Played the blues (6552/71.5/121) on a prepaid GolfNow Hot Deal for $18 to walk with 3 very nice locals. Excellent value on a Sunday afternoon, even if it was a 4H, 40M round. I am told Portland has ... Continue »

Played the blues (6552/71.5/121) on a prepaid GolfNow Hot Deal for $18 to walk with 3 very nice locals. Excellent value on a Sunday afternoon, even if it was a 4H, 40M round. I am told Portland has not has any significant rain in about 2 months, and it shows. Both courses I played this weekend were dry to very dry. Rose City is not a tight course, but it has many mature trees to keep you honest. It's an older Portland city course in NE Portland. It only had a couple of doglegs, there wasn't a straight hole on the course, every par 4/5 bent at least some one way or the other. There weren't any holes that have a huge wow factor, but there wasn't a bad hole out of the 18 either... several long par 3's and reachable par 5's, plus a good combination of shorter, medium and longer par 4's... and hardly a flat hole either, it was constantly up/down hills. Not an easy track, but one where you could score if playing well. The greens were medium speed, undulating with alot of break and generally putted OK. However, many greens had brown patches that reminded me of Sunday @ a U.S. Open due to the lack of water. I have a harder time here than most courses figuring out the break, generally underplaying the amount of break. I just don't see/read the amount of break that is actually there for many putts on this course. However, there are several greens that had severe slopes with breaks that if you were on the wrong side of the hole, 3 putts was a likely end result. The fairways and rough were dry but played decent. The traps all seemed to have nice, fluffy sand, very good. The tees were also dry but decent, especially considering the amount of play. Customer Service from the pro shop to the starter were both excellent, and the cart gal made her way around several times on a 90 degree day.

This is a city of Portland course. Teed off @ 2:42 pm, walked the blues (6552/71.7/123) in 4 hours, 15 minutes on a busy Friday afternoon for $24, their standard twilight walking rate. The layout is... Continue »

This is a city of Portland course. Teed off @ 2:42 pm, walked the blues (6552/71.7/123) in 4 hours, 15 minutes on a busy Friday afternoon for $24, their standard twilight walking rate. The layout is very good, no great holes, but no hokey or bad holes either. It's challenging, not overly tight and not alot of water, but the tall tress that line every single fairway on both sides will quickly grab your attention. There are well placed tall tress on nearly every hole that can knock down drives that are even slightly offline and cost you 100-150 yards on a shot that would be Ok on many courses. You are constantly up/down hills and going around tall tree, lined fairways. The back 9 has three par 5's, all of which are scoreable. 17 & 18 are long, tough par 4 finishing holes. The par 4's are the teeth of this course, their 1-5 handicap holes are all par 4's. The greens putt decently, they are smooth, usually firm and medium speed. The downside is that numerous greens have some bare spots around the edges. And while they can avoid pin placements closeby, it's hit and miss on whether the bad spots could affect long putts or chips. Both the fairways and the rough close to the fairway are semi lush, you usually get decent lies. If you are more than 20 yards from the fairway, there are many areas of the rough that have large areas that are brown where the lie will be much more spotty. They flat out need more water. The sand traps were decent, it looks they they are maintained on a daily basis. The tees were generally good, it looked like they rotated the tee markers often. Positives are that the pro shop is well stocked and they have a nice grill on site. Customer service was a ++. Negatives are that there are only a few holes that have water fountains and there is no drink/snack cart. This is an above average course by city standards, but it's not in as good of shape as it was when I played here a few months ago. It's been awhile since there has been a decent rain up here, and they just don't water it as well as they could/should.

I got here @ 550am and was immediately impressed that the grounds crew had already mowed the 1st tee, 1st green and were almost finished with the 1st fairway. Great early bird deal of $22 to walk. Thi... Continue »

I got here @ 550am and was immediately impressed that the grounds crew had already mowed the 1st tee, 1st green and were almost finished with the 1st fairway. Great early bird deal of $22 to walk. This is a City of Portland muni, no frills but for the $$$, is a great deal. I walked 18, often laying down an extra ball for practice shots while playing alone in 3 1/2 hours. The greens were smooth, firm and medium fast. I usually can read greens fairly well, but there were breaks that I had a hard time reading on some greens. It's unusual for me to read break in one direction and the ball actually goes the other way, which happened twice today. The fairways were lush and well maintained, as were the tees. Very few areas with severe divot damage. The rough is not too punitive, usually the ball sits up nicely. However, there are hundreds of tall, thick, mature trees lining every fairway that will catch stray shots and challenge your recovery shots skills. Only a few holes have water or OB. Overall, I like the layout. Fun course that measures app. 6500 from the blues. Many holes have slight elevation changes as you constantly are going up/down rolling hills and almost every hole turns slightly (almost no straight holes). While there are no real signature holes that stand out as a great golf hole, there aren't any really poorly designed holes either. Fun course in excellent shape!