Criley4way

Pierce Lake is one of several great public courses in the area. He front offers an open layout with interesting geometry. The back is nighter flowing through the woods and marshes.
The par 3 can be long and the par fives require some thought.

Conditions were soft but dry. The greens were recently punched but have healed. The greens are very large for beginners but have ridges and levels requiring specific shots to score well.
He putting green is huge and the warmup area has grass and a green up to 70 yards. My only issue is the lack of a driving range.

The grill is OK but close to town if you want fiood. The pro shot has the basics but not much else.

Overall a fun course

I play Washtenaw frequently and always enjoy the course.

Layout: a great old course with good elevation changes, a variety of short and longer holes. Before the trees fill in this course lacks some of its teeth but still the fast contoured greens provide a good challenge. It will be interesting to see if they move tee boxes to make some of the short par 4s reachable.
Tee boxes: flat and had good coverage, minimal robots even on the par 3s.
Fairways: the grass is till dormant but has good coverage and is trimmed.
Rough: there is little true rough at the moment but what is there is decent with a few dirt patches.
Bunkers: these were not prepared which was not a surprise given the time of year and recent rains.
Greens: were shaggy and still dormant. They were also uncharacteristically soft due to the cold and rain. Even with that they ran well and provided some good early season challenges.

Overall this is a great old course and I am excited to see what Kendal does with the refurbishment efforts and tree removals.

Condition:
The grass was still dormant but coverage was good and the fairways were real overly tightly cut.
The ground was soft but not wet. No standing water on the course.
Greens;: Great setup, excellent contours and well kept. Twine greens have not fully healed from punching and sanding in the fall. They were slow and a bit bumpy but overall excellent conditions for March.
Layout: good layout, fun variety of hold and lengths. Some forced carries and cross fairway water requiring a long carry or layup.
Value: good value at $29 to walk.
Unfortunately the range was closed. Putting green was nice. Only hot dogs at the turn but overall a good offering.

The course started out looking great. It was green and lush with the trees just starting to green up. I rushed to to the tee loser end up a bit and hit my first tee shot. Not bad for no warmup. Then I got to my ball. The rough was deep (no problem) but also very unkempt with clumps of higher and lower grass and lots or mud or water. The fairways had been erratically cut and we’re always deep enough to hide a ball. Again OK it is spring golf. Then the greens they were deadly slow and patchy with bare spots and lumpy areas.

While I loved the layout and the promise of some incredibly hard greens, the condition rendered this only a nice walk to get out of the time locked in at home.

Please take care of this course, it has so much to offer

It was the first time I have played this course so there was something of a learning experience. The course has a good design with lots of tee options for all levels of golfer. The carts are nice but simple without GPS or club washers. The cart paths are good but some end abruptly into the native areas and all could use a repave. The layout is varied with lots of elevation changes from tee to fairway and fairway to green. The greens are interesting but not extreme. There are a lot of blind tee and approach shots so some local knowledge is helpful. A fair value for super-twilight. I will be back to play the back 9.

The course has a great grass range with plenty of hitting stations and decent balls, mix of good and fair, a dedicated pitching green with up to 40 yards of fairway, a huge chipping green with many holes and lies, there are grass and sand bunkers and a putting green. There is a full restaurant and bar. The pro-shop is small with only a few things but has all the balls and tees you could need but not a shopping destination.

There are 5 sets of tees with good spacing for different levels of golfer. There were several times when the blue and black tees were the same. The tee boxes had good coverage but were a bit uneven. I never had a problem finding a place to tee it up.

The fairways had good coverage with minimal divot damage in my landing area. The fairways like the rest of the curse was damp so tee shots didn't run out. also they were a bit fuzzy and the ball would sit down just a little bit. There are a lot of elevation changes with uphill and downhill shots to the greens. I can't think of many shots that didn't have an elevation change.

Greens were good but not great. They were soft and had a lot of moisture in them. It was hard to hold a low trajectory shot (the ball would just skip). Like the fairways the greens were a bit fuzzy late in the day. There were good contours in the green but no big breaks or shelves.There were minimal pitch marks in part due to the size of the greens.

The bunkers were damp and grainy. There was sufficient sand in all of the bunkers. However, several of the bunkers were flooded. Also the bunkers were not very well edged but not a big issue. People left many of the bunker rakes were left half in and half out of the bunkers. I ended up against a rake outside the edge of a bunker.

I decide to go out for a quick nine on Sunday afternoon. I was able to walk up and immediately go to the first tee. I played alone and was able to get in 10 hole playing 2 balls in 90min.
At check in the pro-shop staff was a bit distracted cleaning the shop before closing. But they we nice and took care of me.

The course is a beautiful layout with a great variety of holes. Starting on a par 5 with no driving range is a bit tough but the first hole is pretty wide open.From there there are a great mixture of long and shot par 4s,, water and elvation changes, long and short par 3s and some interesting angles. This is the second time I ahve played here and am still trying to figure out some of the tee shots. The 9th is a great hole with a hard dog leg left. There are trees to the inside and long grass to the right as well as another stand of trees. Driver is too long without a perfect draw. This is a course where you can play bogey golf with few major challenges but to shoot a par takes good execution.
The tees were level with good coverage. The par 3s had some divot damage with minimal filling. The grass is a bit long but not so long it affects play.
The fairways have excellent coverage and minimal divot damage. There are some old divots which could use a better fill but it has minimal affect on play. Like the tees the fairways are a bit soft and not super tight. This makes the course play longer than the card but is not a problem.
The traps are well kept and have good coverage.
The greens have a nice combination of size and slope. There are some pin positions that are flat and a straight forward but many with significant slope. The greens were a bit slot that late in the day but rolled true. There was some pitch mark damage. I fixed 3-5 ball marks per green.
A good value for the money and a fun play. I will definitely be back. The deer on the 9th was a nice touch.

This is the latest install in my new adventure in Michigan golf. This course is only a few mile from home so I can play here often. As I arrived on a hot afternoon I found the parking lot empty except for a 2-some packing their bags. I walked into the nice new proshop/restaurant to be told I there was no range, that it would be $20 for the round and that the 1st tee was open.

Overall it was a good course, especially with no one on the course. The front 9 was relatively flat with subtle doglegs and blind corners due to the wetlands or woods. The lack of GPS and having not played here before made some of the lines a bit hard to determine but nothing sneaky or unfair. The course directs you down the fairway and unless you are a long hitter this should make for a fairly simple side. If you hit the ball over 240 the lack of a good map makes it a bit tough as choosing lines is harder and you should be able to work the ball to keep it in the fairway. The back 9 has a lot more slope and elevation changes. The par 3 16th is a good example. Playing 225 from the back, this is a semi-blind tee shot to a slanted green with a drainage channel in front of the green making it all carry. With good conditions and beautiful turkeys and cranes this course is a good place to practice or have a fun round. It is a Muni/Metroparok not a a tour course so don't expect high class amenities and you will love it.
I went straight to the first tee. The tee boxes were flat and well maintained. There was full coverage with flat lies. All the tees were raised and fairly narrow. This left small areas to tee up but this wasn't a problem. There were no hole diagrams, yardage books or GPS so take a second to learn the course.
Fairways were a bit on the long and soft side. There wasn't much rollout and often some dirt or mud on ball. Minimal divot damage but no sand bottles were a bit of a disappointment. Setting many of the wetlands or natural areas as lateral hazards should keep the pace of play up. Better markings would be nice.
The greens were good with moderate ball marks. The greens were on the soft side so shots checked. The greens were on the slow side ( probably in part due to the heat). greens were large and had some interesting contours. Subtle slopes on the front and some big swings on the back keep your attention. The Fringe was narrow and the rough a bit thin and not very long.
Bunkers were well sanded and consistent. Unfortunately they were not well raked by the players. I would like to have seen better maintenance of the bunkers but they were playable and interesting. Some very deep greenside bunkers.
The course Layout is very solid, straight forward and interesting. No gimmicky holes and no water in the line of play. Nice mixture of right and left doglegs. Only thing that might have been nice would be a drivable par 4. The par-3s had a good mixture of lengths but the 225 yard blind 16th might be a bit much for the rest of the layout.

Definitely will be back

SO I got a great Hot Deal this morning so it was a no brainer. I played during the 1st Michigan home game so pace of play may not be typical.
I showed up 45 min before my tee time to warm up only to find out that there wasn't a driving range. There was no chipping on the putting green so that meant only a few putts before heading out.
I got out as a single in front of 4-some so I played quickly. A group let me play through on 4 and I paired up with another single. The 2 of us played 27 holes in 4 hrs.
The tee boxes were mostly level and had good coverage. There were a few divot but with the long par-3s it wasn't bad. The fairways had good coverage and minimal divot damage. There were some pitch marks on the greens but they roll well with good speed. The greens were tough with some big ridges and elevation changes. only real complaint was that the speed on the back was slower than the front.

The first few holes looked tight but were actually fairly open in the landing area. With the 6 segments on each green it was easy to plan an approach. The greens held well. The tee shots were intimating with several shoots and optical illusions. There were many forced carries on tee shots, par 3s and approach shots forcing layups on a few par 5s.

The staff was friendly but not overly helpful. The staff in the snack shop was watching the game when we made the turn but the service was quick and polite.

Played with new friends in a new state. I am new to Michigan golf but I found the Golden Fox a great course for a fair rate. Checking in was easy and the pro-shop staff was friendly and helpful. They didn't provide much insight on the course and didn't have a yardage book that I would have expected at a course of this quality.
The putting great was large and well maintained. They allow chipping which is always a plus. The range was large and long with plenty of targets at all distances. The balls were of good quality.
Getting out on the course was a bit of mess as they had a tournament so they sent us off the back. As we got ready to tee off the starter rushed us off insisting that we were lagging behind even though we were teeing off 15 min late.
Once on the course the GPS was good and after getting used to it very helpful.

The tees were lush, flat and well maintained. Even the par 3s had good coverage and only mild divot damage. The fairways were lush and well maintained. They were tightly mowed but not thin. With some moisture there wasn't a lot of run on the ball and some dirt or mud. The carts didn't have good fill bottles and so there were quite a few unfilled divots. The rough wasn't very high which actually made the course tougher for long hitters as the ball would run into the natural areas and high grasses.
The greens were excellent. They were soft and receptive but quick with lots of undulations. I particularly liked some of the chipping areas and well maintained fringes.

I recently move to the area so I have very little compare the Washtenaw Country club other than Southern California. I arrived and was greeted by friendly staff in the pro shop. I was sent directly to the firs tee almost 20 min early for my tee time. The course was in good shape. The tee boxes were level and had good coverage. The tees were narrow but straight with no tee boxes aimed into the trees or hazards. The fairways had good coverage with minimal leaves or divots. The fairways were well groomed but not super tight. The rough was long but not super thick. Coverage in both fairways and rouhg was good with only a few dry areas. The greens were smooth and rolled extremely well. The speed was medium fast with minimal pitch marks. The course has a lot of blind tee shots and doglegs. I will definitely benefit from playing this course a few time.