After contacting him in advance and promoting my blog, the Director of Golf was nice enough to sponsor me for a replay round on the North course after the SCGA outing concluded. I was able to have a f... Continue »

After contacting him in advance and promoting my blog, the Director of Golf was nice enough to sponsor me for a replay round on the North course after the SCGA outing concluded. I was able to have a full foursome, so I was joined by fellow avid course collectors rgm2525 and ppark81/dodontails from my morning group. We were all very grateful and happy to be experiencing all 36 at Ironwood today. It was pretty wide open and we finished in a little over 3 hours. From tee to green, North was in good overall shape. It was probably just a slight notch down from South with a few more brown/bare spots scattered throughout the fairways and rough. A few of these fairways had been recently aerated, as well. The tee boxes were great and everything was still pretty lush and green for the most part, so not too much to complain about. The bunkers were a bit crusty on top, but actually had a decent layer of sand underneath. The greens on this side were much softer and rolling slower/bumpier due to to a recent aeration. Though we caught this course during maintenance, it was clear to see that the greens are typically as well maintained on North as they are on South. South is definitely the showcase course here, but North has its charm. It's shorter overall, topping out at just over 6,100 from the blue tees and playing to a par of 70. I would argue this course is tougher from the blues than the South is from the whites at over 6,400 (at least my scores would agree). The tee angles are a little tighter with trees and the doglegs are more severe. The back nine has a great stretch of a few holes up along a rocky canyon/hillside. I may end up remembering more specific holes on North than South, though overall I would easily agree that South is the better of the two on most levels.