shandog31

Overall the course was in great shape, greens were in fine shape as were tee boxes and fairways. The course played fairly short, even from the blues, but kept things interesting with a couple of extremely long holes. 236 yard par 3 and 600+ yard par five. But many other par fours were 400 or less yards. As a player who hits 300 yard drives there was a lot of opportunity for risk reward, more so on the back nine with 3 par 3s and 3 par 5s.

As I was vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, this course was close and reasonably priced and I would 100% play there again.

Overall the course was nice, greens were beat up and nobody seemed to fix their ball marks. The man checking me in at the proshop bordered on being rude, but ultimately took care of us. I’m. Not sure what I was expecting for $95, but it was an average overall experience for the money. I did enjoy the course layout and would go back, but I’m sure there are better deals out there.

Growing up in NJ I was always happy to pay the out of state price when someone would bless me with a tee time invite. So when I actually became a NY resident and got access to the tee time system life has never been the same! In a good way!

There is simply no better course, on the east coast, for the money, than Bethpage Black. Conditions are always immaculate and the course always presents a challenge even in the most favorable conditions.

On my most recent round, the weather was ideal and the rough was not at tournament length, as a result I was able to score well on the front nine. However, as usual, the brutal walk caught up with as we crossed round swamp road and I found OB right off the tee on 15. As I’m sure countless thousands of other low, mud and high handicappers have before me.

But no matter what you score, by the time you walk up that last hill to the eighteenth green, you know you e accomplished something special just by finishing. There is a mystique that can’t be defined about this course, but it’s always fun to try and describe it over a beer in the clubhouse after the last putt. There is really nothing you can’t love about this course. Except maybe the lack of a proper driving range.

It should be on every golfers top five bucket list courses and it’s public, and relatively speaking, cheap to play so there is no reason not to make the trip out to Long Island. (Unless you’re handicap is over 15, in which case do everyone a favor and just play the red course. It’s blacks nicer little brother and you can take a cart!)

If I lived in Las Vegas, I would play this course all of the time. The fairways and greens were in amazing shape, and the staff was fantastic. For $20 you can’t beat the value.

This being said, the rough was completely burned up and there was virtually no sand in the bunkers. But if your a good enough golfer to complain about the rough and sand, maybe you should just stay out of them!

Overall, this was by far the best value in Vegas I have experienced in 20 years.

I’ve played many Vegas courses and often times the amount of money you pay truly dictates why you can expect to experience in terms of value for your money. However the Red Rock country club Arroyo course was a pleasant surprise. In fact for the money, thisncourse was the best value I’ve seen in Vegas ever.

The course was well maintained, the staff was genuinely friendly, the practice facility was excellent and the lunch I had in the clubhouse was outstanding. I wish the pace of ply was better, but I wasn’t too disappointed that we weren’t able to finish the round because of darkness considering we teed off at 1:50.

The greens were fast, but receptive to well struck shots and chips. The fairways were fair and the rough areas were appropriate for the course. Several sets of tee boxes allowed for my foursome to play to their respective skill level.

My only complaint would be that the sand traps were pretty bad compared to the rest of the course. Some were muddy, some were gravelly, some were soft, and some were hard. Very inconsistent and very much in need of an upgrade.

Overall, the course was fantastic and I would recommend this course to anyone visiting Vegas.

If your visiting Hill Country, play this course. I e played at 3:30 pm the past two days and finished both rounds in 3.5 hrs. The staff is great and all 27 holes are fun and very playable for all skill levels. The greens are sneaky fast and the bunkers are all consistent and well manicured. Overall the value for the money is awesome.

At $90 even while staying at the Fairmont Resort that owns it, the value is average, but the course is spectacular for a par three track.

The pro shop was well stocked, the staff super friendly and the course in meticulous shape. Certainly worth playing to sharpen your iron and wedge game before playing one of the big boy courses on the island. Also helped to adjust my game to the wind conditions I will experience at some other courses.

All in all, I played 18 challenging holes in just over two hours and had a great time.

On my recent trip to Bermuda, I decided to play Belmont Hills first. I got a great hot deal rate and an early tee time. When I got to the course I found three dozen senior golfers waiting to start a shotgun outing. I was worried this was going to be a 5 hour round. Fortunately, the starter grabbed me and drove me directly out to the 3rd hole to get ahead of the outing. I only encountered one other elderly twosome who happily let me play through. Everyone was super friendly including the grounds crew. On the fourth or fifth hole there was a local selling used golf balls for great prices. Like 3 ProVs for $5! I didn’t need any, but now I know for the future.

As for the course, it was narrow and the layout presented a fair challenge. The greens were a little slow, but it had rained the day before. I over-read a lot of greens, I definitely was overthinking putts that should have been played straight up. In fact, the entire course can be played straight up. Every time I tried to cut a corner or get too cute with a shot, I was punished. Had I just kept the ball in the obvious safe places I could have saved a few strokes.

Ultimately, this course is a great warm up if you are going to play Port Royal or Mid Ocean club.

There aren't that many public golf courses this close to the Jersey shore, and certainly no public courses designed by the great AW Tillinghast, but given the nice layout and great location, I sure wish the course was in nicer shape.

Barren, spotty rough, dry hard greens, just a generally beat up golf course. Certainly not the worst I played, but also just blatant disrespect to one of the finest golf course architects ever.

All that being said, it was a pleasant layout and a fun course to play, a few holes required some local knowledge and cost me a few strokes for not knowing where to lay up.

The Pro-shop staff was nice as was the guy manning the bar upstairs and the pace of play was a shade over 4.5 hours. I wouldn't place this course in my top 100, but if your down in Monmouth County NJ and looking for a track to play, it's an option.

Don't let the starter fool you! The practice green isn't "the flattest green on the course." This is what we were told and it took us about 5 holes to finally stop over-reading greens. But enough about that...

What a nice course! Immaculate conditions, clever holes that gave you options of how to approach each shot. For the most part, the course rewarded you for keeping the ball in the fairway and away from the rough, trees and bunkers.

It is understandable that the Senior PGA Championship has played there twice given what Mr. Nicklaus has built. It is one of the more aesthetically pleasing course I have played in quite some time. Golfer's eye candy.

Decent pro-shop and locker room facilities, food was okay, but service was SLOW!

All in all, a fabulous course worth playing, even if you are driving a couple of hours from Chicago.

What happens to a Country Club when it goes public? You get a really nice course that isn't in pristine condition. Ravisloe was really really nice, but also looked old and needed a little bit more TLC.

There were too many "helicopter" leaves or seeds all over the course making contact with the ball while in the rough, extremely difficult. Also made putting a nightmare unless you took an extra couple of minutes to brush off your line.

Regardless of what mother nature was doing and of the course needing some TLC around the edges, it was a challenging course with a nice layout and definitely worth the money. I think I actually liked it better than Cog Hill, which is supposed to be Chicago's best public track.

Staff was friendly, food was very good, but there was no hot water in the shower in the Men's locker-room, which wasn't fun.

Again, other than nit picking because we played Medinah the day before, this was a fantastic course and definitely worth playing if you are in the Chicago area.

If I lived in Chicago, I would probably play this course a lot. Really nice practice facility, pleasant employees and a tough golf course with 27 holes so you don't get bored.

We played this course on a windy day making it even more challenging than it should have been, but it presented a very fair test of golf. The tee boxes, fairways and greens were all in good shape and the rough was quite thick making smart recovery shots a necessity.

I did not have my "A" game and shot a 90 instead of my usual 80-82. Part of me wishes I could have played another 18 directly after we finished 18 just because I was completely unsatisfied with score and liked the course that much.

Absolutely one of the top public tracks in Chicago and definitely worth visiting!

It is fair to say I was surprised by how much I liked this golf course. I figured it would be a run of the mill type course, but it turned out to be a really fun track with a great setup. From the practice facility to the GPS on the new carts, it was a really good value for this part of the world.

The greens were very firm and tough to hold, but the tee boxes, fairways and rough were all in very good shape considering it is the first week in May. the bunkers were very inconsistent, but serves me right for landing in so many sand traps! Despite playing poorly, I thoroughly enjoyed my round which took under 4.5 hrs to play!

The only knock I have on the course is that you have to drive through the driving range after one of your tee shots. Very strange and dangerous, just straight up bizarre. However, I will definitely be returning to this course in the near future, and look forward to scoring better the second time around.

Very nice course, with a lot of challenging blind shots and layups. GPS in cart was negated by a cart path only rule in effect. Considering it was my first time at the course, this was not an ideal situation. I basically was carrying half of my bag across every fairway trying to figure out what the correct play was. I wound up laying up to visible spots on most shots just because I had no idea what was in front of me. All that being said, the course was very nice and I will probably play it again at some point in the future. the greens were fast and challenging and it seemed like a fair test of golf now that I have a slightly better idea of which way the holes go.

Bottom line, call ahead and find out if it's cart path only or your in for about five and a half hours of non-relaxing golf.

It's amazing what a little rain can do for a golf course. We played Lake Isle on what has been the hottest and most humid day of the entire year and that may have actually turned out to be a good thing (at least for this review)

For the first 12 holes, I found Lake Isle to be a short, rather average course that was marred by large areas of burnt out rough, tee boxes and dry crusty greens. Then came the rain!!! Fortunately, there was no thunder or lightning so we were able to take refuge under some canopy for about 20 minutes. When we re-emerged, we found a much nicer, more lush course that was obviously very badly in need of some water. It was like a magic wand had come and changed the course into, what I have to assume, it is normally like. the greens suddenly became receptive to well struck shots, the fairways looked much greener and thanks to the temperature dropping few degrees, the rest of my round was very pleasurable, including witnessing my playing partner's first eagle, which he holed out from about 75 yards.

Overall, I would give this course the benefit of the doubt and play it again, the layout was typical for a NY/NJ course, the price was good and there were many other country club like amenities that can be taken advantage of.

Hidden in a municipal complex just off the Palisades Parkway, you will find one heck of an interesting 9 hole golf course. Broadacres is a classically designed NY tree lined course.

Hole 3 is a daunting 230 yard uphill par 3 and hole 4 is a super long par 4, you will find that making par on either of these two holes feels more like a birdie. Fortunately, if you play 18, you can take two cracks at them, or if you prefer play 9 from the blues and 9 from the whites, you get a very different look at them. Hole 7 is another fun little hole, a nearly drivable par 4 that is reminiscent of Ridgewood country club's famous "nickel and dime" hole.

Overall, this course is a great track to walk or take beginners to. But it isn't an easy course. It is located on the border of Rockland and Bergen county NJ and is only about 30 mins from the George Washington Bridge. Definitely worth the drive from NYC, if your not looking for a course with a lot of amenities.

Forest Dunes was touted to me by many as nicer than Michigan's premier public course Arcadia Bluffs. While the actual course condition may have been a little better, (and the greens faster) it simply could not match the overall aesthetics or playability of Arcadia.

That said, wow, what a gem in the middle of nowhere!!! And the value for the money is far superior to the $180 Arcadia charges. However, for a place that claims to be a bucket list golf destination, the lack of GPS or any kind of caddie program was disappointing.

From tee to green, this course was as pristine as some of the finest Country Clubs I have played. The course strategy was pretty much straight forward without any complicated sight-lines. Each hole was framed beautifully by trees, yet the course didn't play like it was tree-lined. It was certainly a unique experience, but not on par with the Pebble Beaches, Whistling Straits & Arcadias of the world.

Overall it was a fantastic round at a fantastic course and should you find yourself in the middle of nowhere it's worth playing. And if Tom Doak does build a second course there, it's probably worth a weekend stay!

When you think of great golf courses on Lake Michigan places like Arcadia Bluffs or Whistling Straits come to mind, but those courses are expensive. Manistee Golf & CC may not be a championship caliber course and is a short par 70, but for the money, you get some spectacular views and a fun little golf course to play.

The tee boxes and greens were in pretty good shape and the fairways were decent. There were definitely some areas of rough that needed a little TLC. Other than that, the course is a western Michigan gem and a great warm up for playing in the Lake Michigan wind should you be on your way to one f the other big boy courses in the area.

All of Somerset County Courses have the unfortunate distinction of living in the shadow of their big brother Neshanic Valley.

Green Knoll is a nice course, but not nearly of the same caliber as Neshanic. The tee boxes, fairways and rough are all in very nice shape and despite a lot of rain the night before, the course was still 90 degree for Carts.

The greens were all in great shape and receptive to approach shots, but they were shaggy and SLOW. My understanding from a local we were playing with, is that the greens are always slow.

All in all, the course is short and pretty easy, but the day I played there were very high winds, which at least made it a challenge. There are also several holes that force you to layup making the some of the holes play longer than they actually are. If you are the type of golfer that likes hitting 3 wood off the tee, this is the right place for you.

The practice area is nice and there is a fun little chip and putt on the premise, but the men's room and food options leave a little something to be desired. I also found it a bit ridiculous that the food is cash only and that there are no water coolers on the course, only coolers with bottled water and an honor system with a coffee can that says "bottled water $1." Just knowing that Neshanic is also a county course in the same county, makes it all feel a little tacky.

But for higher handicap golfers, this is a good place to practice and get better.

It's hard to knock this course because it is easily one of the most pristine public golf courses in all of NJ. It is a step ahead of its brother & sister courses (Crystal Springs & Wild Turkey) at least as far as the conditions goes.

All that being said, for me, it is a forgettable course in terms of its design. It is a rather generic links course with very little in the way of memorable holes or unique features or signature holes. In fact, the bag pipers playing off in the distance is probably the most unique thing about this course.

Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful golf course and compared to other courses that charge similar $100+ green fees, it is probably in much better shape. There is just something so generic about it that I only find myself wanting to play it once a year as opposed to Wild Turkey that I would play over and over and over.

It's a great course for long-hitters because there are a ton of risk/reward opportunities, but it is also friendly enough for those that like to lay up and play it safe. The fescue can drive you insane if you’re not hitting the ball straight, but the tee boxes, fairways and greens are amongst the best I have played this year.

Overall the facility is top notch, staff is super-friendly, food is very good, and I know I got what is probably my best bargain of the year with a $55 Hot Deal. Certainly worth playing if you get the opportunity.