Mongo68

We had a group of 9 people in 3 tee times that played this "course" after an all night rain. We arrived an asked for direction to the driving range and we told "it's open but I don't know if there's any balls over there". This was at 9:30 AM! The sprinklers were watering the course from start to finish after about 1.5" of rain the night before. It was a sloppy mess, yet carts were allowed on the fairways. The flags on most greens were placed in areas where the greens were at their worst. There wasn't a single putt where it wasn't extremely bumpy or bare. Many, many areas were overgrown. Several tee boxes infested with crabgrass. When you go to the course's website, they have a scorecard of Back Creek, not even their own course! There are no pictures of the hole layout (although the did have pics posted a week before). Now all they have is a description of the holes. You know you're in for an adventure when you go to the website and the video that plays contains NOTHING of the course itself, just 2 people walking from a cart to the pub then another 1:27 of ONLY the bar and restaurant. NEVER. AGAIN...EVER!

A strange round in a few ways. My intention was to play the black tees because the course is only 6200yds from there. I get to the first tee and can't find the black tee markers. I ask the starter where they are and he says they removed them for the rest of the year to save on mowing and moved the whites back halfway between the white and black. I look at where the black tees usually are and the grass is mowed. OK so, maybe on "some of the holes" they didn't mow? I kept track of where they placed the white tees and I'd estimate it was probably 200 yards shorter than black instead of the normal 450-500 yards. But not once did I see a tee area that wasn't mowed to save $. Holes 2, 3 and 4 all play directly into the morning sun. On #10 I hit into the greenside bunker and there's no rake. I go to the other bunker and none in there either. There wasn't a single rake in any bunker on any hole or on the cart. Are they supposed to play as waste areas? I don't know, but the card says to rake sand traps. So after the round I asked the guy at the counter about the rakes and he says they took them all to repair them. ALL of them??? Just a weird round overall. Played well, but it was weird.

I really enjoy this course. But if you want to COMPLETELY enjoy this course then stay out of the bunkers. There are so many rocks in them its ridiculous. Not only does my sand wedge have a huge gouge on the face. I then had to use my gap wedge which now has a large gouge on the sole. Fix the traps and it would be 5 stars.

This is a VERY challenging course but most of the previous reviews hit the nail on the head. There are TONS of unrepaired divots on the greens and the ones that HAVE been fixed aren't done very well. Greens are quick but not as quick as the practice green. Definitely a shotmakers/placement course. Miss the fairway and you'll pay the price. Fairways were in very good condition but our group got very little roll (rained the night before#. In my opinion, there are 2 holes that need to be blown up and start over, the par 3 5th. A half wedge downhill to a very small green with no bailout beyond the green #red stakes#. #10 is again another downhill shot with a mid to long iron with very little level ground in the landing area. A little short and you'll have a severe downhill lie to a downhill green with a gaping waste area between them.

Bring something to stuff in your nostrils as the smell of poo from nearby farms can be overwhelming many times during the round. There are also several waste water treatment ponds on the course.

Pace of play was excellent for a Saturday. We got through in about 3:40 and never saw the group in front of us or behind us. It's amazing what happens when a course PROPERLY spaces their tee times #Inniscrone is 10 minutes) instead of stuffing them in every 8 minutes.

I love this course but simply can't afford the regular $71 weekend charge so I always look on GolfNow for deals. I was about to grab one for $33 at 10:10 on a Saturday. Now THAT'S a hot deal. The course has a great variety of holes, both in length and design. The only 2 holes I don't really care for are 16 and 17.

16 is just a ho hum straight ahead tee shot then a downhill shot to the green. I've always thought that a large bunker in the fairway with a deep face would be a great addition to this hole tempting the player to go long or lay up short for a longer approach. The rough could also be grown in further to shrink the landing area. 17, in my opinion is just too long and narrow for a par 3. 210 uphill through a chute of trees from the middle (white) tees is a poke and a half. Back tees are 242. You can't go anywhere near right or the ball will hit and roll right across the path and mostly likely lost. Left isn't much better with high grass on the hill. The wind usually blows left to right here too. Other than 16 and 17, I LOVE this course!

This course isn't exceptionally difficult as there's a lot of room to miss with your tee shots. I was a bit surprised that after all the rain we had this summer that the rough was showing a lot of signs of burnout. Tees, fairways and greens were in great condition. I found a few unrepaired ball marks on every green. Can't understand why people can't fix ball marks. Even if you can't find your own, just fix 2 others!

I enjoyed the course but there wasn't anything that "wowed" me about it. Pace of play was 1:50 on the front and got held up on the back but still finished in under 4:15.

This course is a great value for the money but if you use a gps you'll quickly find that many of the stated yardage are off significantly. The 150 markers are correct but overall hole yardages are overstated. When this course opened it was listed at 6700 from the tips and that has been changed to 6300. But even that seems overstated. A perfect example is the 15th hole. Listed at 450 yards from white. Both our gps units were reading 380. Even moving back to the tips there is no way this hole was anywhere near this stated distance. Just something to keep in mind.

The course is normally $90-$100 in prime season. It's a nice course but IMO not worth that rate. I booked a 1:42 tee time on GolfNow (plenty of time to finish in daylight) for $45. Course was in great shape with only 2 exceptions. The putting green and 18th green were COVERED in seedlings so practicing putting before the round was impossible. 2-3 minutes with a leaf blower would have made a WORLD of difference. The other issue was that our divot mix bottle was about 1/3 full when we started. We figured it would get us through 9 holes and we could switch it out for a new one from the rack. Nope, a bunch of empties and not a single one with anything in it. Like the course and have played it a few times and will probably be back. Hopefully Jaworski will keep the place up or maybe even lower the rates a bit as this course really shouldn't be considered a "resort" course being 15-20 miles from the beach.