MetLinks Golf Course does its best to keep the spirit of Metacomet Country Club alive
EAST PROVIDENCE – I was ready to play the MetLinks golf course, but I wasn’t ready for the emotional journey.
The Metacomet Country Club is dead and will never rise again. MetLinks will never be able to replicate it, but it does a great job of embodying what the course was and keeping its spirit very much alive.
But for someone who grew up on this square and spent his formative years there, it was quite a shock to see it in person.
My story
I wasn’t a member of Metacomet Country Club. I grew up a few blocks away and started caddying when I was 15. That’s where I learned the game, that’s where I fell in love with golf, and whenever I was between jobs or needed some extra money, it was there for me.
While not every staff member has had the same experiences as me, there have been countless people there, both staff and members, who have impacted my life in ways they don’t even understand. Many of those people are the same people who congratulated me when I was hired at the Journal or who praised my work when we ran into each other because they remember me as a kid chasing my dreams.
The year Metacomet closed, I tried to play as many rounds as I could. I planned to play on the last day the club was open, but it wasn’t until a few days earlier that I hit a 15-foot putt downhill on the 18th hole – a putt I’d seen hundreds of times in my life – for birdie that I decided that would be my last golfing memory at the club.
A member invited me to be his guest on the last night the club was open. It felt like a funeral, with people telling stories, sharing memories and celebrating a club that had brought so much fun to so many people.
When it came to private golf courses in Rhode Island, many people wanted the status that came with membership at Rhode Island Country Club or Wannamoiset. But even more wanted to be at Metacomet because it was a great place to play golf and have a party at the same time.
The punch in the stomach
As I was driving to the MetLinks opening last Thursday, I turned left off Veterans Memorial Parkway and entered the site. I could have been blindfolded at that point and parked my car with no problem. Maybe it would have been better for me, because what I saw hurt more than I ever expected.
It’s one thing to drive around the property and see the overgrown fairways, fallen trees and missing greens. It’s another thing to drive up the driveway and see it all up close. I parked my car next to the hedges on the left side of the property, my usual spot, and had to collect myself before getting out of the car.
I prepared to leave, slung my bag over my shoulder and walked along the hedgerow. As I turned left, it was hard to realize that the clubhouse had disappeared. I knew it wouldn’t be there. I didn’t see it pull in, but it just felt different as I walked toward the practice green.
The attendant took my bag. I went into the makeshift trailer to pay, then took a stroll through the area where the clubhouse used to be. It was wild to stand in front of the old practice green in the back, the place where I honed my short game while waiting for members to come in, and stare at the 18th hole, which was completely overgrown.
I never thought a piece of property could make me emotional, but as I continued to stare at the visible back nine holes, it was hard not to.
The course
I didn’t know what to expect from MetLinks. I played around with Dan McGowan of the Boston Globe, who analyzed me hole by hole and prepared me for some of the changes, but reading them and seeing them are two entirely different things.
The first tee box at Metacomet is gone, the #1 tee box at MetLinks is about 30 yards up. It’s the same blind tee shot as before – still dealing with the wind from the bay and still hoping to miss the little creek in the rough on the left. It felt so good to hit the same approach shot to the same green, only I ripped it into the bunker on the left.
MetLinks continued the nostalgia tour on hole 2, which looks just as it did when Donald Ross designed it. Fifteen years ago I wouldn’t have flinched if I tried to carry the water over the dogleg links par 5, but now that I’m older I know better. I hit a 200-yard shot to the fairway, very safe from the water’s edge, a cowardly line, hit the same hybrid into the bunker, blew out and needed two putts for a par.
The third hole hadn’t changed much since my last visit. It was Metacomet’s signature hole, requiring a gentle cut off the tee to get to the top edge of the fairway, which would make an approach shot with the treacherous false front on the green easier to manage.
When MetLinks was redesigned, the trees on the left side were removed and replaced with fescue. This was my old fail because if you hit it far enough, you could still get a clear view of the green at the end. I blocked the ball on the right, but it went far enough for me to wedge in and two putt for another par.
I can’t remember the last time I started three holes feeling as relaxed as I did at MetLinks. Every shot felt so familiar and really gave me confidence. Although it was obvious the greens weren’t Metacomet greens – they were the average speed of a public course and very forgiving – it felt no different than any round I’d played there before.
Then things changed.
The big changes at MetLinks
With the MetLinks rerouting, Metacomet’s brilliant seventh hole is now the fourth. It’s a really great golf hole where everyone who played it knew which three clubs they needed – one for the wind behind them, one for the calm and one for the wind behind them. It’s hard to make par if you miss right and even harder if you miss left – although slower greens help.
But the fifth hole, Metacomet’s former eighth, was the biggest shock for us.
Hole 8 was a normal hole – hit a 200-yard drive, hit a short iron or wedge over a valley to the green. MetLinks has turned it into two holes that keep the spirit of the hole alive.
No. 5 is a par 4 protected by a wasteland, bunkers and lots of fescue. I don’t know the exact distance as I didn’t bother to measure it with my rangefinder. My hybrid missed the green on the right and landed in the fescue, but I made it to the green and needed two putts for par.
The sixth hole was a wedge over the valley and it’s great that they were able to keep the old eighth green alive and incorporate that shot into the redesign. It’s a mediocre shot but you know you can’t miss by far and if you miss the ball you’ll never see it again.
Hole seven was the first big change. Standing on the tee box that used to be the ninth hole, I could see the narrow fairway of what was once the short par 5 where I had hit my first eagle. I loved this golf hole because it always seemed so easy, but it never was.
It’s a short par 3. I think it’s a beautiful hole. It’s beautifully framed and while it’s not insanely difficult (it’s a wedge), it’s just fun to watch. When the green settles and firms up, it can get treacherous.
The end
Perhaps the best thing MetLinks accomplished with the reroute was that they finished with the two most difficult holes Metacomet had to offer.
The old #4 hole was the only one I never finished with a birdie at Metacomet. MetLinks moved the tee box back and created a very scoreable par 5. It’s just a fun hole to play again. Standing on the green after a bogey, it was refreshing to look around and see the first hole, #2 around the water, the distant third hole and the path I just took to get here. This will make for a great view during twilight rounds this summer.
You finish MetLinks with a medium length par 3. It’s uphill, you can’t see the green and although the wind usually helps, it rarely feels like it. This hole is home to the first par I ever made and although I’ve made a few more there, I didn’t manage to do it that day – but I was OK with that.
Changes MetLinks should consider
I can’t praise the redesign enough. There will be a lot of people who disagree, but that’s an emotional assessment, not a realistic one. Metacomet never came back, and honestly I didn’t realize that until last Thursday. MetLinks gives people the opportunity to see the heart and soul of the course, and it’s great to have it back.
It’s not perfect. They need to find a way to get the greens back to their original state, or at least close to it. The greens were what made Metacomet, and if they can get back to double-digit speeds, that will bring life to the course.
MetLinks could be tough for beginners. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this is the most challenging nine-hole course in Rhode Island. The first three holes are a real monster and the last two are not for the weary either. The short par 3s and the short par 4 are helpful, but if you don’t hit good golf shots, it will be a very long day.
Two other things: They need signage on the #2 tee that tells players exactly how far the shot is over the water. It looks attainable. For 99% of players, it is not. Signage would also be good at the cart area near the #2 green so players know to take their drivers to the green, behind which #3 is.
Is MetLinks worth the price?
This is the million dollar question, or in this case the $50 question.
OK, so it’s not quite $50. For non-residents of East Providence, nine holes with a cart is $46, and if you want to go around twice, it’s $20 more. Residents don’t save much, but it would be nice if MetLinks gave locals a significant discount.
You can walk the course, but be warned – it’s tough. The walk to No. 3 is insidiously hard and getting to the new fourth tee isn’t easy. Playing the last two holes uphill is also good training.
If you are a passionate golfer and don’t play this course, you are definitely crazy.
The hardest thing about playing here is remembering that it’s not Metacomet Country Club. MetLinks isn’t trying to be that. MetLinks is trying to be exactly what it is – a great nine-hole golf course that respects what it once was while putting its own spin on it.
And Rhode Island’s golf community benefits from it.
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