Got a late but great 9:50am tee time on Memorial Day at Harding and expected it to be a very long day out there, but my buddy and I actually moved pretty well all afternoon and finished the round in a... Continue »

Got a late but great 9:50am tee time on Memorial Day at Harding and expected it to be a very long day out there, but my buddy and I actually moved pretty well all afternoon and finished the round in about four hours and 20 minutes.

We both walked the course and played from the blue tees, paired up with another twosome of youngsters. We started on time and off we went.

I was actually surprised to still see signs of aeration on a few of the greens, but for the most part they rolled well, medium-fast speeds and held shots with no problem. The fairways were in good shape but with a few thin areas and some water-logged sections that were problematic. Bunkers were a mixed bag but nothing that Kapalua would be jealous about. Some of the rough was actually quite thick and did require some competent club selection, while the tee boxes were mostly okay but some were quite beat up.

Always a fun time at Harding and today was no exception despite a poor round on the scorecard. The layout is pretty direct without too many bells and whistles, but some of the greens are definitely on the smaller side and there are a few with some serious slope to them as the course's best defense. But again, it's certainly not all of them so you're going to get plenty of good scoring chances out there.

It was a warm but windy afternoon so it made for some interesting calls out of the bag, most of which were quite off, but that was my fault, not the course's. For a $42 walking fee, it's more than worth it and even got a nice POP out of it on a major holiday. That's good, clean livin'.