Global Position Systems have two main purposes: Get you where you want to go, and suggest places to go that you might not know about. While driving through New Hampshire and Vermont this week, I set my GPS on "leisure" and then "golf courses" and hit the "sort by distance to travel" button. If I had not, I would have missed the Eagle Mountain resort.
Eagle Mountain in Jackson, NH, is one of those old time mountain resorts that sit high on a hill with views to die for from the front porch, and a golf course that, by the looks of it, was built more by industriousness than some golf course design philosophy. The final hole -- see photo at top below -- takes serious advantage of the change in elevation but adds no other accoutrements (water or sand). Approach shots require an additional club or two, and if the wind is blowing, as it was as I stood on the precipice green, add or subtract another two clubs. Overestimate and you might be apologizing to someone sitting on the front porch of the Inn, directly across the street, if your approach flies past the rock that sits at the rear right of the green.
The course's pro shop is smaller than your living room, and you will be hard pressed to spend more than $20 to play nine holes. Membership runs just $500 per year. The Eagle Mountain course is definitely a throwback, in more ways than one (its designers, Patrick Marky and Brian Fox, are unknown to me and Mr. Google).
Added note: The fall appears to be intoxicating for golf course and lodging owners in New England. The other day I posted a photo of an ornate pumpkin display at Mt. Anthony Golf Club in Bennington. Eagle Mountain adds the Addams family to its holiday scene, with one obligatory pumpkin (see bottom photo). Indeed the entire town of Jackson, which is also home to the Wayne Stiles designed Wentworth Golf Club, was bedecked with characters that ranged from Star Wars to the Blue Man Group, Jackson's answer to those ornately painted cows that have been showing up in New England towns the last few years.
