I played this John Fought design on 07/04/12 from the purple tees at 73.5/127/6900. I have played a couple other John Fought designs (Sand Hollow and Ridge Creek come to mind) and loved them so I was ... Continue »

I played this John Fought design on 07/04/12 from the purple tees at 73.5/127/6900. I have played a couple other John Fought designs (Sand Hollow and Ridge Creek come to mind) and loved them so I was anxious to play here, especially considering that I have driven past this course many times on trips to and from Portland. I finally made the stop to play here and am so glad I did. The course offers 5 sets of tees and that was plenty. This is a typical John Fought design in that it is open off the tee with plenty of room to miss on most holes but requires an accurate approach. The course sits on some open land in the Rogue Valley right off of interstate 5 so most of the trouble comes in the form of fairway bunkers, fescue, blind/semi-blind shots, and water hazards. The course is virtually treeless which makes it different than most Oregon courses that I have played. Right away I was faced with a tough approach into #1 as I could only see the front half of the green as the back half was hidden from view by a ridge in the green. This type of difficulty was common on the approaches including firm greens that required a solidly struck and flighted shot to the right area of the green to get it close. The front pins were very tough to get at because a ball landing on the front would skip to the middle of the green and a ball landing shot of the green would stay short of the green. The greens themselves were the best that I have putted on so far this year, they rolled true and were fast. A good putter could make some putts with the right reads if he did not have to putt over one of the many ridges. Considering the terrain I thought the course had a lot of blind shots as i could only see the top of many flag sticks, especially playing it for the first time. Hole #3 had a blind approach, hole #5 had a blind approach, and the same with #9. On the back i could only see the top of the flag on #17 and some fairways fell out of view from the tee which made it tough to swing aggressively. So even though the course did not have much elevation change it was well used. Most of the water hazards could be avoided with an average shot and thankfully the fescue was cut down when I played so I put together a decent score my first time around, someone just has to take advantage of the shorter holes. The course had great views of the Rogue Valley and did not have any homes come into play, both things I like in a course. As the course website shows, they have been ranked well by many golf magazines and it certainly goes as one of the top courses in Oregon that I have played. If i had to pick a couple things that I did not like it would be that the sand was very clumpy and heavy, almost like the bunkers did not drain well from the sprinklers and that there was some road noise from the interstate. Finally I did not think there was a signature hole, but that is minor because there were many strong holes including #18, a 472 yard par 4 which was one of the better finishing holes that I have played in quite some time. I payed $60 to ride on a holiday morning so it was a good value considering the price of golf here in the Bay Area. Overall i enjoyed my time at Centennial and would recommend it.

Centennial Golf Club Review
Medford Oregon Golf Course Reviews