(NOTE: This is the fifth installment in a weekly series featuring some of the toughest golf holes across Hampshire County. The series will run each Saturday in print throughout the summer.)

SOUTH HADLEY — Donald Ross is generally regarded as one of the best golf course designers in the history of the sport, and he certainly lived up to the billing when he architected the Orchards Golf Club back in 1922.

The 18-hole private course – the only private club in Hampshire County – is not just in incredible shape, it’s also one of the most well-crafted tracks in Massachusetts. Each hole is brilliantly different. The 59th U.S. Women’s Open was held at Orchards in 2004, when Meg Mallon ripped off a 6-under 65 – the lowest final round in U.S. Women’s Open history at the time – on the par 71 course to win the fourth and final major championship of her career.

On that fine Sunday in South Hadley, Mallon rolled in 10 one-putts. And if you were to play a round at Orchards, you would know that a double-digit number of one putts is an absurd amount. But you’d also understand that Mallon mastered how to get around the course, and kept herself below the hole or short.

Anywhere long and you’re in a heap of trouble.

“The greens are very, very tricky,” Orchards head golf professional Dan Morgan said. “Donald Ross really put a lot of thought into how he wanted to set those up. They’re definitely a highlight of the course and playing them the right way is the key to a good score, for sure. Being under the hole is where you need to be on this course. Anything over the green is a super tough up-and-down.”

Morgan moved to Massachusetts from Australia – where he was born and raised – about three years ago. Only a month into his time in the Commonwealth, he landed a job at Orchards as the assistant pro. He quickly became the head pro when that position opened up not long after.

The course celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022, and it seems to only get better as time progresses. The course plays a bit over 6,500 yards from the championship (black) tees, and no hole aside from the 13th is abnormally long in comparison to its par.

Yet it’s still a beast of a course that requires elite golf IQ to score well.

“You look at the scorecard and you see, from the tips, it’s 6,500 yards,” Morgan said. “Anyone that hits a ball over 250 is going to be like, ‘I got this.’ Then you get out there, and that’s not the case. You’ve gotta position yourself well off the tee and you can’t miss it in the wrong spots around or on the green or you’ll leave yourself with some really tough shots.”

No. 13 is a headache from tee to green

It can’t be stressed enough: the 13th hole is grueling. You have to play it yourself to fully understand why.

The par 4 plays 448 yards from the tips, one yard further than the par-5 16th. It slopes hard from left to right throughout the entire landing zone of the fairway, so it’s necessary to hit a drive up the left side and let it roll down to the middle. But if you miss too far left, there is a ton of fescue that is happy to gobble up any golf ball headed its way.

Yet anything that lands on the right side of the fairway will run into the rough, and anything that lands in the right rough may even shoot into the large pine trees that line that entire side of the hole. There isn’t any room for error off the tee.

“It’s really a tee-shot golf hole,” Morgan said. “You’ve really got to pipe one as far as you can down the left side and let the slope take the ball down. You’ve really gotta be up in that top half of the fairway, because if you do land in that bottom part, it can kick down into the rough and then you’ve got a really hard shot into the green.”

The putting surface is shaped like a bowl. Everything works down to the middle of the green with mounds left and right. But Morgan said those slopes cause a lot of deception and mis-reads. Sometimes you think a putt will break one way and go the other, or you think it’s uphill but isn’t.

“It’s a tricky green,” Morgan said. “It’s sort of high on both the left and right sides and funnels in, but it’s on a pitch of a hill that enhances all of the slopes. It’s a beast of a par 4, especially coming off the tips.”

Take in the views of the 14th

After making a six on 13, you at least get to re-group with the absolutely dazzling views of hole 14. When walking to the tee box and peering out toward the green, you can see the contour of the back of the green matches perfectly with the mountain range of Skinner Mountain in the distance.

The creativity of Donald Ross is really shown in even just that one aspect of the course. The Summit House on the mountain is viewable on your way to the tee box as well.

The hole itself is straightforward. A 407-yard par 4 that has plenty of native area and pretty fescue, and slopes the opposite of the 13th hole (right to left instead of left to right).

In the fall especially, No. 14 is the featured hole at Orchards.

“Fourteen is beautiful, it’s a beautiful outlook,” Morgan said. “You can see Skinner Mountain behind it overlooking the course. Then the green is designed to mirror the mountain range in the background. When you’re standing on the tee box you can see the like-mindedness of both the slope of the green and the mountain range. It’s quite a cool touch.”

If you’re lucky enough to play at this private track in South Hadley, the views alone make it worth the while. Then add in the pristine conditions and the illustrious history, including the profound imagination of Donald Ross, and you’ve got everything you want and more in a golf course at Orchards Golf Club.

Garrett Cote is a Gazette sports reporter. He can be reached at gcote@gazettenet.com