Baltimore Country Club (Five Farms/East Course)
Played Baltimore Country Club’s East Course (also known as Five Farms course) way back in either 2004 or 2005. From what I remember I really liked the course. It’s a classic Tillie design. It hosted a PGA Championship and US Open many moons ago (like the Open was in the 19th century and not played at the East course). It’s a great parkland course mind you. But… I see BCC has re-emerged in the Top 100 conversation. It was 102 on Golf Digest’s latest rating (2021). It was in the Golf mag’s top 100 as late as 2017 and is in the top 40 classic courses for Golfweek. Mmm, a bit lofty IMO though I understand there was a major restoration project in 2015 that helped it climb back. For me it was a very solid course, great conditioning, and from what I remember had a very friendly clubhouse grill. But ranking it above courses like the Ridge, Sherwood, Bayonne, Ozarks National, Spanish Oaks, et al? Nah.
From what I remember (and this was a ton of Miller Lites ago) the course was on a nice rolling property. You played one and two then crossed the road. The par-5 sixth had a barn blocking the dogleg (which was neat – kind of like 17 at St. Andrews). I played in the Fall so the property was pretty. And that’s really all I remember. I came across the I Putt Around blog when trying to jog my memory of the course and he did a great job on the BCC review here. I have it in my scrapbook here. My pro got me on and we played unaccompanied and the guy from I Putt Around got on through a member on Boxgroove so this should be do-able with a modicum of help from your club.
Let’s talk Baltimore then. Baltimore is a shithole. The Inner Harbor is dangerous and a little long in the tooth. Camden Yards remains a great retro park but it’s an iffy walk back to the hotel area. I took my daughter and her friends down there for a One Direction or something concert and did not feel overly confident in their safety. Plus there was some creepy Bronycon convention going on. My buddy’s daughter was carjacked and mugged. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
This is what years of Democrat control will do to a city – and since the Freddy Gray crap in 2015 it’s gotten worse! Baltimore currently has the third highest violent crime rate trailing only the equally shitholiness of St. Louis and Detroit. Their former mayor (Pugh) had to resign after a scandal and she replaced another shitbag mayor who had to resign after a scandal. Trump nailed it on the head when he called Baltimore a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where no “human being would want to live.”
So obviously I do not recommend it as a golf destination. Sure BCC is really nice and Caves Valley is supposed to be great as well but not enough to plan a trip around even if your pro can get you on both, I haven’t done a lot of public golf close by despite Baltimore being only a two-hour drive from my house. Bulle Rock is about half way between Baltimore and Philly and is nice but I’d home-base out of Philly if you’re wanting to stay and play it.
Baltimore is also known for crabs. Yeah I guess. Phillip’s is kind of the big-name original crab place but Baltimoreans will tell you they’re not the best. In fact my home club outside Philly has much better crab cakes than what I had at Phillips. There are a couple of chains in the Inner Harbor area if you’re down there and Fell’s Point and Federal Hill were at one time pretty fun areas to hang – though haven’t been in a while and if you go you’re doing so at your own risk as they are probably equally decrepit at this point.
The second thing I’ll talk about is my buddy Razzy the Raven who’s from Baltimore (actually right outside the city in a nicer suburb). I went to college with Raz and my college and post-college life is peppered with amusing Raz stories. His brother owned a bar in Federal Hill and we annually took a bus trip from the bar to the Preakness where we would hang in the infield and if we actually saw a horse, we’d be lucky. Once I was able to get VIP passes for us (sport jackets required) and Raz decided to wear a pirate hat – not a Pittsburgh Pirate baseball cap but a three-point official pirate hat. Bill Clinton crossed our path and after Raz shouted, asking him “How Monica was doing” the secret service started talking into their sleeves to watch the pirate. Every year Raz would head out to Pittsburgh where our buddies were friendly with a couple of the Steelers. Well after the Steelers would annually beat the Ravens, Raz would get drunk and one year actually fell on Will Wolford and knocked him out of the rest of the season. Raz says he was pushed. Mmmm?
I could have a whole blog on Raz stories. But I digress. I actually still have some photos from BCC so I added below.
Golf Scrapbook 