Joe8097662

Staying at the nearby Soaring Eagle Casino, the location was ideal. First time playing this course. Very nice layout with par 4s that are distinct. Excellent conditions. Bent grass fairways. Greens very good, leaning toward fast with tricky undulations but fair. Fairways tend toward narrow If you spray your drive, you will be exceedingly unhappy as holes are cut through the woods, at least on the front. Back is a little more open. I would rate this as a good walking course though the hike on 17 and 18 is a bit long. Round was 4.5 hours following a scramble outing. ( the group in front of me was terrible. They were at least 10 over.) I would definitely play again at $85.

The quality of courses is always a mixed bag in the Carribean. You book a tee time at a course designed by a big name golf architect with good looking pictures on their website only to find the course hasn't been maintained in years. Bahia is now owned by St Regis and managed by Troon. You expect a quality golf experience and Bahia does not disappoint. Yes, it is expensive (I paid $205 through Golf Now. It's more if you just walk up) but I needed a prime weekend AM tee time. There are no prime time bargains around San Juan. I drove myself from downtown SanJuan. 40 minutes. Straight forward with Map Quest though San Juan can be a bit tricky. Get the easy pass with your rental. You'll pass through several toll gates. The course staff was great, especially the starter, who drove me out to the 11th as my initial hole, as I was playing as a single, to bypass multiple foursomes. He fit me in very nicely when I made the turn. This is not a good walking course. Too much distance between green and tee. The course was in excellent condition. Prior complaints about sand traps seem remedied. No bare spots in the fairways. This is a membership course and I assume it gets a lot of play, but there were no ball marks on the greens. They don't equal continental US Troon green quality, but they are very good by Caribbean standards. I took away 0.5 stars on my final rating only because the overall design Is a little boring. Even the oceanfront holes are a tad dull. A final word of advice: if you spray the ball off the tee, don't golf here. This is a tight course with either jungle or water everywhere.