The French Woods Golf & Country Club offers a beautiful 18-hole golf course in the Catskills that features a fantastic course design.

A nice short ride up Route 97 from Callicoon brings you to French Woods but prepare yourself for an unparalleled golfing experience.

The 18-hole French Woods course near Hancock features 6,018 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 72. The course rating is 70.0 and it has a slope rating of 113 on Blue grass.

Designed by R. Bass/C. Anderson and E. Skinner, the French Woods golf course opened in 1999.

Russell Bass manages the course as the President (owner).

The course is a pleasure for golfers of any skill to play. French Woods will challenge you while providing a relaxing, picturesque backdrop.

This excellently designed course will test your accuracy with their well-groomed fairways, water hazards and sand traps.

When the course was designed it was the goal of the owners to provide a quality experience that includes exceptional service and a comfortable atmosphere.

Part of your visit to this great golf experience is the Clubhouse, which overlooks the course and provides the views of the entire valley. The panoramic views are very enjoyable in nearly every direction as far away as 25 miles.

The golf course itself is literally carved out of the Catskill Mountains. Construction began in 1997 and the first nine holes were ready to play in 1998. The course became a complete 18-hole public course in 2002.

The beautifully designed clubhouse provides a private dining room, which can seat 40 people. The dining room also acts as a venue for meetings or small conventions.

Breakfast and lunch are served daily from April 1 through October 15.

A small bar greets you as you enter the clubhouse accompanied by tables for a casual drink or a quick sandwich. The covered veranda allows you access to the outside veranda and additional tables on the deck, and on a warm summer day you can’t beat the breeze and the view.

There is also a putting green just outside the clubhouse entrance where one can get in a little practice before going out on the course.

With the spectacularly beautiful panoramic course the clubhouse offers, breakfast, lunch and dinner inside or enjoy the view on the deck.

There is free Wi-Fi at the clubhouse.

The 18-hole golf course provides everything a golfer is looking for. There are three tees, blue, white and red. From the blue tees the shortest hole is the 135 par 3 number 2 hole. The longest hole from the blue tee is 533 yards, a par 5 on the 10th hole starting the back nine.

The clubhouse also caters weddings and banquets. The Bass’ Hancock House Hotel in downtown Hancock provides 32 rooms and suites, Honest Eddie’s Tap Room and the Maple Room for large parties, meetings, weddings and other formal functions.

Hosts at the Hancock House are Lynn and Russell Bass.

Also the accommodations at the golf course include beautiful cabins. Golfers can book cabins and get unlimited golf and cart along with your cabin rental.

It’s been a couple of years since we had the great opportunity to play this 18-hole well designed golf course and it is always a pleasant experience when golfers are greeted by friendly employees at the clubhouse.

Pricing for 18 holes with cart Monday thru Friday is $30 and $43 on weekends and holidays.

Contact info@frenchwoodsgolf.com or call 607-637-1800 for golf packages and tee times.

Pebble Beach makes 8th hole change

Jordan Spieth showed the golf world recently that he indeed is a shot maker.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but it now appears the proprietors of Pebble Beach Golf Links are not willing to find out where the line between flattery and tragedy lies.

The course recently made some changes to the par 4 eighth hole, moving a boundary near the edge of a cliff that splits the fairway in order to discourage players from recreating a death-defying shot Spieth pulled off in February’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

John Sawin, vice president and director of golf at Pebble Beach recently told Golf Digest, “We wanted a ball that goes into that area to be far less appealing to play.”

Sawin added, “The problem with Jordan’s shot was that he had a fairly clean lie, albeit on the edge of a cliff. He felt that he could get a club on it, whereas we want lies in there to be fairly unattractive so that people take a drop and not even be tempted to play out of there.”

Sawin said the area near the cliff, which overlooks Carmel Bay, has been pulled back and instead of 2 or 3 feet separating the penalty boundary from the precipice, there’s now about a six-foot gap in front of the 70-foot dropoff. The fairway was also moved back and a sign urging players to exercise caution has been enlarged.

When the shot was made by Spieth, the three-time champ had engaged in one of his trademark deliberations with caddie Michael Grelier, who was against playing the shot.

In lieu of taking a penalty stroke to move the ball to a safer location, Spieth used his 7-iron to cover the 162 yards needed to reach the green. He ended up missing left but recorded a par.

“Looking back now, it was not smart and I wish I hadn’t done it,” Spieth said.

Sawin said, “We’re very grateful that it ended the way it did.”

Golf Tip

By Robert Menges

There is always a lot of talk around the golf course about pitching and distance control.

A lot of people stand up here with a good setup and pitch and they’re just not sure how to perform.

These golfers are not sure if they should take a longer club and if you’re faster or slower over the club selection.

There are a million ways to control the distance. I always tell golfers when you’re pitching we want to go shorter first.

A good tip to remember when pitching is make sure your rear shoulder is moving through the golf ball as the rear shoulder continues to move the hands won’t take over.

When we are setting up put the ball in the center for a normal chip shot, speed is a factor in controlling the distance and practice makes perfect.

Local League Scores

Twin Village

Monday Mens

1. Reed & Odell 49.5
2. M. Brock & N. Brock 46.0
3. Kinne & Stabbert 46.0
4. Thomas & Hendrickson 43.0
5. Green & Clark 38.0
6. Tallman & Ackerly 36.0
7. Rampe & Clancy 35.5
8. Husson IV & Husson III 35.0
9. Tucker & Smith 33.0
10. S. Ryder & P. Ryder 32.5
11. Wood & Brosius 31.0
12. T. Gilmour & D. Gilmour 31.0
13. Murphy & Frey 30.5
14. Templin & Lee 25.0
15. Townsend & Murphy 21.5
16. Harris & Spalding 18.5

Tarry Brae

Tuesday Mens

1. Diffenderfer & Fleischman 68.0
2. Aymes & Sauchuck 64.5
3. Green & Garcia 59.0
4. Yaun & Gilmore 57.5
5. Martin & Poppo 57.0
6. Flores & Kukas 54.0
7. Schneider & Garber 52.5
8. Bonsick & Cassevah 50.5
9. Jester & Mullen 50.0
10. Kushetsky & Hinkley 48.5
11. Goldberg & Klugman 48.0
12. Pollock & Carey 47.5
13. Collette & Iqbal 44.5
14. Metakes & Winship 42.5
15. Simpson & Wolcott 41.5
16. Kawauchi & Altbach 34.5

Thursday Travel League

1. Thomas & Husson 69.5
2. Sullivan & DeVantier 59.5
3. Benzenberg & Benzenberg 54.5
4. Ackerly & Schmidt 53.5
5. Dewitt & Depew 50.5
6. R. Bowers & Hoxie 50.0
7. J. Bowers & Edwards 49.0
8. Gilmore & Gilmore 49.0
9. Stevens & Holmequest 49.0
10. Martin & Favre 49.0
11. Bernstein & Loughlin 47.0
12. Hutchins & Reichmann 46.5
13. Taggart & Mershon 43.0
14. Coney & Mace 40.5
15. Todora & Cawley 40.0
16. Collura & Fisher 36.0
17. Corley & Heavey 33.5
18. Cunningham & Poli 33.0
19. Winters & Petraglia 28.5
20. Astacio & Stanley 27.0

Tennanah Lake

Thursday Mens Palmer Div

1. Forsblum & Gabeline 46.5
2. Roseo & Tallman 45.0
3. Stock & Wolcott 42.0
4. Parucki & Drown 37.5
5. Bowers & Green 35.5
6. Walsh & Simpson 34.5
7. Seibert & Bridges 34.0
8. McGreevy & Estabrook 29.0
9. Haas & Tucker 27.5
10. Giordano & Nogin 26.0
11. Calkin & Schumacker 25.0
12. Cassevah & Strauss 13.5