Played here for the first time yesterday. A friend and I signed up for a charity tournament, mainly just to get to play the course which is otherwise not easily accessed. It was a shotgun start with a... Continue »

Played here for the first time yesterday. A friend and I signed up for a charity tournament, mainly just to get to play the course which is otherwise not easily accessed. It was a shotgun start with a pretty full field. Our group started on the par-3 7th hole (daunting all-carry over water). It was cart-path-only and a scramble format, which is a terrible combination because everyone has to walk to balls separately, figure out which one to play, walk back and forth to the carts to get clubs, etc. Add to that the paths here are kept off to the sides as much as possible, so a lot of walking and a 5.5+ hour round! The course was in nice winter shape, playing better than it looked. The tee boxes were great, other than sanding that was being done on a couple of the par-3s. The fairways are a very thatchy/grabby/fluffy bermuda that was consistent and well-kept. The rough is dormant bermuda that is cut down, but still quite grabby. Scramble format always ensured ideal placed lies, though you still had to account for the club really digging into the turf. We never played out of any bunkers, but I pulled a couple balls out and the sand seemed absolutely perfect. The greens were nice. Just receptive enough and rolling smooth at medium/fast speeds. Not as fast as they looked and I'm sure they can get these surfaces running super quick when they want to. They were lightly top-dressed, as well, but that didn't affect anything. With the light and partly dormant winter conditions not being particularly "pretty," it definitely took away some aesthetic appeal of the course. Overall, I wasn't as impressed with this place as much as I wanted to be considering it is a such an exclusive, high-end club. The facilities are pretty nice and the layout has a lot of character. A few too many blind uphill approaches for my taste, and then the 18th has a blind downhill approach that's kind of awkward. Greens aren't too big and have some undulation, but no putts seemed overly tricky to read. Undoubtedly, the most interesting feature of the course is the bunkering. The bunkers here have a great rugged old school kind of look and they are all deep and very punitive. If you get invited out here for a reasonable price, it's worth the visit. I wouldn't break the bank to play it again, even though I'd like to experience it in a better part of the year and not with such a slow pace of play.