rbwagner56

Course conditions were good. Many holes tree lined with light dog legs with fairways and greens in good condition.
They have a couple large practice greens and a driving range. There are a couple issues though.
1. Lack of variety in course length. Par 70 course where tips are 6371 and the next distance is 5893 and the last being 5150.
With the course being tight I think people play the longer length and then waste time looking for their ball. The terrain isn't flat which means errant balls can travel places unexpected. I hazard to guess how long it could be to find your ball once the leaves fall. Unfortunately people don't limit their search to just a couple of minutes.
Several holes are significantly harder. For example there are two par 3's where the distance for the tips and next level are 192 over a long water carry vs 119 yards and the other is 183 vs 120 yards and again a large water carry.
2. Back nine is harder than the front. The front is a par 34 and the back is a par 36. The back 9 has more water carries and is tight. The problem is one can get through the front faster than the back - which means play is constantly backed up. After finishing hole nine there was literally a 20 minute wait before starting hole 10. Ultimately my round - which was mid day and a Thursday, took 4hrs 50 minutes.

I would suggest they should reverse the order - play the back nine first. Also, they need to find a way to make more options in the length - which I understand is not an easy solution.
Lastly enforce pace of play. I have found courses tend to not want to do this as they don't want to make their customers unhappy, but I would ask, how many people don't come back because of slow play.

I need to give them a bye partially because it is March in the Chicago area so greens/fairways/sand traps were rough.

I do not understand though how you can't have scorecards available. I would think most golf enthusiasts do like to track their score.

The reality is their course has been in a continuous state of decline over the last 10 years which is reflected in how few people were there in spite of their relatively low price. When I booked, almost all tee times were available, while a municipal course several miles away was mostly booked.

I only booked this course because that municipal course didn't indicate they were going to be open.

Course pace of play was slow where part of the problem was balls get lost in the rough. No drinking water on the course - use to prior to COVID. Course length may be an issue for some golfers. White tee length roughly 6350 yds while next level down is 5800 yds. Big difference which also can lead to slow play as people may be playing a course longer than their skill level dictates.
Having GPS in the cart is a plus.

I have played there many times over the years, but unfortunately I will not play it again this year. They have three nine hole course where I played the East and North courses. The East course had 3 holes where the greens were destroyed due to the weather - literally no grass on it and the North had two holes that way. They had a water main issue so no drinking water available - only bottled and port a potties.
The other issue for some golfers is the available tee lengths - the longer boxes Gold Blue and White do not have a great difference in lengths roughly 6900, 6600 and 6300 for 18. The next level down - Red is only 5200 yards. So if you want to play something closer to 6000 yards, you're out of luck and will probably not have a good time.

Sand traps were grown in. Looks like things are being left unattended. Pace was fine but played on a cold windy day so not many people on the course.

Course is interesting in that is one of the highest elevations in that area of Florida. Most fairways are wide making play easy. The negative is that most of the greens were in poor condition. The other negative is the flags were all red vs being color coded whether the flag was located front/center/back. Ok for a $25 or less course.

Played the course many times. Water in play on most holes. Numerous traps protecting each green. Greens well maintained. Watered fairways. Rough is not thick. Electric carts. No rangers so pace can be slow. They have a lot of outings during the summer so call before booking. I was right behind an outing took 5.5 hours to play.