GolfNewsRI

GolfNewsRI had the opportunity to play the relatively newly opened South Shore Village Golf Club in South Kingstown earlier this week. 

Opened last October, the 9-hole course was built by Momentum Golf and the architect is Ron Cutlip. 

As of right now, South Shore is only open for residents who live in the village, which is for folks 55 and over. 

However, the club is hoping to have its classification changed to public by June.

So with the business stuff out of the way, let’s hit the course. 

Review  

South Shore Village Golf Club might be one of the most unique nine hole courses in the region, if not the country. 

You can play the course five days a week and play a different version of the course every time – literally. I will explain. 

I started the day hitting some balls on the expansive grass driving range to warm up on a cold morning. 

They do have a mat option in case the course is too wet. 

Onto the course. 

It should be noted that the course just opened a few months ago and so there is still work going on both on the course and around it. 

Played normally, South Shore is a par-35 with two par-3s and one par-5 stretching just over 6,000 yards from the tips. 

But what is cool about South Shore is that every hole has multiple tees, including par-3 tees. 

So you could play South Shore as a par-3 course if you wanted to. 

For example, the first hole plays anywhere from 327 yards (back tees) to 152 yards (par-3 tees). 

Even the actual par threes can play significantly shorter. 

For example, the third hole is a par-3 and can play anywhere from 175 yards to 65 yards. 

Like I said, you can play the course every day and play a different course every day. 

The other unique thing about South Shore is the green complexes are massive and contain huge undulations. 

After finishing the hole, Anthony Pioppi and I putted around for several minutes on each green trying all the different putts. 

There are some doozies. 

One of the biggest things about the course, at least to me, is that the houses surrounding it don’t come into play. 

The course is obviously built into the village and there are houses surrounding it, about 200 to be exact with 100 more in the process of being built. 

But, they never come into play. Teeing off on any hole, you never really feel like you’re going to hit a house or break a window. 

And if you do hit a house, that means that you really did something crazy. 

I played okay for the nine hole round. 

Got off to a bad start, but played better as the round went on. 

I think I parred the fourth or fifth hole and then closed with a birdie on eight and a par on nine. 

The eighth hole is a drivable par-4 and I drove the green from about 220 yards and had 15-20 feet for eagle. 

I ran the eagle putt by, but made the comebacker for birdie. 

The ninth hole is a really cool hole with rocks and an eventual brook  in front of the green. 

I hit a good drive, put my second shot on the green and ended up tapping in for par to close out the day. 

So I closed birdie, par – I’ll take it. 

It was a great day at South Shore Village Golf Club and I’m looking forward to seeing the place when it is firing on all cylinders.