The course at Tot Hill Farm Golf Club is a tough-as-nails Mike Stranz creation that wends its way in thrilling style around and over creeks and rock formations.

Tot Hill Farm has a fearsome reputation. Voted the 7th hardest course in America in 2007, Golf Digest gave it 4.5 stars in 2008 and 2009 and named it to their coveted list of Best Places to Play in 2010. Ask anyone who’s played there and you won’t get a tepid opinion – the consensus is that you may love Tot Hill Farm or you may hate it, but you aren’t likely to forget it any time soon.

That’s fitting, because Tot Hill Farm isn’t your average golf course. For starters, it plays just 6,500 yards from the tips. That’s practically a pitch-and-putt course by today’s standards, but I doubt that many will walk off the 18th green wishing for more length. In those 6,500 yards, Tot Hill Farm makes you use not only every shot in your bag, but something even more rarely called for in many designs: self-restraint.

If you watch any professional golf you’ll hear commentators talk about a “good miss”. A recurring theme during Master’s Week is that “you have to miss it in the right spot.” At Tot Hill Farm it’s very rare for there to be a good miss. Nearly every hole offers you several places to safely hit the ball, but if you don’t hit it to one of those places, my advice is not to waste time looking for it. At many golf courses you can hit toward targets – if you’re a little short or a little long that’s okay, it’s a chip and a putt. At Tot Hill Farm you have to hit to targets. If you’re a little short or a little long, it’s a drop and at least one extra stroke on your card.

But if Tot Hill Farm is harsh, she’s also fair. If you’re willing to be honest about your game you can navigate the course with remarkably little fuss.