The Gauntlet - Fredericksburg, VA

jhilkert · Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 21 Location: Northern Virginia

I played this course in October 2007, at the tail end of the drought. It hadn't rained in the area [substantially] for months at the time of play. With that in mind, the course was in fantastic shape - from tee box to green. I have not played a course in this area that was is such great shape. The greens rolled true and the color of the greens was beautiful. I didn't see any bare spots at all on any of the greens. Some had some elevation changes that made it challenging.

The course layout is interesting because of the water on a great deal of the front 9, so if you're straight off the tee, you'll be in great shape. There were a couple of holes where your tee shot is blind, but the starter gave us the strategy for these holes, and the GPS carts also tell the story quite well. So the blind tee shots were not an issue.

On the back 9 the water isn't a factor. Number 13 is a straight par 5 where I reached the green in 2 (I was pumped!) Watch out for the fairway bunkers in the center on this hole. Number 17 is an elevated tee to a fairway that doglegs left and up to an elevated green. Beware of the bowl-type sand traps around the green.

I recommend this course to anyone who wants to challenge their skills, but still have a great time. Personally, I cannot wait to get back out to this course. I'm hopeful that LMG will start to work with The Gauntlet in the very near future to offer red flag deals.