I have to admit, sometimes it's hard to find an inexpensive golf course, especially in a tourist area in the summer. To find a golf course that's within the budget we arbitrarily set for ourselves here in Rapid City we not only had to use our Golf Card International discount but we had to play a nine hole golf course which is not our favorite thing to do. That being said, Denny and I found playing Fountain Springs Golf Club in Rapid City surprisingly fun.
Using the Golf Card which gave us complimentary green fees for nine holes (we played 18 holes) Denny and I paid $50 for green fees and use of a riding cart. Initially Denny was a bit upset by that price considering the yardage from the longest tees for eighteen holes is only 5760 yards, but the condition of the golf course and the lay of the land swayed his opinion by the end of our round. If you play from the white tees the yardage is 5330 with a slope of 128 (as is the blue tees); playing from the red tees the yardage is 4752 with a slope of 123. The course rating is 33.8.
After weeks and weeks of playing dry, winter condition golf courses it was a pleasure to see the lush green grass on the fairways, tees and greens here at Fountain Springs. The golf course is dotted with small ponds and creeks that cross the fairways. There are sand traps here but surprisingly neither Denny nor I found any of them so I figure their placement is such that they won't be a threat for most people. Because believe me, I am a sand trap magnet for the most part.
The fairways here are wide but the fourth hole has a 90 degree dogleg left that can confuse you as you can see the flag for hole 5 in your shot. The guy behind the desk at the pro shop was kind enough to warn us of that so we weren't shooting at the wrong flag on the hole.
Possibly my only complaint about this golf course would be that the players here are really bad about fixing their ball marks on the greens. I probably repaired at least five balls marks per green during our round, even though by the turn Denny and I were the only ones left on the golf course. The greens were well watered, making them a tad slow but once they started to dry out then things got a little trickier and the ball started to break more around the holes.
Again, this is an extremely short course but there are two par 5 holes on the course and there's enough visual interest and changes in elevation to make it fun. Not especially challenging, but fun.
