Been playing here 30 years and bought a house here 23 years ago. When the course first opened it hosted an LPGA tourney and it was CPO for the first 3 years. Immaculate conditions and never a blade of... Continue »

Been playing here 30 years and bought a house here 23 years ago. When the course first opened it hosted an LPGA tourney and it was CPO for the first 3 years. Immaculate conditions and never a blade of grass out of place. It was a shortish (6700 from the tips) scenic Arnold Palmer design with beautiful bunkers, barrancas, elevation changes, and fast tricky greens. I would put it up against most public (and a lot of private) courses that I have played. Fast forward thru the years, many owners and many changes. Several different golf management companies have come and gone, and Troon has run the place for at least 7 years. Staff has always been friendly and efficient. Bunkers and tee boxes we atrocious for many years. Since I didn't want to smear my home course, I never posted a review. I used to play at least 100 rounds here per year. Since I'm trying to reach 1000 courses it's more like 12 times a year. If you made it this far into the review here goes. Played Thursday and the course is in excellent shape. The rains have grown in the persistent dead spots in the fairways (no fairway aeration for at least 15years). They were a little long, but the ball rolled and sat up beautifully, (course was designed to play firm and fast). Tee boxes have decent coverage but could use a leveling. The greens, always the best and most consistent part of the course, were smooth, fast, and spicy. No tap-ins, every miss was a 3-4ft comebacker. Greens this good this time of year always seem to get punched, so they are scheduled to be punched 3/23. If you have played Palmer courses, you know how spectacular his bunkers can be, a few years ago they removed probably 40-50 bunkers that they weren't maintaining and tried to fix the 25 or so they left. It took a long while for many of those areas to grow in. With the recent rains I didn't notice those areas to be as scruffy. I mostly avoid those as the bad bunkers have trained me well. The sand traps that remain are still thin but playable. This course really has everything, some courses you can lose a ball on every hole, this course you could potentially lose a ball on every shot! But it never plays unfair. Blue tees are 6,200ish and defend me from breaking 80 more often than I would like. I rarely play the white tees (never seem to play any better) but they are 5,800 and really change a lot of the angles and make it more of a target golf course. I don't think they maintain a lot of the original black tees, but they are some of the most scenic parts of the course, even if you don't play them, you should check out 6,9,10,13,16,17 just for the views. 13 is a par 3 homage to the 12th at Augusta and the trek up the steps takes you to the highest point on the course. The hole was quite spectacular back in the day, with its intricate bunkering, as was the cloverleaf bunkers down the entire fairway of 14. Wind is always a factor out here; I like to whip around after 4:00 so it can really howl. In the afternoon I fix tons of ball marks, but the greens don't exhibit any visible scarring, so kudos to the maintenance staff for getting them in the morning. This course made me the golfer I am today, straight hitter, not very long, good short game terrible sand player. Most of that is what you need to play well out here. So, while the course will never be what it once was (alas we all can say the same) It is still a great layout and perplexing fun, now it is in very good shape and well worth checking out.