Chris6086478

Had a great day out on the course today. Course was in great shape, didn't see any areas that needed attention and the grass had been mowed recently which was great because it keeps the rough playable instead of having to try and hack out. Even the bunkers were reasonably soft, which was surprising because you don't often find that this time of year in Seattle.

The only downside was the pace of play, the front 9 took 2.5 hours because of the group in front of us. By hole 5 we began spending considerable time waiting for them, by hole 6 the groups began piling up behind us as well due to this, which was pretty frustrating. Ended up calling the marshall who spoke to the group, the group still didn't allow anyone to play through. We ended up passing them at the turn since they stopped for hotdogs. For a course that is short the pace of play is usually my only issue. I understand the course has a more relaxed attitude, which is fine, but pace of play keeps me from playing here more as I can't always dedicated 5-6 hours to a round of golf.

Still love the course though!

It was a real treat getting to play White Horse, I'd been wanting to make the journey there for quite a while and finally decided to do so on my birthday weekend. After reading several reviews about the course I was extremely excited to get out there and see the layout. I wasn't disappointed.

Sprawling bunkers make every shot count and required us to really target ball placement on the greens because they are the firmest I've ever played, which was surprising since we've had one of the rainiest winters I can remember and it was lightly to heavily raining for nearly my entire round. Give credit to the incredible irrigation system, every other course might have been rained out due to several downpours that happened while I was there, but the large fairway drainage system continued to work away and keep the course easily playable. While the course had some really fun par 3's, I think it's the short par 4's that I liked the best. On the front 9 there are times you're hole is so heavily wooded and secluded that you'll feel alone out there.

Course conditions: the course was mowed and 90% of the balls that hit the fairway bounced while the other 10% only partially plugged, viewing the ball from the cart path wasn't an issue. This was particularly impressive given the amount of rain that day and the winter we just had. The greens are extremely firm, but I believe that is by design and in no way a knock against the course, it actually added an extra layer of challenges to the day.

My only complaint was on the approach to each hole, the board would have the yardage for each of the 4 tee boxes but wouldn't give you the shape of the hole, so we ended up having to find it on google. For most holes this wouldn't have been a problem, but there are several holes I can remember where you can't see the dog leg or the direction of the green from the tee box.

Overall: this course challenged me more than I thought it would have and really forced me to make uncomfortable shots and take chances. I didn't play particularly well, but had a blast doing so.

There's definitely a lot to like about Blue Heron, I live about an hour away from Carnation so this was a pretty good drive for me to a course that I knew nothing about. I got a great deal on Golf Now for a $20 round which included a cart for me and my golf companion for the day, had I paid full price I probably would've been upset given the course conditions, which weren't terrible but they also weren't great. I'm gonna start with my pros.

There was a great mix of shapes to most of the holes, I can recall at least 5 holes with dog legs which really challenges players to chose their club and distance wisely. On top of that, there was a good amount of hazards and water to hit over. The greens were in good condition and surprisingly firm given this time of year. Given its remote location you'd expect the course to be heavily wooded, but outside of OB there are just enough trees dividing each hole to make things not feel congested, you also won't have to worry about someone else's tee shot flying directly at you. Outside of the first one, each of the par 3's felt unique in both distance and setting which is hard to come by and a huge plus.

Next are my cons.

The biggest area of need was for the fairways to be mowed, it was so thick and hard to find tee shots that it really slowed down the pace of play for everyone, not just our group. This is understandable given the amount of rainfall we received this winter, but some of the grass appears to have not been cut in 4-6 weeks. The course wasn't muddy for the most part, some fairways were actually firm and resulted in the ball bouncing instead of plugging (rarely), there wasn't really any difference between the fairway and the rough since all the grass was long, the rough just had more of it. The strangest part of my whole experience here was that there were patches of grass in areas between holes that had been mowed that morning or the day before, but these were areas that weren't even connected to holes...? I'd never seen anything like it and it was frustrating given the fact that the course desperately needs to be mowed from top to bottom. The course was firm enough to drive power carts on so it seems reasonable to expect the lawn shorter than it was, but it didn't ruin the experience.

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives in my opinion and once spring is in full effect and the course has had the chance to dry out a little bit so the grass can be properly maintained it would be a fun play. Given the shape it's in now I wouldn't pay full price to play here, but the price I got was worth it.