BanBury Golf Club

Banbury features water, in at least the form of a creek running up the fairway on almost every hole (although around 5 of them don't really have any water you can find). What's interesting about this is that, assuming you don't hit a draw (or, of course, a hook) most of it is largely decorative... the large bodies of water (of which there are several) mostly run up the left side of holes.

Four of the five par 3's play at least somewhat over water; however, again, the water is typically early in the hole and avoidable with a decent shot.

So what you get is a very pretty course who's bark is a bit worse than it's bite. Banbury is pretty flat in general, although they've done a nice job building up around the greens to make the attack angles difficult if you have to approach from the wrong part of the fairway, tee shot placement is important on any holes that don't have front pin placements.

While there are not a lot of angles and virtually no elevation changes to navigate, this track makes good use of it's bunkers and native areas to provide protection. In fact, a word to the wise, if you aren't aware in advance of the OB native area that runs across the fairway (in the layup area) of the par 5 second hole, you could easily lose a stroke on a solid second shot.

I found Banbury to be in fantastic condition, especially for late in the summer. Further, the greens ran just about perfectly... fast, but not difficult to manage. I had 28 putts on my round and no three putts.

My service experience, from my call to set up my tee time to my check in through my encounters with the grounds crew were all terrific. I really can't say enough about the staff, they very much added to my experience.

I went out first, so I can't say too much about pace of play, but I was done in about 2.5 hours and the group behind me was right on my tail. Everyone I saw playing behind me seemed to be playing quickly as well, so I think - at least through the morning tee times - this is a reasonable expectation.

given it's proximity to my house, I'm not sure why I haven't played this course more that I have, but I certainly plan to put it in my regular rotation going forward.

This course is one of the best courses in all of Idaho. I always have a great time even when the course wins!