TimHobbs88

Berkleigh was a Pretty nice course. Worth playing at least once.

Not terribly difficult. Fairways are about 50 yards wide, greens are about 60-80 feet in diameter and are mostly circular (as opposed to a severe oval or something), the trees are far off the holes enough not to impose on the White Tee boxes, and the rough is difficult. Some clover makes it hard to find your ball. A couple blind shots, one with with a creek bed within driving distance. There were a couple holes that had the creek bed in play off the first tee, which usually made the hole longer for me because I wasn’t trying to kill it.

But pretty good, and it was a $65 holiday rate. All in all, pretty good value.

I enjoyed the first 7 or 8 holes, and a couple more holes throughout. A lot of ground under repair and being seeded. Greens were in good condition. traps were in okay condition. Pace of play is SLOW. This time of year there is only one Beverage cart for both courses, so we only saw her on The 11th hole.

Staff was super friendly. Course was in great condition. We booked this kind of last minute. Just a twosome. We were paired up with another twosome who had a first-time golfer with us. They intelligently told us to go ahead of them, as they’d be slow. Incredibly, they stayed pretty close behind us the whole time, because there was a foursome a couple groups ahead of us who was apparently on pace for a 5 hour round, and they didn’t let anyone pass them. Ranger didn’t encourage them to let the other groups pass, and the other twosomes in front of us were too kind to hit into them to give them hint that they’re too slow. So, some course management intervention was definitely necessary.

But then, Almost 3 and a half hours into the round when we were on hole 12, the sky opened up and the lightning came. No horn, Which I actually kind of appreciate, but we decided to go in. We waited and had a drink, and the staff was super friendly and interacted with us and asked about our round and where else we play, etc.

The storm only lasted about 30 minutes, but by then It was almost 8:30pm, so we had to take a rain check (but it got me thinking that we probably weren’t going to finish anyway since the pace of play was so slow). It took us 3 hours to get through 12, another hour would have only gotten us to 16 at 9:00).

They prorated the rain check based on the number of holes we played. So here’s my problem with that. As a businessperson, I can understand the owners valuing each hole as 1/18th of the entire cost. But a golfer doesn’t think of it like that. A golfer pays for the ROUND, and our round was cut short by slow play and then a storm (that we probably could have beaten anyway, or at least finished the last hole or two after the storm if we were playing at a reasonable pace). So we got some money for the next round, but it would have gone a lot better if the rain check was for the entire back nine, as we were only a couple holes in. And we’re only talking a couple dollars to a businessperson, but a great sign of sportsmanship to a golfer.

Instead of a review, I have a few recommendations for the course. The bunkers need to have more sand, and they need to be raked or hit with the SandPro in the morning. A lot of ground under repair that should be priority number one. I think the halfway house Should get back up and running. That side of the course has no relief or break. The greens need to be better maintained, even if new grass sod needs to be laid on some of the greens that are damaged or have fungus or other growth on them.

I think $12 is a little steep to charge for the range for 30 minutes, especially if I can’t use my driver because it’s only about 240 yards long, and the balls are not good quality.

I don’t mind that it’s short course, but there is very little difference between the blue and the white tees on a lot of the holes. We weren’t told there was going to be a temporary hole in that hose six was going to be shut down. That caused confusion for the group ahead of us, our group, and the group behind us.

The fairways are in good condition, and the rough is a good length. The water adds a challenging touch, but the overwhelming geese population could probably be handled to make a better experience on the tee boxes and greens, and Along the water in the rough and fairways. The tee boxes were maintained well, and the course is clean.