Where to start...This course is so good
Nice concrete teepads on all long tees, level gravel areas for short tees. Woodblock signs depicting hole Name (yes, each hole here has a name), hole map, and distance and par for both basket placements (sometimes long pin is higher par than short). Additionally, most of the signs have a screw put into the map next to the current basket placement, so you know where to throw (and the par). After each basket, you will find next tee signs leading you through the course. Great flow, so though its a fairly long course where each hole feels like its in its own little world away from the others, you spend very little time walking between holes. Just another indicator of the great design of this course, one of many.
Of the courses at Highbridge, this one was constructed first, and feels the most broken in. IT is also, IMO the most well-balanced and diverse of the offerings here.
All the courses at Highbridge are a treat to play, but Blueberry Hill especially so. It pretty much has everything you could ask for in a course, including signature holes, and that elusive IT factor. Lots.
This course is very challenging, but fair. You will be punished for errant shots, but the course doesnt feel punishing. Part of it has to do with the maintenance of the shule. Even the parts that are not pine trees have brush cleared out so that the course doesnt eat your discs unneccesarily.
The course plays through a nice mix of wooded, with some moderately open holes sprinkled in. Overall, this is a technical course, but even on the most technical holes, it never feels like a plinko hole, as holes are all well thought out, with risk reward in evidence.
One pattern that is common here, and highbridge in general, is a tendency toward late and mid trouble. Meaning, baskets generally are guarded in some way, and fairways arent wide open. Also, early trouble is used carefully and fairly.
To understand this, contrast with some courses that force an extremely tight tunnel shot right off the tee, or through a tight early gap. Instead, this course usually gives you a litle wiggle room, but makes you shoot into technical situations. Thus, you dont NEED to thread the needle all the time, while at the same time shot placement and accuracy count for a lot. If you dont have great shot placement, you might not end up in the shule, but you probably will struggle to get bogeys. Thus, masterfully, this course, even on the par 3's, makes you play placement golf, a lost art for those accustomed to short, par 54 city courses (most courses really)
Thus, you may have many fairways split in two by clumps of trees (as in hole 1), forcing you to go left or right, but usually the less direct route is wider. This course offers tight challenges, but it also offers alternatives and ways out.
Hole 11 is a perfect example of this. There is a safe route around to the left, or you can shoot a tunnel directly at the basket.
This is great, as it makes the course appealable to everyone. Nobody enjoys a round of just hitting trees and shooting out of clumps of shule. This course doesnt force you into that. Its fairways are technical, but doable.
The challenges this course throws at you near the basket are just wonderful. This is where you see the narrow tunnel shots through guardian trees, and nice elevation. Hole 2 has the basket on top of an elevated plateau lined with rocks (formerly ball golf teebox), which is almost a Highbridge signature, as Gold & Grantie each have baskets like this as well. Its a great challenge. You have a nice flat area by the basket, but overshoot or undershoot, and youre lookin at a tough upshot to the pin instead of an easy putt. Great basket protection.
Also, on several holes on Blueberry, the basket is cleverly placed in the middle of an outcropping of solid, smooth rock (granite i think), which is tough to deal with.
Its hard to park it because it slides and bounces on the rock, and drops off on the sides and back for a high risk putt. On one par 4, i went from a 3 to a 5 thanks to an attempt to layup on said rock face. Unusual challenge that I just havent seen elsewhere.
In addition, the course also features several hillside baskets, and baskets with nearby ponds waiting to catch errant shots.
This course is balanced with a good mix of left, right, uphill and downhill shots. If you cant bend the disc both ways well, regardelss of whether you are lefty, righty, overhand, sidearm or backhand, there will be several hole on this course that you will really struggle to par.
This course also throws all three main elements at you in combination, in interesting ways: trees, elevation, and water.
Hole 13 has 3 ponds on the uphill fairway, with scattered tall trees between, preventing direct line to the basket. You have to carefully pick where you want to park the first drive, since it saves the biggest pond for last, with the pin sitting just beyond. Also, due to the elevation, its a blind shot over the last pond to the green. Tricky! Ponds also pop up on several other holes, always cleverly used and coming into play.
This course really has something to satisfy everyone. You have chances to air it out, but many more chances to use technique and accuracy to shave strokes off your score (ie get par or the occasional birdie)
There are no wide open holes here, all of them have intrigue.
This is a scenic course, too. Even on labor day weekend, its rare to run not another group on the course, because of highbridge's size, and the woods make most holes feel secluded. It really is a magical place.
My favorite hole is hole 16, Tutti-Frutti, probably one of the more tightly wooded holes on the course
You are on a wooded, rocky hillside that slopes down to the right for the length of the hole. Off the tee, the fairway goes straight for 100-150, before abruptly curving 90 degrees right, to a gradual curve back left that is blind from the tee. You shoot between a few trees on the woods edge to the hillside pin slightly blind over the crest of the hill. The hole lends itself to throw a midrange off the tee to get past the right curve, then a sweeping left curve with a driver towards the basket, through te rocks and scattered trees of the sloping, uphill fairway, then a long putt or careful upshot and hillside putt for a good score (its a par 4). Few holes would have you reaching for a midrange off the tee, then a controlled driver shot or two. Its unique, and i like that.
This is a course you could play over and over, and not get tired of. There are just too many things it throws at you to really single out anything that's overused. Many of the other courses here are sortof great examples of their specific