Once again I was slow to commit to any tee times and found myself scrambling to find something for this weekend. Sometime on Friday morning a single "Deal" time for here at 11:50 Saturday popped up on... Continue »

Once again I was slow to commit to any tee times and found myself scrambling to find something for this weekend. Sometime on Friday morning a single "Deal" time for here at 11:50 Saturday popped up on TeeOff.com for a great price, so having never played it, I jumped on it. After a 20% off promo code, it was around $34 with cart. Check-in was super smooth and got paired with a threesome of nice guys. They were announcing each tee time over the loudspeaker and we started right on time. POP was slow from the get-go, but not agonizingly so. Just consistent waits all day and we finished in about 4:50. The sun tried to burst through the cloudy skies around the 6th hole, but the clouds prevailed and remained cool all day.

Conditions are pretty good, just ahead of aeration and the irrigation project mentioned in the Spring Aeration thread. Greens were smooth, medium-fast and accepted full shots well. Fairways have good coverage but inconsistent quality with some clumpiness and divots, and maybe sporadic bare spots. Rough was about 3 inches deep, not too penal. Blue tee boxes no complaints. I was only in one bunker (short right of the first green) and it had a big puddle in it. I had to take relief from the puddle and the rest of the bunker was a bit muddy.

As I mentioned above, this was my first time here. Located in a very natural area in the foothills, it's a gorgeous setting for a course and I really like the prevalent elevation changes. Seems like it would be really beautiful on a nice day. On the other hand, the layout is very quirky and almost feels like a course that is past its time. If I want to get snarky, I'd say "If the Babe isn't tricked-up enough for you and Shorecliffs is too wide, play DeBell." It's actually the type of course that would feel really good to play well because it requires patience and/or really good ball-striking to navigate the narrow corridors.