Played AB-North Tuesday, January 27, in the weekly Men’s Club Event…first time since September…and it may be at least that long before I choose to do so again. Nothing wrong with the course conditions... Continue »

Played AB-North Tuesday, January 27, in the weekly Men’s Club Event…first time since September…and it may be at least that long before I choose to do so again. Nothing wrong with the course conditions…in fact, they’re pretty solid right now…but the pace-of-play was excruciatingly SLOW. Our original tee time was 11:15AM but a frost delay pushed us back to 12:10PM. We moved through the first three holes without any issue but then ran into a ten minute delay on the Par-4 4th tee, which seems to happen quite often. Things were fine until we reached the Par-3 7th, where we spent another 15-20 minutes standing around until the two groups ahead of us had finished the hole. Got ready to hit my tee shot and felt as if I just stepped out of the car to begin the round all over again. After another brief wait on the Par-3 9th, we checked in with a front nine that took in excess of two-and-a-half hours to play. Things opened up a bit midway through the back nine but it wasn’t until 5:05PM when we walked off the 18th green. There were still three other teams behind us that just managed to finish their rounds in ‘daylight’. Moving on to the course itself, no complaints in that regard. Tee boxes were in good shape and level, fairways healthy with full coverage, the rough…as always…is to be avoided, and the greens rolled fairly smooth at a medium pace. Not too many unrepaired ball marks to attend to but definitely a few more than my last round here. And most likely due to the frost, a couple of approach shots rolled out a little more than expected but, overall, they were pretty consistent. The two traps I was in…one fairway, one green-side…were raked smooth and on the firm side, which I prefer; I’ve always been a fan when it comes to their playability. Highly recommend playing here…especially if you’re someone with a preference to walk rather than ride…but I do advise you to avoid a late Tuesday AM tee time on those weeks when the Men’s Club in scheduled on the North Course. I’ve played here on other days during the week with a similar tee time and have yet to come close to taking five hours to complete the round.