Venerable Northport user friendly Forgiving and frustrating, 85-year-old course gets golfers off to a good start

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NORTHPORT – Head on down here, hop out of the car, and inhale the crisp, salty air that blows off nearby Penobscot Bay.

Stretch out your arms and legs. Say, “Hi,” in the clubhouse that was here long before Northport Golf Club was formed in 1916.

Then amble out to the first tee, step up cold, and launch your first drive of the day.

It went left? No problem. Right? That’s OK, too. Down the middle? That’ll do.

Shank the living heck out of it? Well, you still may par the hole.

Welcome to Northport. The home of what may be the most user-friendly first tee in the business.

“It’s a great way to get started,” said second-year Northport pro and superintendent Peter Hodgkins with a chuckle. “You can hit it left or right there, or drive the green if you hit a good one. … It gets you off to a good start.”

There are more interesting holes here, to be sure. And there are plenty that are more difficult. But No. 1? Sometimes, it’s just what a golfer needs to get the self-confidence up.

The first tee is elevated, so even a worm-burner will likely roll down to the valley floor, and the fairway. The hole is short – 290 yards for the men, and 214 for the women (who don’t get the elevated-tee treatment).

On Northport’s opener, it’ll take a creative mind and a nasty hook to really put a golfer in a bad position.

Northport Golf Club is a pleasant, homey, nine-hole layout that has remained nearly unchanged since it was formed back in 1916.

Hodgkins, who landed at Northport after spending 27 years as the pro at Rockland Golf Club and three years as a largely bored retiree, has a couple words of advice for first-timers to his course.

First and foremost: Right is wrong.

“That’s number one,” Hodgkins says. “Most of the trouble is on the right.”

And second? Long may be wrong, too.

“Don’t go over the greens. Most of the greens, if you go over, you have a much more difficult shot than you do if you’re short,” Hodgkins says. “The bravest shot, sometimes, isn’t always going after the pin if it’s on the back of the green.

“That would be under the heading of ‘stupidity’ on a lot of these holes,” Hodgkins says.

Northport is, for the most part, a pretty friendly place for the average player. A foursome can generally play 18 holes in about three hours, Hodgkins says, and tee times aren’t necessary.

And while some courses penalize poor shots with thick rough or tree-lined fairways, Northport’s cozy nature allows golfers to recover from errant shots on most of its holes.

In fact, Hodgkins points out, Northport has another peculiarity that actually rewards extremely off-target shots.

“You can stray quite a bit, and because of the proximity of the holes to each other, you can get back into play quite easily,” Hodgkins says.

“Unless you’re just a little bit off. If you’re a little off, you might get stuck behind a tree. But if you’re way off, you’ve got a chance.”

Trees dot the side of each fairway, serving to separate one from another. And if you’re far enough off-line, as Hodgkins points out, you’re likely on somebody else’s fairway, where recovery is simpler.

Northport Golf Club is a course with subtle hazards. Sure, there’s No. 7: A pesky par 5 that demands two solid woods just to earn a legitimate shot at the elevated green.

But even that beast is in the process of being tamed a bit: The testy two-tiered green that used to greet golfers after negotiating the 530-yard hole? It’s gone. Or at least, it’s in the process of being replaced.

“We redesigned [it], which was a big, double-level green,” Hodgkins says. “We’ve made more of a saucer-shaped green out of it, which will be more receptive and has many more pin placements than the old one.

“It will be much more player-friendly now.”

Among Hodgkins favorite holes:

. No. 8, a severe dogleg-right par 4 that stretches just 338 yards for the men, 278 for the ladies.

“You have to be fairly precise off the tee,” Hodgkins says. “The green is much above you, and it’s very small, so it takes a precise 8 (-iron), 9 or wedge to hit the green. And that’s the one that you definitely don’t want to go over.”

. No. 3, a 157-yard par 3 that looks simple enough from the tee box, but grows increasingly more difficult the closer you get to the putting surface.

“You’re probably 50 feet below the green on your tee shot, hitting up at it, so it takes a high shot to hold the green,” Hodgkins says.

Miss the green to the left, and you’re faced with a bunker or a series of humps that provide uneven lies on a short chip.

NORTHPORT GOLF CLUB

Holes: Nine

Yards: 6,087 (two rounds, men?s tees), 5,444 (women)

Slope, rating: 112, 68.4 (men?s tees), 113, 71.4 (women)

Greens fees: 9 holes: $20; 18 holes: $25

Memberships: $540 (individual), $125 (junior, age 9-18), $220 (college), $760 (husband and wife or family including children through high school)

Tee times: Not required

Directions: Turn onto Bayside Road from Route 1 (turn is a left if you?re heading south; a right if you?re northbound. Take Bayside Road 7/10 of a mile to Bluff Road. Northport Golf Club is on the right.

Footwear: No metal spikes

Phone: 338-2270