Steve8905914

Played on 3 Dec 2014 with friend visiting from CA.

0814 tee time and played as a two-some. Heavy dew persisted for almost the entire front nine. Also greens appeared to have been heavily fertilized which had some affect on putts. This was not disclosed either on making our reservations nor at check-in despite being asked. Booh

Friendly staff. Starter and Desk clerk. They had a cart girl who came around twice -- on a weekday no less. Nice. Carts had new GPS system with electronic scorecard. Nice setup.

Fairways had some soggy areas due to the fact that we had steady rain the day before we played, but those were isolated.

Fairways in decent shape, but bunkers were still a bit wet in places. Tee boxes in good shape. Rough is thick in some places, so it pays to be in the Fairway. Duh.

Dew made the front nine play longer than normal. Well, at least that is my excuse for playing so poorly. LOL

Other than the fertilizer issue, my only complaint is that the Pace of play was a bit slow once we caught up to the 4-some ahead of us at the turn. At least that gave my visitor and I some time to visit.

Would definitely recommend this course, but be prepared for slower pace due to the slow, older golfers who frequent the course. Avoiding the mornings might help in that regard.

Fairways, Tee boxes and Greens all in very nice shape.

Golf carts not allowed in parking lot. Starter was friendly as was the lady at the grill. Nice food was nice. I can highly recommend the Rueben sandwich and fries (home made ones at that).

Course is very wide open making it especially hacker friendly. Rough can be thick in places making it hard to find the ball let alone hit it out. I guess the solution is to be in the Fairway. LOL

Allowed to tee off early and as a twosome which was nice since my partner is not a great golfer and might distract others.

Some holes to watch out for include:

#3 - Narrow opening for 2nd shot.

#7 - Water on the Left of the Dogleg.

#9 - Be careful not to hit the drive too long. Water hazard comes into play. Beautiful hole.

Layout -- http://www.thechampionsgolfclub.com/aboutus/course-overview/

Would definitely recommend to others.

Friendly staff. Encouraged to tee off early. Paired with another single making it a nice day.

Course is in decent condition. Rough has some sparse areas grass wise though. Recently had sand applied to Greens, but it did not appear to have much affect on Speed or Direction of putts. Maybe I am just not a great putter. LOL

Some holes are Long for a short hitter like me. Total distance is 6133 yards from the most forward Men's tees.

Watch out for the tree in the Left side of #15 Fairway which will block your approach shot unless you stay Right with your 2nd shot.

Date Played - 5 Oct 2014

Single, but Paired with 2 chaps from Scotland. What a hoot.

Very friendly staff. Greeted at car and teed off 30 mins early. Clear skies and temps 5 to 10 degrees below normal made for a wonderful round.

Course has almost fully recovered from the aeration. Still has a noticeable amount of sand on the Greens, but it does not affect the roll of the ball. Fairwasy, Rough and Greens all show the positive affect that the latest wet spell has had on the course. No wet spots to be found here.

No forced carries and no water hazards. A Duffers Delight! Wide open Fairways helps as well. Some strategically placed bunkers, but most do not come into play.

#16 has huge dip that splits the Green. Interesting putt if you are on the wrong tier.

Most interesting hole is #18. Tree protects the landing area forcing you to choose your sides. Watch out for the trees on the Left side of the Fairway that prevents a straight shot at the hole if you are too far Left (like I was).

All in all, a great course that I can highly recommend.

We had an 8:01 AM tee time, but were allowed to tee off early which is nice to beat the heat. Pace of play that early was great. We caught up with a 4-some, but they let us play right through. Completed the round in a little over 3 hours.

Friendly staff as usual and I like their check-in process. Can take the cart to your vehicle to load it. Did not see the cart girl until #17, but I think she had missed us due to the fact that several holes are spread out and she was working both courses.

Course has recently been closed to repair and aerate Greens as well as do other maintenance. Even though one can still see the holes on the Greens from the aeration, the ball rolls true. The main issue with the course was the soggy conditions on several Fairways -- especially #14. They have been getting nightly rains so late that the course does not have a chance to drain fully.

Despite this, an enjoyable experience. I will come back again. Highly recommended especially with a GolfNow Hot Deal.

Played on 20 Aug 2014.

Course is shorter than most and fairly wide open. Not many force carries. Probably why it is a favorite for the older golfers.

Very nice course inside city limits of Orlando. Built in 1924 and renovated in 2008. This is a hidden gem of a course. Multiple practice areas -- Driving range, Chipping Green and 2 Putting Greens. Nice clubhouse/pro shop. Friendly staff. Thank goodness for the cart girl, she saved us from the heat.

Course is in fine shape although there are a few spots where the grass has died due to application of chemicals to kill weeds. This is especially surprising given the amount of use this course gets. Pace of play started very slow, but Ranger got the slow pokes moving and we finished our round in just over 3 hours.

#7 has a narrow opening for the tee shot. #8 requires a straight tee shot or you will be in the trees/OB on the Left or in the water hazard if Right.

#12 has to be my favorite hole. Short 142 yard Par 3 with picturesque rock wall and water short of Green. (see pics)

Would definitely recommend this course especially if you can get a Hot Deal.

Booked a super deal and arrived early. Very few golfers on the course so we were invited to tee off early. No Starter/Ranger on this day. Friendly staff and grill is relatively inexpensive.

Hot day but the course had super cold water about every 3-4 holes. Thank you! Unfortunately, no Cart lady. First thing I noticed, was that the clubhouse is sore need of some fresh paint. I last played here a number of years ago and this course has such potential but needs some TLC.

Course has a lot of weeds growing up thru the Tee boxes and Fairways. Greens are okay, but super fast.

Not many forced carries, but a lot of dog legs forcing layups. Oh and before I go very far, I have to mention the bunkers. Most were hard packed and like hitting off of concrete. Some had soft sand about 1/2" deep then hard packed. Something needs to be done.

#17 is a Double dog leg and gets VERY narrow in the last 125-150 yards. Rough is very high in places (3-4 inches), so best to keep it in the Fairway. Took 2 hacks to get out of the tall stuff on one hole where I should have taken a penalty but I wanted to see what I could do.

Course in nice condition despite the heavy rains the past couple of weeks. That said, there were a couple of holes with soggy conditions which reduced roll and made the course play longer. Several Greens have multiple elevations/tiers.

Teed off at 7:21 AM, with a twosome ahead, so speed of play was dictated only by our own pace of play. Booked as a Single but paired with a nice group of guys to make a foursome. High overcast skies kept the temperatures down a bit until it burned off later in the morning.

Course staff is friendly and cart girl met us twice on the round. Reasonable prices for refreshments especially considering it is a resort.

Hole #7 remains my favorite on this course. Get the tee shot over the crown of the hill and on the Right and your ball will roll down close to the Green.

Would definitely recommend this course and its brother, El Campeon. Look for a GolfNow Hot Deal and you cannot go wrong.

Played this course early on Sat morning right after a nasty t-storm hit the area the night before. Course had tree limbs down in a number of places and standing water in the bunkers and some fairways. Need to come back again to give this course another look. It seemed to be a nice one.

Not many forced carries -- especially from the Senior tees.

Date of Play - 22 June 2014, 7:28 AM

Pace of Play - Approx 4 hours

Booked round via GolfNow.com and got a 40% discount off the published rate.

Played the BLUE and RED courses (this complex has 3 different 9 holes courses). The BLUE course had recently undergone aeration and it has not fully recovered from that. Most putts will bounce along the way towards the hole and many times the ball would not roll true. I would say it is 2-4 weeks away. The RED course has essentially recovered from its aeration, although there are still signs of it with only occasional impact to putting.

The entire staff were professional, courteous and down right friendly. The patrons were also outgoing and greeted everyone when they met. I find that a refreshing change to many courses in the area. The facilities are top notch and they are even constructing new restrooms and storm shelters on the RED course.

The weather was warm, but not unbearable being so early in the morning. Starter was getting folks moving and after pairing me up with my new playing partners, we teed off a few minutes early. Round was completely unrushed.

There were only a few forced carries on the course. The RED course had a few holes that were fairly narrow and punished wayward shots. The BLUE was mostly wide open and hacker friendly. Watch out for water and other hazards along the sides of many holes on the RED course.

Would definitely recommend this course.

Las Colinas is a nice course. It shows the results from aeration. Greens and Fairways are not lush, but in good condition. Some Tee boxes a bit sparse grass wise.

I believe this course plays longer than the listed yardage. Not that the yardage is incorrect, just that I seemed to need 1 more club for the yardage. Some forced carries and a couple of tight Fairways.

Undulating Greens roll true and not too fast. However, they are still a bit on the firm side so they don't always hold on approach shots. Today's forward pin placement on #5 made for a challenging approach shot. (See picture.)

Make sure you check the layout of the Greens regarding slope on the back side. You will not want to overshoot several Greens. #9 and #11 come to mind.

#17 has a Water hazard on the left that is not visible from the Tee box. Make sure you look at the hazard across the Fairway before teeing off on #18. Laying up is a good choice.

I would highly recommend this course. Especially if one gets a good GolfNow Hot Deal. ;>)

Booked this round knowing that weather could possibly be an issue, but I really wanted to play this course and it was too good a deal to pass up.

Nice facility and friendly staff. Greeted at curb and at 1st tee. Carts have large color GPS systems that show accurate placement of pins and even location of other golf carts showing distance from you. Good to judge when to tee off. Also showed how we were doing versus a normal pace of play. Was also able to keep track of PGA and MLB scores via the screen.

Course is somewhat challenging with the elevated Greens and quite a few strategically placed bunkers both around the Greens and in the Fairways (the one in the middle of the 13th Fairway comes to mind). Also, the rain made it more difficult. Had to clear the course once due to lightning.

Not many forced carries from the Gold tees, but several from further back. Gold tees were 6,070 yards a bit long for this short hitter.

That said, I like the course and wish that it was not closing. Course was sold in Feb and is going to close in about 6-8 months to make way for houses, etc.

Weather was Excellent. Sunshine, but not too hot.

GolfNow Hot Deal for $12 + fees. A real bargain at that price. Food is good and inexpensive. Ample putting greens (2) with large driving range and chipping area. Best setup that I have seen.

Friendly staff paired me with fellow Razorback and friend. Pace of play was very fast. Did not have to wait on anyone until #10. Completed front nine in about 1.5 hours and the round in about 3.5 hours. We did back up on the 4 consecutive Par 3s on the back. Hacker friendly course. Wide open for the most part with some water hazards and few forced carries.

Short course on the back nine, but two long Par 3s (over 200 yards) were a challenge for me. Although # 5 is a Par 4, it plays long.

Lack of rain means the Fairways are dry and get a lot of roll. However, this also means that short shots are inconsistent due to the hard pack and not much grass.

Overall, a fun course for Hackers like me. Would definitely recommend especially with a Hot Deal.

Booked this Hot Deal for only $9 plus taxes and fees. Thank goodness for that since the course was a bit rough around the edges.

Showed up early and took avail of the putting green which was small but nice. No starter so I teed off early since there were no groups teeing off. Weather was warm but not overly hot though I am glad I had lots of Gatorade.

Greens were okay, but had some bad patches, but the Fairways and Rough were like hard pan under what little grass was there. The lack of rain has caused the earth to be very hard. This meant you got a lot of roll on your shots, but on the down side it was darn near impossible to make a consistent short shot.

Greens had mostly nice grass and rolled true, but were very firm and would not take backspin well. Tee boxes were in Poor condition with lots of sand and patchy Grass.

There is only 1 forced carry from the Senior tees -- #17 over water. But there are a few more from the Regular tees. #16 is the problem hole on this course. It is always wet even after no rain for at least a week.

I would only recommend this course for Beginners or on a super hot deal like I got.

Played MetroWest for the second time this spring and I must say the course is coming along nicely from the overseeding. The greens are still very hard and nearly impossible to stop a ball on them.

Pace of play was very good for a Sunday afternoon. Right at 4 hours. Fairways are coming around and tees are good too. Carts are being refitted with new GPS devices, but mine was not.

Playing from the Senior tees there are no forced carries but numerous lateral hazards. Some fairways slope down into the hazards which can "eat" balls. #4 is one that comes to mind.

Would recommend this course, but would suggest looking for a deal.

Nice course northwest of Orlando metro area, but worth the drive. Overcast and a bit windy, but nice day considering. Nice pace of play helped by Easter Sunday no doubt. Friendly staff but only saw the cart lady once.

Don't let the scorecard fool you. This course requires you to plan your shots according to the hazards or pay the price.

Not many forced carries on the front nine, but had to lay up on a couple of holes. Was 3 over for the first 7 holes which is very good for me so the course was not that demanding ... or I was very lucky.

#10 and #12 were the first really challenging holes in that one had to chose the right club and hit it as planned to get in a decent place for the next shot. #12 has a hidden hazard crossing the fairway that "eats" tee shots that are not the correct distance (not too far) forcing one to lay up from the tees.

#17 and #18 are nice finishing holes that also require placement of the tee shots. 18 has a steep upward slope into the green making it play longer than posted. (I guess that is why it has the hardest rating on the course.)

All said, I would highly recommend playing RedTail. Especially with a good Golf Now deal.

Course is in decent shape and should improve with more rain and sunshine. Reasonably wide fairways and decent size greens make this course hacker friendly, IMHO. No forced carries from the Senior or Ladies tees but there are some from the Regular and Tips. Wind made some holes play really long (#9 comes to mind). Some elevation changes, but only on select holes.

Booked online as a single and was paired up with a local threesome. Very helpful to know where to place the ball since there were places that would funnel shots on the fairway into hazards.

Saw several Hawks on the course today.

Front Nine was a bit slow, but this improved a bit on the Back. Did not see a Ranger and only saw the snack cart once. Staff at checkin and Starter were friendly as were the Snack Bar and Cart girl.

The GolfNow Hot Deal made this well worth the drive. Will play again.

Overall, the course is one of the better ones in the Greater Orlando area. That said, it is over rated IMHO. By that I mean that based on the gushing reviews and the higher price, I expected more.

Was paired with 2 other golfers to make a Threesome. The course was extremely overbooked given that they were having not 1 but 2 tournaments that day. The course was closed until the college golf tournament finished. That ran late causing everyone to tee off approximately 45 minutes behind our tee times. Because of this, we were backed up waiting on the groups ahead of us on EVERY SHOT for the entire day. Thank goodness for my new friends.

The Starter could have funneled some groups to start on the back nine, but that would have been somewhat problematic given the fact that the course did not have a "Turn" at the clubhouse.

There was no Ranger that we saw for the entire time, but I am not sure he would have done any good. Thank goodness the cart lady came around to visit 3 times. (We had to call the clubhouse to ask that they come visit us.)

The Tees and Fairways were in decent shape for Winter, but the Greens were firm. I suspect they will improve dramatically in the Summer and then the course may live up to its billing.

Thank goodness for a great GolfNow Hot Deal or I might have been upset. As it was, the day was long given the warm temps and breezy conditions which made the course play very long. I know it is not possible, but it seemed as if the wind was blowing in our face on every hole. LOL

The course has several "interesting" holes due to the elevation changes. Among them is the Par 4, 4th hole which has a tee shot over water and a significant rise to the green. Be careful with the Par 5, 17th which is called the "Devil's Delight". Make sure you take the time to go forward to scope out your approach shot ... unless you don't mind losing a ball in the water. We attempted to lay up short and STILL managed to roll 2 balls into the water. ;>(

All in all a decent course, but would not say that it is worth $100 a round. Worth the drive and the Hot Deal price.

Arrived early and was directed to the Starter who was friendly and helpful. I booked as a Single but was paired with a wonderful Canadian couple who were here on holiday.

Teed off on time, but had to wait to hit on every shot on every hole on the Front Nine. It took us 2 1/2 hours to complete it. Not sure what happened, but the Back Nine went much faster -- about 2 hours.

Course has fairly wide fairways which are in good shape. Water and Bunkers come into play on some holes from the back tees, but not as much from the Senior or Ladies tees. Some standing water in rough on some holes on the Back Nine, but did not hinder our play.

Greens were fast, but true. Some greens were hard and we were unable to stop our shots on them, but most held okay.

Would definitely recommend the course -- especially if you can get a deal on the normal greens fees.

Got a deep discount on Deal Caddy which was a superb deal. Course shows the attention and money that has been spent on the course. Fairways and Tee Boxes were nice albeit some of the White Tee Boxes were worn. The Bunkers were very nice (if I can say a bunker is nice -- LOL); however, the Greens were very hard and our group was never able to get the ball to stop on the green consistently.

That being said, the course is very wide and forgiving of errant shots.

The one drawback to our round (and it was a big one) was the extremely slow pace. It took us 5 hours and 10 mins to complete the round. We had to wait before hitting every shot ... and I mean EVERY shot -- no exaggeration. They had a Ranger, but I think the recent Deal Caddy special must have brought out the duffers ... like us. LOL

The course facilities and staff were very friendly. Would definitely recommend the course with the caveats above and am looking forward to playing there again.