seniorchief

We had my buddies son playing with us. He’s a scratch golfer. The only golfer to hold his club’s match play and stroke play championship at the same time two years in a row. He was amazed that he’s lived less than 35 minutes away for more than half his life and he’s never heard of this course. He absolutely loved it. He said that next to his home course this is now his second choice and he’s played every course in the St. Augustine area.....’nuff said.

Firstly, the young man at the pro shop was outstanding (his politeness, his demeanor, his greeting). I regret not getting his name but he did mention that he had just recently come to work in the pro shop from some other job at the course; maybe the cart barn..
The course was in good shape considering how many rounds get played there at this time of year. The greens were a little slow and grainy but putted true. Shame, shame on the golfers who don’t fix their ball marks and divots. Since play was a little slow I fixed at least 3 to 5 on most holes.
The rough is another case altogether. I’m no talking about the way out in right or left field rough but the rough right alongside the greens/green side bunkers. It’s scary enough trying to lob one over the bunker to a tight pin or any pin for that matter but when you’re hitting off compacted dirt it’s more likely to land in another zip code. Seriously, since I was playing alone, on two holes I kicked the ball into the bunker and played on from there. No sense getting upset. It was too nice a day. I had fun and will return.

The course was in good shape considering the greens were punched 5-6 weeks ago; still a little slower than usual but ok. The staff were great as usual. I had a head cover fall off and told the Ranger when she passed by and she had it back to me in 15 minutes. All in all a good day.

The staff were exceptional (pro shop, cart guy, ranger and bar maid). The course is a challenging layout; many doglegs, mostly to the left. Luckily I’m not a fader/slicer. The greens are tricky and undulating. They played slow that day due to a very long and heavy rain the night before but they were in good shape. All 4 par 3s have water. All in all, it was very enjoyable and well worth the $$$.

My buddy and I had a Golf Now reservation for 12:30. We checked in at 12:10, went to the car, loaded our clubs and were on the putting green right by #1tee. At 12:22 a twosome and three some rolled up to the tee and began teeing off. The twosome went off at 12:27 and the 3some at 12:38. At 12:35 I went to the clubhouse and the very nice lady said it was ok for us to go off the back since no one was coming in on #9. Had there been heavier traffic on the course we wouldn't have been able to go off the back and we would have been stuck two groups behind the twosome who almost certainly used at least 6-7 strokes apiece before even reaching the green. I routinely play a round in 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 hours. Four + hours is a no-go for me especially when I have a reserved t-time. If someone walks in w/o a tee time they should be assigned a time in the clubhouse that will not infringe on the reserved tee time if there is no Starter on duty. Other than this glitch, it was an enjoyable round.

Overall an excellent golf experience. The only reason I didn't rate it as 5 stars is that the greens were punched a while ago (3-4 weeks I would imagine) and haven't fully recovered yet. I'm looking forward to going back in a couple weeks and seeing how they truely roll. Everything else was AOK.

Great course, great staff, great price.