James6589410

I really love playing this track, as the conditioning is exceptional, and I only have 2 major beefs with this place, PACE OF PLAY AND HOLE 10 which is about as unfair as a golf hole can be. No good way to play it, unless of course you have a towering 270 yard sweeping 3 wood draw in your bag and a baby fade knock down wedge that you can pull on a string. In that case your golden. For the rest of us mere mortals take this hole with a grain of salt and enjoy the rest of the course (hopefully with a 5 some because that's the only way you won't be pressing the group ahead).
But for the pace this course would be at least 4 stars.

Great course but there are definitely a few holes that I'd blow up and redo. Among them are 3, 16, 18 and not necessarily in that order. Despite the displeasure I experience when playing these holes (due to their micky mouse design, blind tee shots or stupid layup zones) I absolutely love the remainder of the course and the conditions are always top notch with great rolling greens. The day I played featured 35 mph gusts which made for a grind but because they did a nice job of leaf control and course maintenance I didn't have insult added to injury. The course was uncrowded so I was able to blaze around in about 3 hours on a cart that must have topped out at about 25 mph, which I love! I think golf is best played fast and if you finish too early, play some more! Which happily, wasn't a problem for the pro.
I would recommend this course to any golfer below a 14ish handicap as there are forced carries, (sometimes multiple on the same hole) and dramatic elevation changes and slopes on both 9s. You dont need to be long to play well here but you do need good course managemnt skills and patience.
I love the somewhat out-of-the-way location which reminds me of a trip up north.
The staff have always been great each and every visit!

This course is top notch in so many respects. It offers a challenging environment with plenty of slope and great views for any level of player. My group played one set of tees up from the tips and distance was never an issue (my average drive is 255-265 yards). This course offered more than enough challenge particularly if you don't bring your A game. A wonderful variety of holes creates a real championship golf environment and the condition of the greens was pristine with a true roll that tested our strokes rather than our luck.
The day we played was a perfect fall color day and the ampitheater of the trees was just amazing. I like the style of this layout as it gets more difficult from tee to green. Tee shots were demanding from a scoring standpoint but as much in terms of losing balls and strokes.
I didn't rate the value of this course all that well because I think it normally runs around $60 which I think is steep in this ecomomy but it was an offer I couldn't refuse at an $18 hot deal.
If you can play here for <$40 you are winning!

Let me preface my remarks by saying that I've played a handful of the top 25 courses in the country and consequently, I've had the pleasure of experiencing a spectrum of course designers and some of their best work. As a result, I think I've earned a bit of credibility along the way.

First the pros:
Arrival to the course was cool and laid back, there was plenty of help if we needed it and they knew enough to sense we were pretty self sufficient.

The facility, restrooms, and grill were clean comfortable, nicely appointed, and the staff were professional. Guys in the Pro shop were efficient and accomodating and the starter was very tuned in and attentive to our needs (we were concerned about rain predicted several hours later) and he got us out on the back 9 first to expedite our round, which thrilled us. The carts were brand new with GPS and fast! Nothing worse than a slow cart!
The practice facilities, although I didn't have time to use them, were very appealing as well.
The course itself, to my pleasant surprise, is an Arthur Hills design which usually connotes, with no exception in this case, a roomy feel off the tees and and increasing degree of difficulty as one approaches the greens. I played the blue (men's) tees at about 6500 yards and it looked like the course maxed out at about 6900 yards, so it wasn't overly long, and my 81 year old father played the yellow (presumably senior) tees at about 5100 yards which eliminated all but a couple forced carries. Arthur Hills seems to subscribe to the philosophy that "luck favors the aggressor" as nearly every tee shot offers a straight-away (safe) route And a more assertive path for the intrepid. This also pleases me because as a low double digit handicapper I can't always be certain to "thread the needle" on any given day. This course will often allow you to scramble your way to a respectable outcome and nearly always offers a safe side of the green to miss, although this often makes for a harder pitch.
The wonderful variety of holes never left my concentration waning and I was never underwhelmed. The course was reasonably sloped and fair. The green complexes offered a stout test and equal variety. The designer keeps changing his mind from greens well protected by beautiful traps to equally vexing large rolling mounds as fortification.
I found the beauty of the property also exceeded my expectations and, had there been an intermediate cut of rough, the grooming would have had me thinking I was playing a private caliber club. Oh, and before I forget, I can't say enough about the bunkers, which were exquisitely groomed, with excellent sand, and with their peripheries hand raked to perfection! The green surfaces were challenging without being Mickey Mouse and, had they not been plugged and sanded recently, appeared to be kept in great shape with virtually zero unrepaired pitchmarks.

The Cons:
The GPS system disables the carts when they approach restricted areas, sometimes 30-50 yards away from the greens etc., with no warning or demarcation and the only remedy is to reverse the cart and CRAWL backward up till the cart reactivates.
Having more than a passing relationship with golf etiquette I found this annoying and infuriating as the cart would die when I was clearly nowhere near a green, an apron, a bunker, or any other sensitive area.
Far too many wooded hazards where one is unnecessarily double penalized with out-of-bounds stakes. I interpreted this as a band aid remedy and deterrent to ball hunting induced slow play, and was very tempted to ignore them altogether as they were an unduly penal stop gap and couldn't possibly proximate the architect's intentions.
And lastly, and most courses are guilty of this one; Failing to post or verbalize conditions of aeration. This is a hack move and any course that doesn't offer this information or some concession in price pays for it in loss of good will. I really didn't expect aeration as most courses had completed this weeks earlier. Had I not received such an unbelievable deal I may have thought twice about playing.

I was able to play this course on a hot deal from Golf Now and I was more than pleasantly surprised as $25 was an absolute steal! I don't even know what the full fare Is but, assuming the greens aren't torn up, I would pay upwards of $60 to play this track. (Assuming, of course, that it's not a death march in mid season. Very few courses are worth playing in longer than 4 hours.)

I always thought of Fox Hills as a League Factory and as having courses commensurate with that philosophy, how happily wrong I was with The Golden Fox!

This course is a fantastic value, not because of how much you get for the $ but because it is absolutely the least expensive course I've found that isn't a dog track.
Tee boxes are generally uneven, un-level, and often sparsely grassed.
Fairways are very tight and trees encroach on nearly all holes. Fairway condition is probably the best asset.
Greens could be great but never tightly mown. Very slow and shaggy.
Bunkers are rarely raked and machine tilled and therefore play like hard pan.
Always check to see if there are leagues before booking as I've been behind a league several time and witnessed fivesomes playing regularly.
What I like about the course is that it is extremely challenging for a short golf course, some of the holes are borderline unfair with their difficulty. If you can score here you are playing great golf!

We played after several days of rain so, to be fair, we had to expect some wet conditions but I had forgotten that the drainage is terrible at Shenendoah. Even when I played there as a teenager 25 years ago. So that hasn't changed.
It's always disappointing to arrive at a course and be told "car't path only". I'd rather not play than be unable to take the cart at least 90 degrees in the fairway and walking wasn't an option. No wonder the round was over 4.5 hours on a mid Tuesday afternoon. Courses should be forced to disclose cart path only and 90 degree regulations prior to booking as it can easily ruin a round.
Overall, the course was conditioned well in spite of the slog. Greens were slightly tricky and ran very smoothly. Asthetically the rolling hills and changing evasions are pleasing to the eye.
Over half a dozen gimmicky holes and the elevation changes on the front nine severely distort the distance of tee shots. Many fairway bunkers aren't within 50 yards of being reached even with booming tee shots. Hitting up severe slopes and then down the same severe slopes on holes 3-7 can feel uninspiring and contrived at times. Although the front is more wide open than the back, "well" placed towering trees punish misguided tee balls.
The back nine is flatter with more tree lines holes and tighter risk reward situations. I prefer it to the front (although wetter).
The par 5's are the teeth of this course and can swallow errant shots easily. Make sure you're hitting your woods and long irons well when you show up here!