slm999

Fun course that rewards good shots and penalizes bad shots. Well above average condition. Had a lot of fun playing the course.

Donald Ross did an excellent job on this course. Many of the greens have his signature style, where if you don't hit the correct shot to the correct part of the green, you won't be on the green. On blind tee shots, directional indicators and the hole by hole description sheet handed out by the starter help a player new to the course hit the right shots. Some funky but fun holes. Sorry that I didn't get a chance to play it again.

This is an interesting course, but without a guide you will hit a lot of drives through fairways and into woods. I hit 5 beautiful drives that I either had to take a penalty on or chip out from the woods. I don't know if the course yardage book tells you where to aim off the tees. If it doesn't, I would skip this course. Other than that, it is a fun course to play, especially if you play it more than once.

The Seaside Course at Sea Island immediately became one of my favorites and put Colt and Allison on my list of favorite course designers. The conditions have been great in both December and in June. The many tees mean that it is playable both by me and by my wife. We generally go out in the mid-afternoon and don't see any other players. The practice facility, which is very important to me, has everything I could ask for. My driver broke on one trip so I got fitted for and bought a new one. When I asked the fitter to help me with my 3 wood, after hitting possible replacements he said that he had nothing that I was hitting better than my very old Orlimar Tri-Metal. It is just a perfect golf experience.

I like the course...the layout...the length (from the blues at 6665, not the blacks at 7186 that I'm too old to handle). This used to be one of my top five playable courses in the (extended) area. Condition issues, however, have moved it down significantly. The fairways have too many unreplaced divots. The sand traps have too many rocks and not enough sand. The greens have too many divots and way too many spike marks...more than I've ever seen on a decent course in my 50+ years of golf. As mentioned in another review, there is a lot of poison ivy in the rough. Away from the condition issues, this is a good course that rewards good shots and penalizes bad shots. By picking the correct tees, you should have to use all your clubs, as in it's neither a lot of driver wedges nor a lot of driver fairway woods. I check the box saying that I would not recommend the course to a friend, but I would recommend it with the understanding about the conditions. Hopefully, they get better.

This is a fun course that doesn't get much play. There are elevation changes, reachable par 5s, non-reachable par 5s, and a driving range. The practice putting green is worthless.

You can look at Craighead as two courses. The front nine was nothing special, but the back nine was everything you could ask for. That pretty much makes the front nine almost a warm-up for the back nine followed by Balcomie. Would I play Craighead again as a single round for GBP 69? No, I'd rather play the St. Andrews courses. Playing the two Crail courses for GBP 95 makes for a great day.

Balcomie comes close to the perfect golf course. Each hole is interesting in its own way. The course rewards good shots and penalizes bad shots. And the views are fantastic. At GBP95 for a full day of golf, playing both Balcomie and Craighead, it's a bargain. If you are choosing between the two courses, Balcomie, to me, is the better choice in almost every respect. We stayed in Crail, so add convenience to the list.

We stopped to play Woodcreek on our way to Myrtle Beach. It was a very playable and enjoyable course. The staff was attentive. I doubt that I'll get the chance, but I'd play it again if I was in the area.

This is the more scenic of the two Lyman courses. There are a number of blind shots, but the starter told us all about them.

I played the Jones course for the first time after playing the Player course a few times. It is not as scenic, but it provides a better golf experience/challenge.

The course is a good layout. The bunkers come into play on many holes, but I say bunkers rather than sand traps because they only have about an inch of sand in them. More sand would improve my rating.

The best thing about this course, aside from the layout and the condition, is that you can choose from five sets of tees to find the perfect set for you. I like a course that makes me use all of my clubs, so I played from the #4 tees. The other thing that I like is a course that rewards good shots and penalizes bad shots; Union Vale does just that. Miss the fairway and the first cut of rough and you will pay a steep price; even if you find your ball, moving it forward will be a challenge. The course is over an hour from my home, but every time I go there I think how the course is worth the trip. Enjoy!

It's not a bad layout, though very tight due to the overall size of property and proximity of condos. Incorporates mounds to keep balls in play and away from condos...unless you hit the wrong side of the mound. Well trapped, but therein lies the problem: the traps have only a thin veneer of sand. If you pay the standard rate, it is way overpriced. Played second nine in 2:45 after 1:45 first nine.

This was a fun course with a lot of elevation changes. It had just enough challenge for me (single digit handicap) without being too difficult for my wife (not a single digit handicap). I haven't played Gullane #1, which I'd like to do at some point, but I decided that my wife would get just as much, if not more, enjoyment from Gullane #2 at about half the price.

This is everything I'd want in a course. I used all of my clubs. The wind made direction and distance choices extra challenging. I wish that this was my home course. Even though I'm a fan of CB MacDonald courses, I enjoyed this more than I did The Mid-Ocean Club. We were rained out of our tee time but were able to reschedule within our vacation time constraints. This is one of my favorite courses in the world, having played everywhere from Alaska to Scotland to Bali.

Riddell's Bay went bankrupt, but the course is still there. For some reason, they are still cutting the grass so you can see where the fairways and greens were. My wife and I walked part of the course and I was tempted to come back and play it with a 7 iron. Like all the Bermuda courses we were on, there are beautiful views. If this course re-opens, I'd love to try it out for real.

My wife and I played on a December afternoon with winds in the 20-30 knot range. We went out after the Goodwill Golf Tournament ended at 1:50, so we had to skip holes 11-13 to be able to play the finishing holes with at least some daylight. Since we were after a shotgun, there were only a few groups on the course, which allowed us to get in the 15 holes in a little over 3 hours. Because of the tournament, we played to very difficult pin placements, especially with the wind. The course condition was very good. Bunkers are well placed so that they can put pins in either easy or difficult positions. This was a great course that I (a 9 handicapper) and my wife (a 36 handicapper) both enjoyed. My favorite hole was the 7th, a par 5 with a downhill drive, dogleg left to an uphill (huge uphill) approach. Combined with the beaches, this is the course that would get us back to Bermuda. Mid Ocean would, too, if it wasn't so expensive. They are also trying very hard with their restaurant. We had lunch there twice; the second time we shared a huge sandwich.

Okay, Mid Ocean is expensive. All-in it was about $280. But what a course. CB Macdonald had an amazing piece of property and created one of his greatest courses. Everything is fair...difficult but fair. If you hit a good shot, you'll be rewarded; hit a bad shot and you'll be punished. That's just how golf should be. We played on a December morning with winds of 25-35 knots, gusting to 45 knots. In case the course wasn't tough enough! With this wind, I don't know that it would be fun for a 20+ handicapper. In addition to the play, the views are amazing. We also enjoyed a nice post-round lunch in the grill, overlooking the 18th hole. If you can afford it, definitely play this course.