Let's Review: Patriot Hills Golf Club

The Skinny

For a place only an hour outside Manhattan, Patriot Hills provides enough with elevation changes, views, and challenging layouts for it to feel like more of an escape.

The Course

Playing Patriot Hills is effectively spending your day forcing a golf cart up a 70 degree slope and crawling back down the other side. That, and asking your friends, “where do I even try to land this?”

Almost every tee box here, and I mean actually almost every one, is situated on top of a small plateau overlooking 100+ feet of drop-off onto a relatively thin fairway and an elevated green. If you’ve ever visited Vermont, got a round in, and loved it - Patriot Hills will scratch that itch again.

While elevation changes provide drama and some amazing landscapes, Patriot Hills quietly has some super fun, tricky, and gorgeous par 3’s as well. Most playing no longer than 140 yards, the designers spent good time building out the green complexes and greenskeepers will take advantage of slopes, run-offs and tiering to maximize the challenge.

The Price

It’s going to run about $120 for a weekend round which 1) is pretty steep, obviously but also 2) maybe worth it, in my opinion, given how much of a guessing game public golf can be around the city (🙂).

It’s fun, different, accessible, and pretty laid back. Also, pace isn’t awful for a crowded course near the city,

Signature Hole

There is definitely some repetition here, but I would probably say the par-3 10th, aptly known as ‘The View’ as it plays downhill with a continuously insane view of the mountains behind the green.

Grabbing a Bite

The Patriot Lounge, part of the whole facility, is actually an epic hang with two huge seating areas, indoor and outdoor. Food is solid and if you linger long enough, live music tends to roll in on the weekends.

Nice to Know

When you’re driving up, you’ll see some very sketchy abandoned buildings that might be a turn off. The course is actually sitting on the property of an old mental hospital where it’s reported that children were used as the first human trials ever to test the polio vaccine… so, yeah, there’s that.

How many sleeves: 2-3

The elevation leaves some pretty thin fairways down below, so don’t be afraid to throw another sleeve or two in your bag.