Found myself playing the Links at Hawks Prairie this past Saturday (12/13/14) for a decent early morning round. I was planning on playing elsewhere, and that place was a bit crowded so I decided to tr... Continue »

Found myself playing the Links at Hawks Prairie this past Saturday (12/13/14) for a decent early morning round. I was planning on playing elsewhere, and that place was a bit crowded so I decided to try to walk on at Hawks Prairie, assuming I would get out easily as there are two courses here. Sure enough, I walked right on to the tee box after paying my green fee and played as a single, behind a couple of twosomes that were playing relatively quickly. Conditions were reasonable, a bit wet as everything is here this time of year, greens were soft and slow, but still relatively true. Tee boxes and traps were ok, rough was fine, fairways a little bit sloppy.

The real downer of the day was that they had a tip and tuck type tournament going on that day, so every pin was cut within about a club length or so of the fringe, and this was on greens that aren't exactly small. Also, many of these were cut right in the middle of a slope, really quite unfairly. I can see how a course would do this for a special occasion, but there was no mention of it made to me in the pro shop as I paid my fee. If I had known this course was set up this way, I'd have asked to play the other one. Now, I'm not too angry about it as I would have known if I'd checked ahead of time, and I really just showed up on a whim, but it was disappointing nonetheless, as it has been some time since I've played here, and I really wanted to enjoy the round.

Played The Links Course on Saturday June 15. Warm, beautiful day. Teed off at 11 am. Our league spring field day. Course is in great condition, with fairways nicer than the carpeting in my house. ... Continue »

Played The Links Course on Saturday June 15. Warm, beautiful day. Teed off at 11 am. Our league spring field day. Course is in great condition, with fairways nicer than the carpeting in my house. Greens are gently contoured and in good condition. This is the newer of the two Hawk's Prairie courses, run by Oki. The Links is far better than the Woods. Although with the recovering housing market, there is some construction on the course where for years there has been forest (it is in a retirement community). The lunch counter is nothing to write home about (a bit slow). Grass driving range. Well worth the money.

This course is located in a friendly community. They have a modest clubhouse and excellent practice facilities. The course itself plays fairly open off the tees, however watch out for sneaky hazards a... Continue »

This course is located in a friendly community. They have a modest clubhouse and excellent practice facilities. The course itself plays fairly open off the tees, however watch out for sneaky hazards around the green. The greens are well maintained and very challenging. Overall, the course has a high end feel but at a fair price. Definitely looking forward to returning.

I met up with a friend near Olympia on 08/28/12 for some afternoon golf. I am too cheap to pay to play Chambers Bay during the peak season and we needed something with easy access to I-5 so that I cou... Continue »

I met up with a friend near Olympia on 08/28/12 for some afternoon golf. I am too cheap to pay to play Chambers Bay during the peak season and we needed something with easy access to I-5 so that I could get back to Vancouver where I am staying so I booked a time at Hawks Prairie. I had read that the Woodlands Course was the better of the two, but a league was going off so we played the Links Course from the Black tees at 72.8/124/6887. I do not regret my decision to play here because of the circumstances of the day, but it should be known that this is not a destination course. It however, had a great value at $36 for a twilight time during the week and we got around in 3.5 hours on a cool and blustery afternoon. I looked at the rating and slope and thought it would be easy to play, but boy was I wrong and for comparison, I shot 13 strokes higher here than I did the day before on a little more difficult course. The 1st hole is good hole where I could see all the trouble, but then there were some holes with trouble hidden. I picked an incorrect line on #2 and ended up in a hazard and missed long on #3 to avoid the water short, but there was a huge drop off behind the green. Hole #9 is a huge dog leg left par 5 that felt like the designer ran out of ideas, #10 had a hazard in weird spot 30 yards short right of the green, and #11 and #12 are semi blind dog legs right. Also, the course seemed to slope into the hazards, so a shot with any steam to it kicked out of play once it hit the ground. So I guess awkward and irritating would be good words for me to describe the design to this point. The course is a community course and through the first 12 holes I was unimpressed as homes lined pretty much both sides of the holes. The homes were not really in play except for a very poor shot, but they were very noticeable and distracted from play. My opinion of the course was salvaged from #13 to #18 which are interesting holes and holes that make me smile when thinking about Pacific Northwest golf. None of these closing holes currently have homes lining them. Hole #13 is a downhill par 3 framed by trees in the background and #14 is the signature hole which is a mid-length downhill par 4 framed by trees and the Puget Sound in the distance. Hole #16 is a beast of a par 3 back up the hill and #18 is a dog leg left par 5 which is a good closing hole. The conditions were spotty and there were some dry patches that affected play and aesthetics, but for $36 in peak season I can overlook it. The greens were a little bumpy, but seemed to hold a line inside 10 feet pretty well, but lag putting was a little more difficult because of the bumps. The greens were firm and quick and it seemed a lot of the flag sticks were placed on slopes instead of on different levels. Local knowledge around the greens certainly would be helpful. I certainly hope to try somewhere a little more memorable if back in the area, but the last 6 holes somewhat saved this course.

Hawks Prairie Golf Club Review
Lacey Washington Golf Course Reviews

Got out super early on Saturday, 5/5/12. Played as a single with no one in front of me until the back 9, when I caught up to a threesome that let me through. The place was in pretty good shape, althou... Continue »

Got out super early on Saturday, 5/5/12. Played as a single with no one in front of me until the back 9, when I caught up to a threesome that let me through. The place was in pretty good shape, although some of the fairways seemed a little bit sloppy. There was a fair bit of rain last week, so I guess that's to be expected. Greens rolled alright, but seemed a little inconsistent speed wise, but of course that could be me. I haven't played here too much since Home Course opened, as if I'm going to go that far, its hard not to just play there. The place is worth the trip from the Seattle area though, but perhaps not more than once or twice a year.

Hawks Prairie Golf Club Review
Lacey Washington Golf Course Reviews