KSProf

This is not a great course in the grand tradition; they won't be holding the state am here anytime soon. But then again, where else can you play as inexpensively in a relaxed atmosphere? This is the perfect track for beginners; the course has just enough variance to be interesting and moderately challenging but does not have all the nonsense associated with many of the pretentious grand courses with forced carries and 15' deep sand traps. The course is a little rough around the edges, and sometimes you run into little oddities on the greens, tufts of weeds here and there, but I've seen worse. There's generally grass in the fairways, so there's that. The clubhouse is dingy and the posters on the wall are a good 40 years old, but the staff is always friendly. Very good, down home atmosphere that remind me of the courses I used to play decades ago when I first learned the game. Long as I'm in the area, I'll always play there from time-to-time.

The staff is always friendly, a great atmosphere, you get the impression you could meet good friends there. The layout isn't magnificent, but it's not bad, and frankly, who am I to take shots at Donald Ross, who probably belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of golf? So those are the positives. The negatives: I know it's Winter, but heck, it's just not fun when you stripe a drive down the middle and are rewarded with a bare dirt lie. Pretty much every single time. Not every course in this region is like that, there are ways of keeping at least some grass on the fairways even in February. I know this is a matter of dollars = upkeep, and the dollars just aren't there. I get it, not necessarily the super's fault, but it kills the quality of the round. So the pressure's on your short game, but the greens are often inconsistent. One hole might be lightning fast, the next like velcro, Wears you down. Sometimes the holes are kind of mounded with a slight crowning, anthill effect which comes from cutting new holes too hastily and yanking the ground up slightly. Typical of the round: short par 4, 275 yard drive perfectly in middle, 2/3 wedge off bare dirt (so I had to hit it perfectly), hit to 18 feet, but 3 putt because green's suddenly super slow after a previous green had been super fast. Next hole long par 4, 250 right down middle, rewarded with long iron approach off of bare dirt, get it to fringe, chip to 5', but again, the greens undo you: the slightly mounded hole repels any shot other than one hit online within the width of maybe a pencil eraser. Bogey-bogey. Many of the greens, any putt over 2.5', you either drill perfectly into the middle, hitting it hard, or it drifts right or left as it slows and catches that crown. Very frustrating! In the Spring, Summer, Fall, fine, it's a good enough value and a historic layout, but Winter golf here's not worth it.