Played 36 here today after a last-minute invite to attend The Kingdom, a special event put on by The King Kollective this weekend. The course is closed to the public for the weekend as a result. (Or I... Continue »

Played 36 here today after a last-minute invite to attend The Kingdom, a special event put on by The King Kollective this weekend. The course is closed to the public for the weekend as a result. (Or I think they said Sunday afternoon public play will resume.) The first round was a three-man shamble with two teams on each hole, and the second was best ball foursomes, with shotgun starts for both. Despite having a buffer of around three holes between each group, the first round was quite slow at around 4.5 hours. We played the second round in a little under 3 hours. Gorgeous day and hotter than I anticipated. Breeze picked up midday but wasn't too bad.

The course is in very good shape. The greens are excellent, medium-fast, smooth, and mostly firm. Full shots hit with lots of spin would stop, but many approaches took a bounce or two before stopping. Fairways are pretty nice, although one type of grass might be right next to another type of grass, and some fairways have some thin/dirt spots. Rough varies from just a little longer than the fairway to some deeper, more penal areas in some areas. I think I was only in one bunker and it had good sand, but I hit a terrible shot anyway. Tee boxes are the lowlight; some are pretty beat up with tons of divots and others are a little better. Wouldn't say any of them are great.

It's always fun to revisit the Goat and see more progress being made to the course. I think someone said in a recent review that's it's the nicest they've ever seen it, and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. The 18th hole is currently under construction and playing to a temporary green, but you can see the permanent green in place and they are building at least three revetted bunkers surrounding it. The green itself looks almost smaller than the old version, which was a pretty small green already, IIRC. Should be a nice finisher when it's done. All in all, a very fun day with breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided, awards, raffles, and lots of great people.