For the driving-range hero Happy Gilmore in every golfer, Crystal Springs Golf Club is the perfect course to work out kinks in the driver and fairway-woods area of the game that causes fits for the average everyday player.
Flush with long, wide-open fairways, Geoff Cornish's player-friendly design almost takes on a parkland style, where errant tee shots are not necessarily punished by treacherous hazards or a crippling rough. Players can generally score well from any area of the course with greens that are, more often than not, within eyesight even a fairway over.
But bring a full set of clubs because the only thing that is deceiving is the depth perception, where the yardage signs play true to their measurement. If the 215-yard par-3s won't challenge your game, the 6,436 total yardage will be sure to catch up to you at some point.
"At this course, you have to use all your clubs. Pretty much every club in the bag has to be hit," said longtime club pro Ed Tompkins of his course that is 35 minutes north of Boston off Interstate 495 and 30 minutes from the seashore. "There are some long par-3s, some par-5s that are reachable (with a second shot), and it's a very good test of golf, but a very fair test of golf because it's a golfer-friendly course."
Although bustling with a heavy contingent of members (250 or so), industrial outings (on Mondays and Fridays) and transient play, golfers can get through a round of 18 in well under four hours due to its friendly nature and classic older-style finish.
"We have two sets of nine holes that are extremely different," said Tompkins of the course that blends a harmonious mix of member and public play. "The front nine is kind of tight and a little longer, but once you get to the back nine it's wide open. You can let the ball go, swing from your heels, hit it pretty much anywhere, and score well.
"It's a very fun and playable course," Tompkins said. "It's an old-type golf course and isn't target play. You don't come out here at the end of the day and feel like you have been punished. You can enjoy yourself."
With plans to build condominiums on the course in the near future, there have been questions as to what Crystal Springs will look like after the project is completed. Tompkins, however, put to rest any fears of a massive overhaul or a forthcoming closure. From the conversations he has had with the prospective new owner, he's learned the plans do not include altering any hole.
"He (the new owner) would basically like to be like George Gelt — the gentlemen who built this place, owned it, and died two years ago," Tompkins said. "He doesn't want to take any of the golf course away, he wants to keep the integrity the same, and we are looking into cluster housing in the driving range and up through our extra woods to the right of the driving range. At the moment, we have no intention changing any of the holes."
As Tompkins sees it though, Crystal Springs has stayed true to its one general rule and Gelt's original advertising slogan: Crystal Springs, where the golf comes first.
"The most important part for him (Gelt) was golf, not amenities or tennis courts or swimming pools," Tompkins said. "We try to keep it having good greens, which is very, very important to me, and very big, good greens."
Teeing off
Course: Crystal Springs in Haverhill, founded 1961
Membership: Full $1,575; call the pro shop for more options
Public rates: $15 (9), $30 (18) weekday rates; semi-private on the weekend mornings: before 8 a.m. after 2 p.m. $18 (9), $40 (18), tee times available after noon
Par/Slope/rating/Distance: 72/116/70.6/6,436 from back of tee boxes
Course Record: Jim Drohen, 63
Club champion: Jim Drohen 2008; most times Drohen (28)
Architect: Geoff Cornish
General Manager: Ed Tompkins
Signature Hole: No. 4. Try to find a prettier hole in the Merrimack Valley than the sharp dog-leg left. After a long-iron shot out of the tee box, the second shot down into a narrow valley is nearly as difficult as the trees are colorful. If you can't land shot number two onto the green, par is almost certainly out the window and a bogey is a good score on the downward slanting green.
