Played Sunday, October 5, around 7:00 am. Started late after they put a gap group in front of us and they were a hole behind after one hole. About the 5th hole though, they took off and started playin... Continue »

Played Sunday, October 5, around 7:00 am. Started late after they put a gap group in front of us and they were a hole behind after one hole. About the 5th hole though, they took off and started playing at a good pace. It was like a tag team and a group that had an interest in pace substituted in. Ended up being a 4 hour pace. Snack shack was open when I we went by after the 2nd hole, nice to see as it was not open early the last couple of times I played here. I made sure to buy something when we made the turn to give positive reinforcement for the good behavior.

I knew from Greenskeeper that they had punched the greens on Monday and Tuesday. It was a heavy punch. Interestingly, the greens were still pretty firm. Lots of hops and change of direction to the putts. I thought they were faster than the practice green. The fairways were pretty tight, almost winter like condition with some bare spots (looking at you #16). There is quite a bit of lush rough but also some areas with bare spots. I had a couple of nasty lies, on dirt between clumps of grass. The bunkers were also a mixed bag including several that had insufficient sand. I was in one fairway bunker (#13) where a heavy rake job left me with a teed up lie. I lost no yardage on the shot, ending up in the back bunker that had less sand than the fairway one. At least this time here I did not end up near one of the crazy steep edges they bunkers have (last time here I had to play a bunker shot on my knees outside the bunker, lunging down at the ball). The tees were lush and level.

Overall, not as good tee to green as I have seen it and the aerated greens are what you would expect from the large punch. I enjoy Lakewood but I may delay my return until the greens heal.