Chester Washington Golf Course

Walked the Blues (69.9/119/6321) with nodoubles22, kassper7 & Andrew in slightly more than 4.5 hours Sunday mid day. The weather was clear, breezy and hot. Fun to play with all walkers for the 1st time in awhile!

It had been over 35 years since I last played here. I remembered almost none of the holes, my only recollection was that CW was a fun, not too demanding layout. Fairly wide open, the courses main defenses are the kikuyu and the small, sloping, hump backed greens.

While the layout is decent, the course conditions are not. It appeared to our group that perhaps they waited too long after the wet winter to begin utilizing their water budget again, because the course was way too hard and thin with brown spots after the wet winter we just had. Looked and played more like what I would have expected to encounter last fall, before the rains.

The tees looked like they had not been mowed in several days. The tee markers had not been regularly rotated, even non par 3 holes showed visible signs of wear between the markers. Definitely below average.

The fairways were mostly thin and hard. Some bare spots and some lush areas, but below average overall.

The rough was not high but it's still kikuyu. Tough to chip around the greens where it was thick/lush. Down the sides of the fairways it was much more thin than lush with hardpan areas mixed in.

The sand traps I was in ranged from poor to good. Nice sand but they had not been regularly maintained.

The small, humpbacked greens putted better than they looked, which is a very lukewarm endorsement at best. They were medium fast but very bumpy. It looked like they had not been getting enough water after the spring punching, which was still quite visible and affecting putts much longer afterward than you would normally expect. They were also very firm. I have putted on greens right after punching that were smoother than these. Easily the bumpiest greens I have putted on in quite some time.

The customer service was good in the pro shop. Decent range and chipping area, but the putting green is even worse than most of the greens on the course. I realize it was a Sunday, but $40 to walk a course in this condition is extreme. There was not a single area of this course that was even average compared to the multitude of other courses I have experienced in the last 12-24 months. Recommended = Not until the greens significantly improve.

Despite the weather, we had a great round. Only knock on the course was the bar closed early. Greens were in great shape, pretty quick. Would gladly play there again

Course was in really good condition. But it took us about 3 hours to play 9.

It’s a decent course with the deepest rough I’ve seen in a while. The only real complaint is they charged more than my reservation price and also added a charged for cart when it was a part of the package.

Chester is always a toss up. 20 minutes behind on tee times and hitters wait for the groups to clear the greens as if they can drive the greens. Pace of play could’ve been better. Not enough staff as shared by the starter which caused groups to wait and create their own tee times since nobody was holding them accountable to their booking time.

Walked it for the first time, usually drive. Great walk, 7,8 and 9 were a challenge but had a fun time