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Because I'm a member of golfnow, I will often search for "hot deal" tee times. Stumbled upon this course yesterday, so I figured I would give it a try. It's about 25 minutes from my house, and I had never played it before.
I arrived at the course approximately 20-25 minutes before my tee time. Parking is less than desirable, you are either under some large trees, near the net to the driving range, or within striking distance of the approach shot on the 18th hole. All of these to me are no ideal as I'm a bit of a car guy and definitely don't want to have to worry about my car getting hit while I'm at the golf course.
After unpacking, I stopped by the clubhouse to check in, and since I had never played here, I purchased a logo ball to add to my collection. This was probably the highlight of my round, the staff person was incredibly friendly and helpful. He asked if I had ever played there before, how I had heard about the course, and also gave me some information about the course since it is almost 100 years old, and told me that PGA tournaments had been held here in the 1950's. He informed me that the course was not busy and to go ahead whenever I was ready, which allowed me to basically tee off 10-15 minutes prior to my scheduled tee time.
In my opinion, the course was moderately busy, and unfortunately, (and this is no fault of the course), golf etiquette was nowhere to be found. I was playing as a single and had several threesome and foursomes ahead of me, no one offered to let me join or play through until the 12th hole, so pace of play was very slow. Here is the rest of what I found:
The signage on the course is very limited, and I often found myself wondering where the next tee box was, and even wondering if I was playing the correct hole and where I was supposed to hit my ball.
Fairways are in okay shape, not the best or the worst I've ever seen, but they were okay. Often, they had lines spraypainted to indicate where the fairway / rough was.
Cart paths are terrible, almost non-existent. Several of the paths are all dirt / sand.
Lots of trees lining the fairways, some of which just need to be trimmed as they have some low hanging branches that make some shots more difficult than they need to be.
Putting greens were okay, again not the best or the worst that i've ever played, but I felt that they were very fast.
Overall, the layout of the course is pretty simple, not a lot of doglegs or hazards, but because it is easy to hit your ball into another fairway (because a lot of the holes are right on top of each other) you often have to be on the lookout for other balls or carts coming at you.
With the course being as old as it is, and the history that surrounds it is cool, I don't think I will be going back anytime soon as there are other courses in the area (Winter Pines for example) that is roughly the same price or better, and definitely in better shape. I think this place has some serious potential, but needs some definite TLC.