Well, we've done it; we've finally played golf in all fifty states by playing here in El Reno, Oklahoma this week. Not that we'll stop playing golf or anything, but we have accomplished that goal.The reason we picked the Crimson Creek Golf Course in El Reno was a simple one; it was close to where we are parked at the Lucky Star Casino. There were no Internet specials, simply a decent rate of $30 to play eighteen holes with a riding cart. Seniors age 62+ play for $24 dollars. There is a twilight rate starting at 2:00 PM, but that's a little late to be starting a round of golf since sunset is now at 5:20 PM.
Normally I would give you yardage from the longest tee box to the shortest one but the golf course was "out of scorecards" so there were only self-printed versions showing distances from the blue (second) tees and the red (fourth) tees. From the blue tees the yardage is 6490. I have no idea of the rating/slope. Red tee yardage is 5140 and no information on rating/slope.
This time of year the fairway grass is dormant although the greens are still green. The course was in fairly good shape although recent long and hard rains left several sections a bit mucky. Play was slow here as they allow fivesomes on the course and there were at least two sets of five guys ahead of us and one set behind us. Fortunately Denny and I picked the warmest day of the week to play golf here in Oklahoma so sitting around waiting to hit our next shot wasn't a problem. Annoying, but not a huge problem.
The greens themselves were pretty fast and several of the holes have elevated greens so if you hit a rather flat shot to the green chances are your ball is going to roll right off. At least, that's what mine did on most of the holes on the front nine. Most of the greens rely on those slopes for the difficulty although there were a couple two-tiered greens on the course. There are sand bunkers and grass bunkers scattered throughout the course but we managed to stay out of most of them. Men will have to play over water a few times; almost all of the women's tees are set on the other side of the water. Fairways have quite a few knobs and slopes to play off and the course was made much more difficult for Denny and I since there was no map or description of the individual golf holes either on the scorecard or the marble hole number markers at the tee boxes. We were playing blind on several of the holes and therefore were off-course a few times. Speaking of off-course, there are several interior roadways and walking/biking paths meandering through the golf course and a couple of times Denny and I were unsure of where to drive to get to the next hole as there are no signs indicating which direction/path to take when there were intersecting walking/cart paths. It would be nice to have a few small signs with arrows and a hole number placed at these intersections for those of us playing the golf course the first time.
Despite my whining above, Denny and I did enjoy playing this golf course and would like to try it again sometime when the fairways are green and lush like the pictures on the website. Although the golf course looks like a cow pasture on the very first hole, there are enough slopes, hills and elevation changes over the golf course to make it interesting and sometimes a bit tricky. Certainly it's worth the price.
