Built by Donald Ross, the Father of American golf architecture, and opened in 1921, the front nine is a feast for your short game.  Your skill will be tested by one of golf's great. Two greens, the 1st and the 8th, have vertical humps running up the middle. The 7th has 2 horizontal humps like the cross section of a camel. The flag is usually between the humps, so distance control is critical. The hint for these holes is don't leave a hump between you and the pin. If you do you, you will probably be looking at bogey or better.  The 2nd, 3rd and 6th holes have very severe slopes back to front. If you are above the hole you are in trouble.   The 6th has a back tier. If the pin is on the slope that leads to the back tier, you can easily 4 putt (experience talks here). The 4th green seems innocent enough, but  is full of double rolls and is difficult to read. (I was taught to read this green by an Optometrist).  The 5th hole is a par 3 around 130 yards. The green looks like a fortress:  elevated and surrounded by deep bunkers.  If you think you can roll the ball up, forget it.  Hit it short and pitch on, take 2 putts and move on.  If you hit the green on your tee shot, your putt will be fairly flat and makeable. This green is a Ross classic, I can think of 4 like it at Pinehurst. Which leads us to the controversial 9th hole which is like nothing I have ever seen.  I guess that means its unique. As I stand on the tee, I can read Ross' mind:

I am building a golf course in a potato field and I am running out of space.  (This I know from his memoirs) The last hole had to be dramatic. It must have the potential for a 4 stroke swing. But I only have 200 yards between the 1st and 8th holes.  How can I make it dramatic?  Easy. Build a green with a 8 foot high, 20 foot wide plateau in the middle and surround it by about 6 feet of green at ground level.  Surround both sides with bunkers. A pull or a push, slice or hook leaves a treacherous blast to the plateau.  Slope the plateau at angles so and an under stroked putt from ground level will not make it up the hill and an over stroked putt  will go off the other side of the plateau.  Make the chip from the front or the back a lob by radically slanting the slope to the plateau so that a pitch and run is out of the question.  I have had 6s and 2s on the 9th.  The plan worked.  Most of the locals want to get their backhoes and level the whole thing.  They say, "The hole is not fair, it is a circus hole, just go and play the miniature golf courses if you want this kind of action."  But take your wedge at dusk, when the warm air is rising above the cool air of the forest, the sun is setting in the hemlocks casting shadows measured in yards and everyone has gone home, and hit some shots.  There are not many places in the world that reward excellence and punish mediocrity like the 9th at Thendara. The green was built by a genius.

The greens are the selling points of the front nine.  It could be even more challenging if they cut the greens shorter and stopped watering them.  (like in Scotland and Ireland).  But usually the greens are slow.

The course is relatively short, The forest does not come into play unless you are too wild to play the game. Fairway bunkers where built for early 20th century golf equipment and the fairways are usually cut tight and are lush. The rough is marginally punishing. You can roll the ball onto all greens except the 5th and ninth. The two par fives could be par fours.  Only the 1st hole challenges those without length off the tee.  Most holes favor a draw.  The front nine can be had if you play smart and remember that the greens are the trolls in this forest.