Dingerm

Conditions were complete garbage. Grass is struggling everywhere. Bunkers haven't seen attention in weeks. Greens were in bad shape before being obliterated by pitch marks. Very slow greens, except for the two healthier ones. Cups looked like they were cut a month ago. Rock Creek in DC is the only course I can think of with comparably bad conditions. At least Rock Creek doesn't think such trash is worth $100 to experience.

Staff seemed stretched thin with many people worried about giving folks carts "too early" when people asked to load up 20 minutes prior to their tee time. No marshal or starter. Teed of 15 minutes late because the pro shop didn't have their act together. We were backed up with 3 groups on the tee by hole 4. Finally finished 9 in 2:50. Back 9 moved a bit faster after multiple people gave up on their round. Total time: 5 hours. Funny what not having a marshal or starter can do...

This was unquestionably the most disappointing round of my year. I hope my friends never ask me to return. I won't pay for this mistake experience again.

Some of the best course conditions I've seen in Northern Virginia. Greens were pure. Fairways and rough were hanging on very well.

The starter would be more useful as a marshal. His obsession with not letting people load up on a golf cart more than 5 minutes prior to their tee time was bizarre. Guess that power is important to him or something.

The greens need at least another week from time of this post to recover. Would have been nice to have warning that things were in rough shape.

Very fun challenging layout. Very scenic with plenty of views of the lake. I'd love to see it in good condition. It was anything but when I played it.

I tried to detail the litany of failures this course regular suffers, but golfnow appears to have deemed the review to unfit for your consumption.
Here's a quick highlight reel:
- Greens look like someone shot them up with a machine gun from a helicopter. No one fixes divots here. All grounds were exceedingly squishy from over-watering.
- Staff are purely clueless. 4-months into COVID guidelines, they still don't know how to check you in, and get you going. No marshal. No beverage cart. A man putting on the practice green alone was whined to about social distancing while a 50-person photo was being taken in front of the marquee after an hour-long party was held on the patio. The key difference: the party generated revenue.
- Tons of high school kids are employed doing nothing but driving carts in circles including across the course without regard for golfers or where they might be hitting shots. Give each a divot tool and some purpose with their life!
- 5 hour round. Again - no marshal.
- Teaching pro is comically spastic. I've watched him teach lessons and he stresses me out even from a safe distance. If you want golf lessons spewed to you at an auctioneer's pace by a man with an apparently coke-addled gait, this is the place for you!
- Free yardage book! . . . with minimal details on how the course plays.

I'm not sure where to start. If you don't like: bad greens, slow play, marshy turf, clueless staff, bad COVID-safety protocols, or greedy practices, I'm pretty confident you won't like Indian Tree.
The course was in miserable shape. Maybe they're watering it every hour to keep the greens alive?? I've never seen such soggy greens and fairways in Colorado - Arvada Water is making good money here! Fixing divots is a foreign concept to players of this course. The pitch marks make the greens roll as smooth as freshly aerated and sanded muni greens (with the wide punch, not the little slits).
The course has the resources to employee half of the local high school kids, but they don't seem to do anything more than joyride golf carts. One pack of children drove straight in front of our tee shots and when warned that they were in the way, they just froze and watched from a very dangerous area. The starter had no idea of what she was doing - the 4-month old COVID-adjusted check-in process was a complete mystery to her. She took more names than she could remember and then had to walk each name back to the clubhouse to pay. It took her three visits to the clubhouse to simply swipe my card and hand me a receipt.
On the course, you're fending for yourself. No beverage cart (fine by me, but maybe not you), and absolutely no marshals anywhere. The last time I played this course, I asked a marshal to handle the group that had snuck onto the 7th tee in front of us. His response "oh, I'd never ask them to get out of the way." So if you're retired and want free golf for "working" at a golf course, this is the place for you! If you have any interest in completing your round in less than 5 hours, there's a lot of nice courses nearby.
Most pathetically, the course used COVID as an excuse to shutdown the free pitching area. It's now marked as "lessons only" despite lessons regularly being taught from the few range stalls available to the public. Make sure you show up an extra 15 minutes early to account for waiting in line for a range stall to free up.
Final note: one of their teaching pros appears to be the most spastic, nut job I've ever seen give a lesson. His pace and cadence looked coke-addled as he frantically spewed useless tips at the poor beginner golfer I watched him instruct. It stressed me out just watching him teach another person. I can't imagine how he would ruin a golf swing given the opportunity.
Nice free, minimally informative yardage book though!

Broken Tee is in the best shape of any course I've played this spring. Greens were rolling true (except for 18, which had tire treads on it) and at a fair pace. If they got them rolling much faster, many of the greens wouldn't have many spots left for pin placements. Rough was long - only fair for such a short course.
This was my first time playing the course. It's an interesting layout, but the land has room for 15-16 holes, not quite 18 (or the par 3 course needs to be taken over and converted). If you like walking and leaving your bag half way up the fairway as you take your putter and driver up to the green and following tee, this is the perfect course for you. If you're scared of bad golfers hitting you as they miss their fairway and find yours, this is the worst course for you. I've never seen less space between holes. A guy I got joined up with said he'd been hit three different times on the course. I almost got one guy in the group behind us with my worst shot of the day.

Fun, short old-fashioned course. Not the place for blasting your driver all day. The course was in far better shape than it was for my visit two weeks prior. Greens were rolling pretty smooth and at a reasonable, but not fast pace. I like that they have made the COVID-adjustment of allowing the ball to drop slightly into the cup as opposed to raised cups like some courses have done.
Very easy to walk. Many holes allow you to leave your bag half way up the fairway and carry only a putter, wedge and teeing club with you.
Pace of play was great except for four geezers that were too cool to allow a twosome to make use of the three open holes in front of them. We asked the marshall to help and he wasn't interested in being involved. I also saw someone labeled "Security" wearing what appeared to be a bullet proof vest cruising around the course. I have no clue what he was securing. The condos around the course had friendly people on the porch - no one was bothering any golfers except for the wannabe officer Farva.

I was looking for the best course in the Tucson area for a semi-affordable price. Starr Pass was exactly what I was looking for. Very interesting layout. Beautiful desert scenery. Challenging, but not unfair. I would have loved to have played the third nine, but it was closed for an overhaul.