BlackRock123

We played the day after Thanksgiving. Normally the course closes November 1st so we not not expecting great conditions (sand, greens, tee boxes, etc.). It was cold and cart path only due to recent rain but the course was still in good shape.

You really need to have the yardage book to enjoy course. It is not you typically driver on every hole and wedge to the green. You really have to think your way around the course and many times club selection dictated an iron off the tee. This makes play much more enjoyable because it challenges your game.

I will continue playing here every year as it's a great course.

Over 6,000 Pennsylvanians have died due to Covid-19, yet the pro shop attendant was too ignorant to wear the state-required face mask (all other employees did, even outside).

I always enjoyed playing here but stopped coming back 4 years ago after a horrendous 6+ hour round due to slow play and absolutely no pace-of-play enforcement from the course ranger.

Today the course was relatively empty due to it being the 4th of July. Since we got there a little early, the starter let my twosome go off 15 minutes early, which allowed us to avoid being paired up with another twosome (as was on the starter's sheet).

Tee boxes, fairways, and greens were in good to excellent shape. Hole #12 had all tee boxes temporarily located on the front of the sloped fairway, which made the tee shot less than ideal. I'm not sure why all the tee boxes were not being used on this hole as they seemed fine.

When we were putting on #10, we noticed 4 carts/ 2 foursomes leave the clubhouse area and proceed to tee #11. When we got to the tee box, it was 4 husbands and wives who cut in front of our group. I immediately called the Pro Shop and the ranger was there within 2 or 3 minutes. He spoke to the groups in front of us and had them let us play through. Evidently those groups played 10 holes and then ate a sit-down lunch at the clubhouse. Absolutely no golf etiquette for them to jump in front of us. I cannot begin to tell you how appreciative I was for the staff's immediate response to their egregious actions as it was apparent that these 2 groups would be playing extremely slow.

The only negative about the course was that the bunkers were in terrible shape. Some were full of weeds and appear to be unkempt on purpose. However, others had minimal sand, were not raked, and had lots of marble to golf ball-sized rocks in them. When we hit into a trap, we would rake it really well and then drop our ball in the raked sand before taking our shot. Honestly, it really wasn't a big deal as I was only in 2 traps all day.

I would definitely play here again as the greens, fairways, and tee boxes were a huge upgrade compared to most of the other Lehigh Valley courses.

I know this course gets a lot of negative reviews for it's configuration because you cannot (or should not) hit a driver on every part 4. Personally, I enjoy courses like this where some thinking is involved before club selection on some of the tee boxes.

I'll add one more thing, they have a nice GPS mounted in the cart. While I found it extremely useful, the distances can be off by a lot due to the elevation changes on the course. I relied on my slope range finder but still greatly appreciated the cart's GPS.

I measured five par 4s longer than 400 yards with another two at about 390 yards (we played the intermediate green tees). It was actually refreshing to hit all the clubs in my bag, considering I usually hit a driver followed by a short iron or wedge at most other courses.

The greens were in excellent shape (save for two under repair). The carts not only had a green layout showing the pin placement, but also the slopes of the greens. I can't for the life of me figure out why all courses don't do this. This definitely saved me a few shots since many of the slopes were brutal to putt downhill and I was able to choose the correct distance with my approach shots based on leaving the ball underneath the hole for an uphill put.

The only negatives were that my Garmin GPS watch did not match up with the course layout since they rearranged some of the holes from the previous layout. My GPS indicated we should have started on #18 while we actually started on #2. a few other holes were flip-flopped as well.

I know this is nitpicking, but I hate when some young kid is waiting for you at #18 to clean your clubs for a tip. Not that I mind tipping, but the parking lot was a pretty long walk down from the cart return, instead of standing there and merely wiping my clubs down for a minute or two, they should have these kids meet us in the parking lot to return our carts.

We played on a Sunday around noon and very few players were on the course. Since I am familiar with the area, having spent a lot of time at a friend's cabin located nearby over the past 20 years, I knew the drive from the Lehigh Valley would be slow due to the New Jersey and New Yorkers congesting Route 209, Route 402 and Route 6. I'm not complaining, but just don't be surprised if the 70-mile journey from the Lehigh Valley takes upwards of 2 hours on a weekend.

Unfortunately, I played the course after a few weeks of a dry, intense heat wave. This left the fairways and greens extremely hard. Needless to say, all of our divots were shallow on the greens and tee shots got a lot of run on the fairways. I don't fault the course manager for lack of rain and extremely warm temperatures leading up to our round. I can't stress enough how the course was meticulously maintained. Although it was laid out over a very large area in a private community with house overlooking all the holes, it still felt intimate due to trees, landscaping, and elevation changes.

Now for the actual course layout, it had some very challenging holes where hitting to yardages was a requirement. As part of a foursome that tries to play a different course every Sunday, it is very frustrating playing new courses and not knowing the layup distances for doglegs and hazards. We try to play at a brisk pace and only use a watch GPS with front, middle, and back green distances. I shouldn't have to buy a $300+ GPS to play a new course. In this day and age, golf courses, especially country clubs, should at least have a printable course description on their webpage with at a minimum, layup distances to hazards and fairway bunker yardages. While Woodloch Springs did provide a course description, it was catered to playing form the tips and provided no map view of the distances for each hole. Our round would have been infinitely more enjoyable if we didn't have to rely on a single sentence hole description, or drive down the fairway before teeing off or taking our second shot on the par 5s, to see how to play the hole. This easily added 1/2 hour to our round.

Bottom line, we all agreed we will definitely be back, most likely in the early fall to take advantage of the fall foliage. Excellent course, excellent staff, and fair price for a course this well maintained. I highly recommend this to anyone.

I'd be OK with all the blind shots if you were given a course layout with hole descriptions and notes on how to play the hole. Its not the friendliest course when you step onto a tee box and have no idea where the landing spot is supposed to be and at what yardage the numerous fairway bunkers are located. The course is really nice and challenging but without some direction for most holes, its easy to get yourself in trouble that could have been easily avoidable with a little understanding of the layout.

The cost was $69 for the weekend but I used a golfnow coupon code and we got on for $45/person for my Sunday foursome. I would not pay the $69 when every other local course is under $60.

Our round lasted almost 6 hours in 90+ degree weather. The rangers were trying to make the slow parties in front of us speed up, but really they should have tossed them from the course. 6 hours is way too long, especially in the heat. The couple behind us gave up after 15 holes and left the course. We waiting almost 5 minutes per shot throughout our entire round.

On the plus side, the staff was super friendly and the course was in great shape. We play this course once per summer and our foursome always groans when this place is chosen.