Day two of GK Guru outing.

There is not much I can add to the reviews from other gurus, but I will add my personal impressions .

This course is a high end treat. If you come to be blown away b... Continue »

Day two of GK Guru outing.

There is not much I can add to the reviews from other gurus, but I will add my personal impressions .

This course is a high end treat. If you come to be blown away by the course you will probably be disappointed. Don't get me wrong the course is great but that is not why you want to come here and you can golf similar courses in the area that are much easier on the wallet. The treat is the facilities, the staff, and the experience of being treated like a high roller. They have customer service tweaked to perfection. In particular the buzzer to get in the private gate, valet greets you and claims your keys and your clubs and hands you over to an escort that takes you to your private locker with removable name tag to take home as a souvenir. This locker room comes equipped with all kinds of personal hygiene items as well as a generous enough supply of mandatory sunscreen. You are then treated to muffins and beverages in the proshop or you can enjoy some excellent food in the restaurant.

When you are ready you go down the spiral staircase past the river with waterfall that rushes through the clubhouse to your cart and to meet your caddie. Then you drive out of the clubhouse trough the doors that remind you of a Disneyland ride. Out the doors you are greeted with a beautiful large putting green with emmaculent conditions, onto the driving range with high quality range balls. Both are devided by the aforementioned river that continues onto the clubhouse.

I've read a couple of reviews that differ on the experience of a forecaddie. I have had experiences with caddies before and it is an aquired luxury. The first couple times you have one it is a learning experience on what he will do for you and what you want him to do or not to do for you. Our group had Dan with us and I thoroughly enjoyed the benefits he provided. I don't need a caddie to tell me what club to hit, but I sure appreciate the course knowledge he can provide. For instance how far to the hole and what does it play as most of our shots were elevated up or down. Also since many of the greens were elevated and you couldn't see the backside, I would often ask Dan is the trouble behind the green? How much room is there behind the green? Also as was mentioned in another post the conditions were soft and wet with mud on the ball almost always on the greens. As Dan came to give me the read on the putt I would hand him my ball to clean it. Because there was one caddie for four people it was understandable that your clubs would not be cleaned after each use, but if you wanted your club cleaned you just needed to hand it to him. Dan has been a caddie at Castcata for 13 years and it showed. He often told me my line on a putt was two to three times more break then what I was reading. He was always correct and his reads saved me at least three strokes as I would have under read the break and over hit the pace. Second hole he gave me a read on a 30 foot par putt that found the center of the cup. I enjoyed my caddie experience but understand how some wouldn't.

This is a bucket list course and I would highly recommend it. I wish the water features on the back nine were functioning but overall it was well worth the deal that we were afforded. Thank you GK for the wonderful two days of social interaction with like minded golfers and for the great deal on two fantastic courses.