Middle Island Country Club has 27 holes spread across three 9-hole courses - Dogwood, Spruce, and Oak. The author played Dogwood and Spruce the first round and enjoyed the rounds, scoring well despite hot weather conditions. The second round, the author played Dogwood and Oak. Dogwood was well-designed for his skill level but he struggled on holes 7-8 due to heat. Oak was more difficult, with holes 4-7 being extremely challenging, causing the author frustration. Overall, he had a decent experience but would prefer playing other courses.

1. My Thoughts on Middle Island Country Club
I played Middle Island a few times over the summer. There were great deals for 18 holes
with a cart. I hadn’t played there in years, and it was mostly as I remembered it. My view may
be slanted a bit as I played on two of the hottest days of summer. The starter is a bit of a
stickler, which also didn’t help. A plus was it wasn’t crowded, so the pace was ready golf, until
the last 2 or 3 holes.
Middle Island has 27 holes, so they at least spread people out. The first round, I played
Dogwood and Spruce, the second go Dogwood and Oak. I’ll just give general views of each
course. They are all generally in good shape. It was a little dry, but the rounds were mid
afternoon after hot days with full sun. My short game was on and I putt well both rounds.
Dogwood, playing off the whites, felt designed perfectly for my level of bogey-ish golfer. The
first 2 holes went well enough for getting warmed up. 3 is a good quick birdie opportunity on a
short par 3. I pared 3, 4, bogey on 5, par on 6, both rounds. 7 and 8 were a bit of a struggle, I
think the heat was getting to me. 8 is the hardest according to the score card. The 9th hole is a
lot of fun, a dogleg right, shooting onto an elevated green.
The first round, we went on to Spruce. I scored well here too. It wasn’t overly difficult or
long. The most memorable hole was the 6th, worrying about putting a slice through someone’s
windshield. It was a fun, though not memorable back nine. The 9th hole is incidentally the 1st
hole I ever played, when I got dragged to an outing with the old man, and sat in the cart all day.
22 strokes later I finished the hole. This foray didn’t go much better; I was hot tired and had
enough.
Now we come to Oak. The 1st hole is very picturesque. I played through a flock of geese.
The 2nd and 3rd I parred both. 4 – 7 was an extremely had stretch. I got an 8 on each of them,
the difficulty level just jumped. Watching players in front of us, it looked like they were
struggling as much as we were. The 8th hole, I managed to chip in to save par, took it as a win
and gave up. Taking a look at 9, the group in front of us, and group in front of them were still on

2. the fairway, so we called it a day. Looking at it, the fairway sloped from left to right, and looked
like a debacle waiting to happen. Overall, I did not enjoy this 9 at all.
I wouldn’t say this is a bad course, I just would prefer to play others. It has a nice ‘old’ feel to
it, but isn’t that memorable.