bigdraw1961

Layout and location are special, but the greens were slow and inconsistent and very hard (very slight divots and no hold, even on high iron shots).

This is a good everyday course, but not the "bucket List" course I thought it would be.

Be prepared to hit over or around an army of course
Maintenance people filling in divots during play (should do in Morning)..

I moved from augusta four years ago and would play this course one or two times a year over the 10 years I lived there. Course conditions today were outstanding, along with the lightning fast greens.

Played from the white tees, which is not very long, but the greens are small and undulating which is where the difficulty in scoring arises. Experience and some book work are really needed to insure you hit into the greens on the correct side to insure you are below the hole.
Course is in best shape ever and saw very little play today..

Course: Looks like a Muni because it sits in the boundaries of neighborhood with houses and the holes a bit crowded. Some bunkers need to have drainage and/or fabric liner put in them as the sand is either wet and most have dime to quarter sized rocks percolating up to the top of the sand.
We felt the need to move the ball away from the rocks to avoid dinging our wedges.

Greens appear to be recovering from being plugged several weeks ago (?) and are long, slow and like putting on a berber carpet. No one in our group could get the ball to the hole..If they did the ball would waggle on the putt line. Even short putts became a challenge because no putts ran true.

Front nine is short and straight. Back nine has elevation changes, dog legs and water...Lots of fun. Would have really loved to play the back nine twice.

Safety: Several tee boxes are next to greens and are either too close or the players on this course are really bad.. because it is not unusual to have balls come towards the tee box. This is not all that unusual for courses I've played in NJ where they have limited space to build the course...I think Pensauken is same (played last year).

I had a very scary moment on the 18th fairway, where I was 140 from the green and had a ball whizz by my head...I looked around and saw many orange range balls....there is only a hedge of trees that seperate the 18th fairway and the driving range and the guy had to be hitting big, long bananas to get them over the trees...

Scared for my health, I picked up my ball and ran for my cart and got off the course, deeming it too dangerous to finish my round.. Passing the driving range, I mentioned to the ranger that I was nearly hit and there were many range balls over on the 18th fairway and was told another patron was pointed wrong hitting over those trees.

I cannot recommend this course for me or my customer's to come play, until there is a higher level of safety on the course. I take customers to play golf and would be mortified if my customer were to get hit and hurt (maybe badly) by a driver hit by some guy slicing the ball on the driving range. Not besides the fact that I was almost hit in the head...

Anyone that's been hit by a golf ball knows it hurts and can do some real damage...especially a driven ball on the fly.
Some courses I play that have a similar set up with driving range and fairways, limit the range to irons...(no drivers) to prevent this hazard..

This is like a beautiful antebellum home with a tree growing through the middle and ivy growing through it's rooms. They have either been bankrupt or are in the process of going bankrupt....Attached are pics of the bunkers on Holes 1 and 2..Many bunkers on the course are simply unplayable with little sand, fabric kicked up or full of water (no drainage).
Very little of the course is manicured...even the entrance is overgrown and appears neglected.
Note: The layout is tremendous and if you can shape your shots, can post a good score from blues...
But I won't be back...until ownership starts taking care of the greens, fairways, cart paths and bunkers...Really surprised the high dollar property owners have allowed this course to erode (like much of the grounds as you go around this course). They are buidling $200k+ houses all around this course and maybe they can get a cash infusion from new membership? Or maybe they are getting ready to sell the property to build another neighborhood? Cart paths are tree root buckled making it tough on the back....a note that course design also has you walking around long bunkers between the cart path and the greens, which I don't see on many courses. One encouraging sign was mushrooms growning on some the fairways indicating some organic material is left for the grass to grow. Sorry, but this is not an old course..(it looks like it should be from the 60s)... and I was upset to see this level of neglect from Hole 1 and 2 and it really didn't get any better.

Tee to greens were good, with some fairways burnt from winter..Course should paint these off as free lift, but don't. We were teamed with some retired newbie locals and behind a slow moving foursome that had us waiting every shot...5 1/2 hour round for me and my friend who normally get up and hit the ball can play 2.5 - 3 hour rounds...
Our paired retirees were not playing ready golf and some holes we just putted out while they were moving from ball to ball. Not bad people (in fact they were fun to play with) but were playing tournament rules and not ready golf rules amateurs are supposed to play... Very happy with the carts which have video showing distance to the holes..this would normally have sped play, but didn't make any difference on this particular outing.
We never visited the bunkers, but they looked to have good sand.

Course in good condition..Need to work ball left and right off tee boxes...Scant /difficult to find yardage markers so bring your own.

Tee boxes and greens in really good shape..

Some elevation changes, water, undulating greens...

Biggest downside was bunkers like concrete or little sand in the bunkers. Our group decided to pick up any balls landing in the bunkers.

Overall conditions outstanding...
Greens very fast.
Joy to play.

Several holes need drive up to green to insure players are not within driving distance.
There are few yardage markers on this course..
Some of the tee boxes are in bad condition.
Some of the fairways are muddy making short wedge play very challenging.

Watch out for herds of deer, which did some damage yesterday as they raced through on the 17th green..Something spooked about 10 deer that were moving at high speed..was a little scary.

Early season and overall conditions are good.
Played Sunday and will play again Wednesday :)