Date played: 12/3/2020

With paid time-off left to burn before the end of the year and a close eye on the weather as we entered December, I spotted a Thursday where it would be around 50° F. I quickly jumped at the opportunity and booked the day. Doing my best to plan for a potential frost delay and limited daylight, I tried to come up with a plan to play two new courses on my list.

With only nine and a half hours of daylight to work with, I knew I needed courses relatively close to one another. I was able to find good candidates in Wedgwood Country Club and Westwood Golf Club, which are only about nine miles apart. With the earlier tee times available at Westwood, that would be my first stop at 7:45 am.

Multiple groups waited at the first tee and there was a buzz about the course in different conversations with the starter. There was talk of plenty of work having been done in recent months, including the removal of trees and the installation of cart paths, something the course apparently had been without in years past.

After about a 40-minute frost delay, I was sent off in a group of three. The first four holes is a fantastic stretch. The round opens with a short par 5 followed by a drivable par 4. The 3rd is a zig-zagging par 5 and although the chicane is subtle, it will likely still demand three shots. The 4th is another drivable par 4, but only if you’re brave enough to take your tee shot over a significant plot of trees that would leave you in jail should you fail to carry them.

The remainder of the course presents its challenges in different ways. The 6th is a beast of a par 4, stretched out to 430 yards with a significantly uphill tee shot. While relatively short overall at roughly 6,200 from the back tees, the 9th, 11th, and 13th are par-3s that all play over 190 yards. The 15th is a short par 4 with a tree in the middle of the landing area that plays a role somewhere between target and nuisance. The greens are a challenge all around the course and the old adage of “stay below the hole” is absolutely true at Westwood.

As we made our way to the 17th tee, I checked the time and saw that it was a few minutes after noon. I had booked a 1:00 tee time at Wedgwood, and I’d have to account for a 20-minute drive and time to get started. Thankfully, pace of play had been great all morning, and we finished the last two holes by 12:25, giving me just enough time to run straight from the 18th green straight to the car and start my 9-mile sprint over to Wedgwood.

Hospitality Note: The gentleman named Matt at the pro shop who checked me in could not have been nicer. He immediately made me feel welcome as a first-timer and made sure I was situated with everything I would need to know. It amazes me that more courses don’t realize how much of a difference this can make in the experience of golfers and Westwood nails it.