New Hampshire Golf Trail

Shoulder Season Roulette at its finest!  A little chilly the first day with tropical storm force winds, with calm skies and high temps the next day. The only constant is the low prices. Out to tour Manchester tonight, will have more coming in the next few days.

One round in the books on the Shoulder Season tour of the southern New Hampshire golf landscape and I can call it a push. Considering 24 hours before my tee time at Candia Woods the Manchester area was getting light snow fall, I’ll take 50 degrees and windy.

Candia Woods calls itself the friendliest course in New Hampshire, and I agree 99%. The 1% is due to the 65 mph wind gust we played through this morning that turned a relatively straightforward track into a constant guessing game. Despite 11 new clubs in the bag since Thanksgiving, I have a good idea of the distances, until you throw gale force winds into the equation. This was the first THREE club wind I’ve ever played in. I won’t complain about hitting a 546 yard par five in two, but I will whine when I need three shots to hit 380 yard par fours.

The courses were not chosen at random, the trip was designed to let Candia Woods be a warmup for Atkinson Resort and Country Club on day two. Atkinson is a tight, demanding track with many blind shots and hazards frequently in play. It is a course that demands confidence over the shot and I thought Candia would let me feel confident in my distances and ball-striking. I’m plenty confident in my ball-striking, distances are a little hairy.

With most forecasts calling for mid 70s temperatures with little wind I’m confident Atkinson will be more straightforward.