Hole #7 “Lane”
377 yards, 359 yards, 288, Par 4
Charles Banks in 1925 “This hole reminds one of Indian Summer. It is pleasant, inviting and a trifle lazy. The fairway is a natural lane between two ledges on the right, cleared and bare, and tree-covered ledges on the left. The approach to the green is a well rounded knoll and the green winds to the right on the top of the knoll. There is a wide bunker to the right of the green. Play on this hole is better if made to the left hugging the trees so as to get a better entry to the green. In the construction of this hole six feet of solid ledge was taken off the knoll approach and the balance of the fairway was an impassable swamp.”
This too was a “natural” design, and the fairway treads a narrow lane between a lateral ridge along the right side and long rock ledges along the left. Several decades ago, a new short tee was added here (and at the next hole, No. 8). Both were the gift of Burt Resnik, class of 1934, a member of two national champion teams, and a player here for the rest of his long life. Recent drainage projects have much improved fairway conditions, and tree removal on the left has again exposed the beautiful rock formation of those ledges.
The fairway is level, until it begins to rise steeply eighty yards before the elevated green. This is “Horse Hill,” named during construction for one of the work horses that died on the spot and was simply buried there. Scott Ramsay has extended the fairway cut all the way up the hill to the green — and extended the green’s front edge several feet down the hill, giving a new, frightening meaning to the term “false front”! The tri-level green is treacherously pitched from back to front, and any pin location will sorely test one’s putting.
We recommend a walk of more than a mile on the old construction service road. This begins in front of the new short tee, passes the Bird Sanctuary, the fish hatching ponds of Greist, and then continues through forest that has not been disturbed for at least 100 years, and ends behind the long tee on No. 15. You could also take a right turn just past the Bird Sanctuary and go up to the highest point behind the seventh green to the Wilbur Cross Parkway where the original irrigation water tower was located. This trail ends at Fountain Street.
