St. Andrews greens nice or nasty

CEDAR RAPIDS -- The gentleman at the cash register said upfront that portions of Nos. 16 and 17 had been under water earlier in the week.

Dry Creek is the main water feature at St. Andrews Golf Club. Yes, Mike Hall, the course's director of golf, is acutely aware of the irony.

Believe it or not, St. Andrews had a tougher time with water in 2004. Dry Creek ran higher and flooded 11 times back then. Just four this year, so far.

That's the thing about St. Andrews. It's the iron horse of Cedar Rapids' public courses. It's the first to open, well, whenever anyone feels like squeezing a round in. It's the last to close, which is when it's finally too darn cold.

St. Andrews had maybe one or two bad days of water before it was open again this mid-June weekday. It's such a different course than Cedar Rapids' public courses. You have a lot of trees, narrow fairways and elevated greens. When I say "elevated," I mean "humpbacked" or "turtlebacked" or "incredibly difficult to roll up and on."

The greens are the thing at St. Andrews. They are the petulant star of the course. They can be nice, like the nice flat No. 2. Or they can be shaped like the top of your index finger, like No. 6, a 342-yard par 4 (from the white tees) that takes scaffolding to negotiate if you don't have the right touch.

The green agony starts with No. 1, a short 278-yard par 4 that comes with a severe back-to-front slope that could potentially put you in a small pond on the right. There's a big hump on the back of the green. The No. 3 green slopes back-to-front and toward Dry Creek.

No. 4 has always been "The Cable" hole to me. The 452-yard par 4 runs along Mediacom's row of giant satellite dishes. One dish, probably the one that carries The Golf Channel, has about 20 golf ball-sized dents in it. The green here also slopes back-to-front. It has a little rib in the front middle and has a lip on the back that makes the back-to-front even more back-to-fronter.

I'm going to have to nickname No. 5, a 286-yard par 4, "The Outback." The fairway sticks out on this hard dogleg right because it's the only patch of grass surrounded by trees and brush and Dry Creek. You need a 200-yard drive to get to the remnants of a big oak tree in the middle of the fairway. And, yes, the green slopes back-to-front severely.

I could go on all day about the greens. Quick look at the notebook shows green treachery with a lot of sloping and ribbing in the front 9 and postage stamps on the back 9. One more thing: these babies are fast. It took me about six holes to get the speed and a whole bunch more to get a feel for the topography.

You can count the wide-open fairways at St. Andrews on one hand. Everyone has a different opinion of what "wide open" is. I'm used to the openness of Cedar Rapids' Ellis Park, which is more of a parkland course. St. Andrews makes the most of the land it occupies just off Blairs Ferry Road with trees coming into play on nearly every tee shot.

I was lucky; I did OK with the trees. I even had tee shots spit back out on Nos. 14 and 17. But my playing partner, Mark Jensen, topped me. He had a rogue hook bounce off some brick building left of No. 6 tee box and back into the middle of the fairway.

This is a course fit among apartment buildings, the cable company and Council Street. You might hit something paved or bricked, but be careful around the satellites.

That's something you just won't hear about on a lot of courses.

The lowdown

Toughest hole - The hardest part of No. 9, a 395-yard par 4, is off the tee. The dogleg right crawls uphill. To reach the 150-yard mark, you need a 245-yarder, so it's a bit of a poke uphill. If you don't clear the dogleg, you have no shot at par. I imagine a lot of tee shots end up curling right, where the fairway bows and drops into rough, woods and, eventually, Dry Creek. It's out of bounds on the left by the tennis courts. The approach is downhill to a small, tricky green. I pulled my drive slightly to the left, about 175 to the green. I left a 7-iron just left of the green and didn't get up and down.

Easiest hole - I used about a page for every hole in my notebook except No. 12, a 150-yard par 3. Here's what I wrote: "Uphill par 3. Postage stamp. Left-to-right slope." That about covers it. The green is elevated from the tee. I hit a thin 8-iron that rolled off the green on the right. I had a nice chip to within about a foot for par.

Overall impression - St. Andrews is Cedar Rapids' unique public course. Tree-lined and tight fairways, challenging greens and a city setting set it apart. It can also bring you to your knees. You will meet other golfers in the trees looking for wayward tee shots. You will look at a green and wonder, "OK, what now?" You will hope that you don't pull your approach on No. 3 onto Council Street and cause a major traffic calamity. St. Andrews isn't the longest course in Cedar Rapids, but it will make you work. I checked in at 91.