I had the opportunity to play here yesterday morning. I was able to make a connection thanks to my blog and they invited me out to play, despite the fact that the course is technically already closed ... Continue »

I had the opportunity to play here yesterday morning. I was able to make a connection thanks to my blog and they invited me out to play, despite the fact that the course is technically already closed for the summer. There were a couple other people out there, including the Director of Golf giving a lesson behind me. Otherwise, I basically had the place to myself unless you count the army of maintenance workers throughout! I ended up playing twice just because I could. I did not post a rating of this course because it would not be fair. I can tell it is normally in stellar shape during the season. I was actually expecting the conditions to be much worse than they were, but it is still kept up pretty nicely. There were no tee markers out, but the tee boxes were great. They were doing a lot of work on fairways, so there were a number of sanded/fertilized spots. Overall, though, the grass was cut nicely and probably 80% great. I just played any maintenance spots as GUR. The rough had even more maintenance going on, so I did my best to avoid that. The bunkers were a bit compacted without much play or maintenance, but the sand base was great. The greens were super firm, which meant no ball marks anywhere. They were rolling very smooth at medium speeds. It was unique getting to play a high-end course like this, but I had a lot of fun and I enjoyed the layout. Fazio redesigned the course at some point, but it is a very player-friendly design. It is very forgiving off the tee with wide fairways. The greens are big with some undulation, but not as much as most Fazio courses. The greens are very accessible with ample run-up areas. Not the most challenging layout, but still nice with a handful of great holes. Definitely recommended if you have a chance to play it. I can only imagine how nice it is in season.