duma78

Absolutely beautiful day to golf. Got the hot rate for $55 at 4 pm and couldn't quite finish 18 but a good deal nonetheless for this time of year. Considering all the play the course has seen due to Season it was still in very good shape. The only real negative I noticed was that the tee boxes were pretty beat up. Overall though, great golf experience as usual.

I had a nice experience playing Raptor Bay. Getting used to greenside waste bunkers was an experiment as I have never played an all waste bunker course. This was not a make or break thing. Overall it's a decent option if you live within 20 min or so.

Pro's:
Absence of homes on the course
Lots of nature and wildlife: palmetto scrub forest
Fairways in good shape for a resort / public access course
Playable for most skill levels

Con's:
Tee boxes are divot laden (worse than a municipal), this needs to be addressed.
Not a lot of architected design, would be nice if they originally moved more dirt - mounding and contours were vague to non-existent.
Charging for range balls - I can understand this during the summer when you can golf for next to nothing but not when paying $80+ for an afternoon tee time.

Vintage Pete Dye. Course in amazing condition at the time, pricey but worth it I think. The front nine is linksy and the back more wooded. The tract of land on the back nine is amazing - wooded, hilly, forested, rock outcroppings, deer everywhere - LOVED it.

The only negative to the day was the pro shop cashier - total smug & rude "oh gosh...more annoying customers" attitude. Assistants and guy helping with the clothing was super nice however.

When researching golf courses in the Naples/SW Fla. region, The Rookery continually receives high praise and many writers rank it extremely high when compared to many of its fantastic regional peers. To start, the staff was great. Very friendly and accommodating. The course on the other hand was nothing special....at all. Being from Miami, I drive to SW FL often to play golf courses that are embedded in nature and not surrounded by high rises or housing communities. The Rookery is surrounded by homes on roughly 70% of it's 18 holes and beyond that, the course simply is not well groomed. The layout is mediocre at best, and the architecture is extremely boring. If you are looking for a decent course to play and The Rookery is conveniently located, then it will work out just fine. But if you are trying to decide what Naples or SW FL course to choose, I would not even keep The Rookery in your consciousness. You can't go wrong with TPC Treviso Bay or Old Corkscrew.

Course is very playable but feels extremely cramped, architect should've given himself more land to work with. The middle holes on the back 9 are nice, lots of wildlife, very alive.

This is the best conditioned course I have played in Florida and possibly anywhere. The greens were absolutely pristine and the rest of the course wasn't far behind. The quality of the turf on the range was amazing and you see why after walking what seems like 100 yards to the the front hitting area...lots of time for regrowth.

Staff was super nice!

Tough track but fair. While not as "natural" a course as say Old Corkscrew, it was very close to a core golf experience and most of the foliage was native to swfl.

I booked a Wednesday tee time and when I arrived, I was told the course was closed on Wednesdays. How does this happen? I'm sure I wasnt the first. the fact that the staff couldn't make this adjustment with Golfnow is inexcusable. I was furious as I had driven over 45 minutes to play.

fairways are tight but the course evens itself out with below average difficulty on the greens