop counter, the only staff-person with whom I conversed, was professional, friendly, and very helpful. And that was the feeling I got about Maplewood’s whole atmosphere; it was graceful, pleasantly old-fashioned, and leisurely. The golf operations are downstairs from the beautiful entry to a classic shingle-style hotel from what seems the early 20th century, and every room—lounge, bar, dining area, pro-shop—exude a kind of unfussy but elegant class, as does the beautiful outdoor terrace. Fittingly, a statue of the great architect himself stands to the right of the pro-shop entrance. To top it off, the course is a surprisingly good value, with a cart included in the reasonable greens fee. What more can you ask for?

The place is great and the pro Jerry makes it even better. Always friendly and you feel welcomed !

Course is in pretty good shape. Good mix of some challenging holes and some very easy holes. Have to stay below the hole on the more severely sloped greens to keep from having a lightning fast putt.

Great, incredibly, views from nearly every hole. The greens are immaculate and true. The restaurant is cozy and a good value, delicious entrees. Staff is outgoing and outstanding.

Nice course,,greens were in good shape. Play was a little slow with a big group in front of us. There was a challenging par 6 over 600 yards.

Excellent course. Was behind a group playing from the pro tees who should've been on the whites, but cannot quibble with the condition or views of this Donald Ross course.

It's a old traditional golf course built in 1914. A old classic Donald Ross course. The course is kind of corky feel too it. The some holes you can't bust out the driver. It's a short yardage golf course. Alot of short par 4 and 5s. The par 3s are long 200 plus yards. The greens are very tricky. You have too double check twice. Before making the putts.Jerry is in the pro shop was very warm and polite. would definitely recommend anyone to play here. They also have a play and stay package as well. Golfing is pretty much Billy goat golfing here.The Golf carts were very powerful. The only downside of this course is. No driving range and the restaurant closed for lunch on Columbus Day. Other golfers were polite and let me pass them thru. Will definitely be back here soon.

It was a perfect fall day North of the Wall. Donald Ross never fails to impress nor provide the ultimate challenge. Tree lined fairways with a bit of forgiveness and variation to keep you honest. Please be advised, THERE IS NO RANGE AT THIS COURSE! If you can shape your shots with consistency you'll do well here others beware! Its a great challenge for all skill levels. Highly recommend.

For the cost, best deal around. Greens in great condition.

Greta course. Never played a course with a Par 6! Everything slopes to the road, even if it doesn't look like it.