I played the Ike on Saturday 4/22 for the first time in about 2 years. The last time I played I was pretty disappointed in the conditions because there were lots of bare and browned out spots in the ... Continue »

I played the Ike on Saturday 4/22 for the first time in about 2 years. The last time I played I was pretty disappointed in the conditions because there were lots of bare and browned out spots in the fairways, and the overall look and care for the course was not really what I had remembered from the course of yesteryear. But this time out I was really pleasantly surprised to see the course that I remembered with pretty much pristine conditions from tee to green (with a couple notable exceptions that I will get to). Check-in was quite simple, but one thing to be aware of: if you are a single player, you will need to ride with one other player from the foursome which is somewhat unusual. But the group I got paired with was a really great group, so all good for this round. Tee boxes were lush and level, the fairways were nicely mowed and gave good run out, and the rough was quite lush and quite penal providing ample incentive to aim for the short grass. The greens were quite good -- almost fully recovered from aeration, the only sign of which was the layer of sand underneath the carpet-like green grass that you could see and feel when fixing your ball marks on the green. The greens rolled exceptionally well though and held lines very well. I probably over-read the greens and expected break that wasn't there on a lot of holes. I didn't find myself in any greenside bunkers, but my groupmates found more than a few and complained quite a bit about there not being any sand in them. I found that to be mostly true in the 2 fairway bunkers I found, but I find that normally to be a plus in fairway bunkers. So the greenside bunkers were probably the only negative to find at the Ike at the moment. We teed off in the 3rd or 4th group of the day so the pace was exceptional -- we played it quite leisurely and didn't really have a group in front or behind us all day, even on a Saturday. If you've never played it, the course is pretty challenging but if you can find some good tee shots on the longer Par-4s, you can leave yourself with manageable approaches and the course becomes more fair. If you find yourself in the rough from the teebox, there's a good chance you'll also be blocked out on your approach and then you're scrambling to find pars or even bogey. Overall, I definitely recommend it and hope that it doesn't get too burnt out during the summer, but I'll be back in a couple months to give it another go.