Wyndhurst Manor & Club

The Wyndhurst Manor & Club, located in Lenox, Ma., features an historic 18-hole course (actually 19 holes).

It’s a picturesque, traditional New England resort course routed over the hills surrounding the resort and through mature woodlands of the area. The course features tree-lined fairways and naturally contoured greens that have been carefully preserved in the more than 80 years since the course was built.

The eighth hole is one of the best on the course. You tee off next to the resort hotel and can cut the distance to the hole on the 347-yard par-four dramatically if you take the drive over trees that hug the left side. It’s all downhill to a small green that is easy to miss if you don’t concentrate on the pitch shot.

You need to score well on the front side because the inward nine is much more difficult, with several brutal par-fours and some very good par-threes waiting. The 11th is one of the course’s signature holes, a 200-yard parthree that plays from a chute of trees to a severely slopped green. Huge bunkers guard the putting surface.

The finishing hole is a wide open 393-yard par-four that allows you to hit driver and follow up with a mid- or short-iron into the slightly elevated green. Then it’s a bit of a drive, or walk, back to the clubhouse, which allows you to take in the scenery and tally up your score. And remember that 19th hole? The par-four is situated near the eighth green and plays toward the clubhouse, allowing golfers who need to get back for dinner or a spa treatment to enjoy a shorter round. www.WyndhurstManorAndClub.com