Halifax Plantation Golf Club, Ormond Beach, FL

I decided to make a tee time at the Halifax Plantation Golf Club not only because it was one of the least expensive golf courses in the area but because it was only about three miles away from our campground at Bulow Plantation RV Resort.  Handy, that.  As with most golf course nowadays, you can register your email at the Halifax Plantation Golf Club website to get emails with special rates and offers, but I chose to go with the standard winter time rate for Denny.  With tax, it cost just a tad over $38 for Denny to play eighteen holes of golf with a riding cart and there was no fee for me to ride along.  That's right, I'm still not able to play golf and this is yet another course that I would have loved to play.

Halifax Plantation Golf Course has an interesting layout--the two nines are each laid out in a circular pattern so you don't see other golfers or other fairways.  Looking at the map of the layout on the back of your scorecard, the golf course sort of looks like the front of a pair of eyeglasses; two round lenses with the "nose piece" being the clubhouse/pro shop/range.  This layout makes for a quiet round and a peaceful one because you feel like you're out there all by yourself.  For some reason (perhaps because it was a very chilly, breezy day) we didn't catch up to any other golfers until about the fourteenth hole, which is surprising for a Florida golf course.

As you can see by the photographs, the fairways are very wide, the greens are huge compared to most and the golf course is in very good condition.  There was a sprinkling of a strange dark gray sand on the greens, but that simply slowed the golf ball down a tad, much like a heavy dew.  There were very few ball marks on the greens and most golfers seemed to make use of the sand provided on the golf carts to fill in divot marks on the fairways.  Something I did find a bit surprising was the lack of water on any of the holes; only the par 3 thirteenth hole had a pond on either side of it.  Trees on the golf course were fairly widely spaced so you could shoot out from underneath them.  Basically it's a nice course for an easy round of golf.

There are five sets of tees; black, blue white, gold and red.  Yardage for the black tees is 7099 yards with a rating/slope of 74.0/130.  Blue tees' yardage is 6633 with a rating/slope of 71.9/126.  White tees' yardage is 6149 with the rating/slope of 69.4/122, the yellow tees' yardage is 5594 with a rating/slope of 66.7/115 and the red tees' yardage is 4888 with a rating/slope of 67.4/114.  Denny played with a pair of women who played off the yellow tees and had no difficulty playing bogey golf at that distance.  Of course, these gals tried to play golf every other day or so while they were visiting Florida so they weren't duffers to begin with.

Lining the tee boxes on many holes were large formations of coquina rock.  this one reminded me of a dragon's head.  The houses lining the fairways are set back at a distance, most have trees in front of them and they really don't factor into play at all unless you hit a truly errant shot.  And yes, Denny did manage to hit a roof or screened room on one shot.  I think it's mandatory for him on golf courses that are surrounded by homes.

The staff is friendly here, the prices are reasonable and the course is a fun one to play.  That's what a day of playing golf should be.

Back at San Pedro Golf Course

It had been a few years since we've been in the Benson, Arizona area and played at the San Pedro Golf Club and there's been a major change: the city of Benson has taken over the golf course.  What that meant to Denny and I right off the bat is that we were no longer able to use our Golf Card International discount and pay $20 each to play eighteen holes with a riding cart.  Instead I booked a tee time online and we played for $27.95 each (plus tax).  If you plan to spend time in the area, the golf course has a special deal where you pay anywhere from $99 to $119 (depending on what special they are offering) for one year and that allows you one free round of golf right off the bat, a free round on your birthday and the ability to play a round of golf for $18.95 before 1 PM (the price is reduced after that.)  Denny and I were paired up with a gentleman from Tucson who had taken advantage of the special and who drives the 40 miles every week to play golf here.  It's a good deal. 

Of course it's difficult to maintain a golf course in the high desert but the staff at San Pedro is doing a nice job.  The fairways here are bermuda grass, dormant now and the tee boxes and greens are in decent shape for the amount of play they seem to get.  We waited on every hole to play as there were several foursomes ahead of us but we still got off the golf course in four hours.  One of the things that makes the round go quicker now is the fact that the golf carts here are equipped with GPS systems so it's easy to quickly choose the proper club for your next shot and keep the game moving.

There are five sets of tee boxes at San Pedro so you can make the golf course as long or as short as you like.  From the black (longest) tees the yardage is 7313 yards with a rating/slope of 73.0/130.  The Copper tees are 6852 yards, 70.4/125, the Whites 6298 yards, 68.4/117, the Jade tees are 5716 yards, 71.3/125 and the Silver tee yardage is 5262 with a rating/slope of 68.8/117.

The San Pedro River runs along the golf course but this time of year it is dry.  There are two ponds on the golf course that come into play and a few ravines that will eat your golf ball if you're not careful.  The sand traps are vile here in the high desert; not the fluffy white stuff of the Midwest but red dirt.  Plain and simple dirt.  Not fun.  The greens aren't particularly tricky here although the speed can be hard to judge depending on when they have been watered and cut and how humid the weather is.  On the front nine the three of us had a tendency to hit our balls short on the green while on the back nine we were all long.  You aren't going to get into a lot of trouble here although there are more canyon walls on the back nine so you could end up hitting out of the rocks up there.  That's fine in the winter when the rattlesnakes are still hibernating but I wouldn't recommend it once the weather starts warming up. 

Your final challenge on the eighteenth hole is to hit it over the water (you have the choice of going around from the Jade tees) and then there's another small pond that fronts the green.  It's a fun way to finish and then you can stop at the small restaurant for a drink and a sandwich afterwards to rehash your game.  

This is a golf course we enjoy coming back to and the city is doing a nice job of keeping it up.

Sunsites aka Shadow Mountain Golf Course

 It had been six or seven years since we last drove to the Sunsites, Arizona area to play golf at the Shadow Mountain Country Club.  In that time the owner of the golf course had apparently filed for bankruptcy and the local people of the small community of Sunsites had banded together to arrange to lease the golf course from the owner.  These folks have taught themselves how to run a pro shop, advertise and maintain the fairways and greens of a golf course and by doing so have managed to keep the golf course open.

Shadow Mountain is an eighteen hole golf course that is flat and wide open for the most part.  From the longest blue tees the yardage is 6632 yards with a rating/slope of 71.1/126.  The middle white tee yardage is 6324 with a rating/slope of 69.5/124 and the red tee yardage is 5432 yards with a rating/slope of 70.0/125.  There are a few ponds (and we found them) as well as some areas of links style grasses.  There are also some sand traps although these days they would more appropriately be termed dirt traps because the stuff in the traps has the appearance and texture of dirt.  It's obvious the folks are struggling to keep the course in condition as some of the greens are very rough making it impossible to putt with any accuracy.  And while there appears to be a watering system in place on the golf course, there must not be funds to operate it because the fairways are dormant and dying in many areas.

For all of that, you do get to whale away at the ball here and your ball might just run forever on the hard-pan.  For $20 you get to play eighteen holes of golf using a riding cart while viewing majestic mountains in all four directions.  The sunshine is bright, the air is crisp and clear and the surroundings are quiet.  You won't play regulation golf here due to the current condition of the golf course, but it's nice to get out and swing the club on a beautiful day in Arizona.

A Full Day at Arizona City Golf Course

The last time Denny and I tried to play golf here we got in four holes worth of play before a dust storm drove us back to our truck.  Later that day we heard that there were fatalities on Interstate 10 due to that same dust storm that obliterates absolutely everything from sight.

On this day of play however, it was windless and sunny with temperatures in the low 70s which was good, because our tee time was behind a very large group of golfers from one of the other RV parks in the area.  We were in for a slow day.

Arizona City Golf Course is set within a residential area and as such the homes will come into play on an errant shot (ask Denny.)  There are four sets of tee boxes with the black tees measuring out at 6742 yards with a rating/slope of 72.0/116.  The blues are next at 6413 yards, 70.1/114, the whites at 5935 yards, 67.8/111 and the yellows at 5126 yards, 68.2/109.  Surprisingly the women's yellow tee boxes are as well maintained as the men's, which isn't always the norm for golf courses.  And the grassy areas are in pretty good shape for the amount of winter play this course receives.

Since this is a desert golf course there aren't a lot of water hazards on the course, although there are four irrigation ponds and a lot of coots.  Sand traps aren't really a problem on the fairways and around the greens, but the waste areas along the sides of the fairways and sometimes running across the middle of the fairways can be really rough on your golf clubs.  The golf course is flat and open (if you ignore the houses, that is) so you can swing away at the ball without too much worry about getting into trouble.  You will certainly get some added distance if you land in the waste areas of the fairways.  And folks here behind you will play up pretty close to you since the course is always heavily played and busy.  That took a little getting used to.

I recommend you make sure you have a lot of water with you on hot days as there aren't a lot of water coolers on the course and there are no beverage carts driving out to relieve your thirst.  Our round of golf took four and a half hours and it would have been longer if the players ahead of us had played a full round of eighteen holes instead of quitting after nine holes.  This is one of the more reasonably priced golf courses in the area at $35 to play eighteen holes with a riding cart, so it gets a lot of play.  The only online tee times with a lower price were those before 8 AM and those after 2 PM, neither of which appealed to us.  Since this is not quite the snowbird season yet (that's still about two weeks away) I can't even imagine how busy the golf course will be then.

Heron Point Golf Course, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Myrtle Beach has a lot of golf courses. Of course, they are not all in Myrtle Beach proper, nor are some of them even remotely affordable for Joe Blow the Rag Picker or those of us managing on one pension. If you have Internet access, then you also have access to special deals, like playing some of the more expensive courses at 4:30 (!!??!!) in the morning for the discount price of $90. I kid you not. October is prime golf outing time for the area because the humidity and temperatures are down making playing a round of golf a lot more comfortable. Unfortunately, when the temperatures go down, the price of a round of golf goes up around here.

But there are still bargains to be found if you are willing to play the older courses, the non-professionally designed by a well known golfer or golf architect courses, the golf courses that are set in the middle of a housing/resort complex. Heron Point Golf Club fits the bill on two of the last three criteria. You will drive into a gated community of small and large homes, townhouses and apartments to discover a heavily played golf course that's actually a lot of fun if you are able to hit a straight drive most of the time. Playing from the blue tees the golf course measures 6477 yards with a rating/slope of 70.9/129. The yardage from the white tees is 6080 yards, rating/slope 69.2/121. The gold senior tees measure 5335 yards, 65.7/109 and the women's red tees finish out at 4734 yards with a rating/slope of 69.2/121. The tee boxes are in fairly good shape and wonder of wonder, the golf course maintains the women's tee boxes as well as they do the men's which is a rarity in the less expensive golf courses. For a course as heavily played as this one the fairways and greens are in pretty good shape although golfers here don't always rake the sand bunkers. They do seem to fix their divots since all the golf carts are provided with sand and Denny and I were surprised at how few ball marks were left unrepaired on the greens. Nice.For the first nine holes we were teamed up with a couple of local golfers who reminded us of where to aim our shots for dog legs and where to avoid water hazards. It had been several years since Denny and I had played this course and the information was helpful. There are small ponds and water filled ditches crossing several of the holes but we found the sand traps to be more of a problem. On this course the designer was enamored with placing those sand traps smack dab in front of the greens, beside the greens and even hidden behind low hills along the sides of the fairways. In other words, I was in the sand a LOT here on this course. There are times the houses lining some areas of the course do come into play on errant fairway shots but for the most part they are not obtrusive. There are some smallish man-made hillocks on the fairways but for the most part this is a very level course. The grass on the greens seemed to be going dormant so they were very slick and the two of us never really did figure out the speed of the greens very well, much to our chagrin.For the privilege of being frustrated by those oh-so-fast greens (and playing golf in the company of a couple of great guys) we paid the price of $27 per person to play eighteen holes of golf with a riding cart. This also included a ticket for a free hot dog and beverage. These we gave to Gabe and Bill for allowing us to play with them and because they were only playing nine holes to our eighteen, so I don't know how good the hot dogs are. Not a bad deal in a town full of high priced golf courses.

An Afternoon at Blue Ridge Shadows Golf Club

There are several golf courses in the area of Front Royal, Virginia but the photographs on the web site of the Blue Ridge Shadows Golf Club intrigued me the most so I looked for online specials to play there.  Normally a golfer would pay about $40-44 to play a round of golf using a riding cart, but checking online through a web site that offers discounted tee times if you pre-pay I found a coupon deal to play for $22 plus tax per person.  The tee time was for 2PM, but that was doable in the somewhat cooler temperatures we had been having.  I received an e-mail from both the scheduling web site and Blue Ridge Shadows confirming the tee time (this had been an issue in Chula Vista a year ago) so we were good to go.

Set in the rolling hills outside of the Shenandoah National Park, Blue Ridge Shadows Golf Club has received several awards for best course, best course for women, new affordable public course, etc.  There is a huge clubhouse with a nicely stocked pro shop plus a restaurant and bar.  The golf carts don't have GPS systems, but they are stocked with free tees and a couple of towels for wiping off your clubs.  Our special deal also included a free bucket of range balls, but we passed on that due to the later tee time.  

From a distance the course appears to be in wonderful shape.  Close up, the damage from Hurricane Irene and T.S. Lee is evident in a few boggy areas of fairways and dead spots in several of the greens.  However, for the most part the fairways are in good condition and greenskeepers were out in force as we played. 

Sandtraps were everywhere and water hazards were cause for carefully played shots on nine of the holes.  The grass of the rough was links-style long and it was a good thing there were only about five sets of golfers on the entire course while we were there because Denny and I did have to spend a little time looking for golf balls in the long grass.  If you play a straight shot, then this will be a fun course for you.  There are enough slopes and hillsides to challenge you and distant vistas of the mountains add pleasure to the game here.

There are five sets of tee boxes per hole here at Blue Ridge Shadows; from the longest (black) tees your yardage is 7315 yards with a rating/slope of 75.5/143.  From the blues it's 6787 yards with a rating/slope of 73.1/138; white tees have a yardage of 6204 and 70.4/130 for the men and 75.9/142 for women who want to play a slightly longer course.  Seniors tees have a yardage of 5551 with a rating/slope of 68.2/122 for men and 73.3/128 for women and the shortest (red) tees have a yardage of 5006 and 70.0/120.  Greens here are cut short but run deceptively slow and those slow rolls will find dips and breaks in the greens that you'll never see.  Denny had a tough time with everything breaking left on his putts whereas I could never get the speed right.  The greens are also larger than what we're used to seeing on less expensive public courses which lent a more professional feel to the golf course.

Finishing up on the eighteen hole you approach not only the very attractive plantation style club house, but the green is set up with a rocky waterfall as a back drop with a wide creek in front of the green for one last challenge to your shot making.

Blue Ridge Shadows would be worth playing even at the regular price; Denny and I would play this course again in a heartbeat if we were ever to stop in the area again.  It is fun, challenging, scenic and in pretty good condition for the extreme weather conditions the area has suffered lately.  This is a golf course we'd recommend.

Old Landing Golf Course

Although the closest golf course to our campground is the Baywood Greens Golf Course, it was a little too pricey for our budget at $109 per person for an eighteen hole round of golf. If we had the funds to indulge, this would be the golf course we would play in the area of Millsboro, Long Neck or Rehoboth Beach, Delaware as the golf course is gorgeous as seen from the roadway. It appears they are also adding another nine holes in a links-type format.

However, Denny and I drove the few extra miles to the Old Landing Golf Course in Rehoboth Beach to play at a much cheaper price. Normally the cost is $49 per person to play eighteen holes with a riding cart on weekdays, however we chose to play after 2 PM which lowered the cost to $37 each. It was a hot and muggy day and the golf course staff had turned off the drinking fountains that were placed around the golf course and there are no coolers of water on the course. Fortunately Denny and I had brought our own water although it would have been nice to have water on the course.

We had actually driven out the day before to play golf but discovered the golf course was closed for aeration, even though we had called on Saturday and were told the course would be open and no tee times were necessary or even taken for those who play after 2PM. They were aerating the greens but not the fairways. At the current time, this golf course is in pretty poor condition, with dying fairways filled with crab grass. Granted, the area has received a lot of rain with Hurricane Irene and leftovers from Tropical Storm Lee, but the conditions of the greens, tee boxes and fairways would indicate a problem long before all the recent rains. That's a shame, because the golf course is nicely set up, plays well for the golf who hits shorter, straighter shots and has enough ponds and sand traps to make the golf course interesting.

When we arrived at 2PM there were only three other cars in the parking lot and only 2 golfers in one golf cart in view on the hole ahead of us. The two men ahead of us played rather slowly so we allowed the single golfer behind us to go ahead of us, thinking the twosome would also allow the single through. Instead they joined up to play and thus managed to slow us up through the entire front nine. Play went more quickly on the back nine when two of the three eventually left the course without finishing (it may have been another single we allowed to play through who was hitting in to them when they refused to allow him to play through also.) Considering there was no one ahead of this threesome it was the rudest behavior we've seen on the golf course in a while.Two of the holes on the back nine were roped off to golf carts due to soggy, boggy conditions. On these same holes you also have a few houses along the fairways but there is a thin stand of trees to help protect them from golf balls. I don't know if the soggy conditions have helped breed mosquitoes, but they were thick yesterday as we played so bring mosquito repellent with you if you decide to play here.

The condition of the golf course was disappointing for the price we had to pay to play. The layout of the course is nice, with the yardage from the blue tees being 6097 yards with a rating/slope of 68.7/114. From the white tees it's 5830 yards and 67.6/111 and from the red tees the yardage is 5494 with a rating/slope of 70.8/115. The shorter yardage granted us a few pars although I must admit we were playing "winter rules" due to the condition of the fairways and greens. At times the fairways were like playing on hard pan and at times a mud pen. But it allowed us to check yet another state from our list, leaving us with Maryland and Oklahoma yet to play.

A Long Day on a Short Golf Course

You have to work a little harder to find affordable golf courses in New Jersey, but about 20 miles from our campground I located the Green Tree Golf Course in Egg Harbor Township, operated by the Atlantic County Division of Parks and Rec. Green Tree is a short course, although it is a regulation par 72 golf course. From the longest (blue) tees the yardage is only 5574 yards with a rating/slope of 67.2/112. From the white tees the yardage is 5347 yards with a rating/slope of 66.2/110 and for the women's red tees the distance is 4459 yards with a rating/slope of 66.2/107. Very short, although the golf course surprisingly boasts a par 6 hole on hole number three.

While there are no online specials for Green Tree Golf Course, there is a senior rate, a resident rate vs. a non-resident rate, twilight rates, etc. For Denny and I to play eighteen holes of golf with a riding cart the cost was $64; $19 each for the greens fees and $12.15 each plus tax. Certainly this is a walkable course and there were many seniors (in their 80s) out there with their pull carts. Play was exceedingly slow when we were there; Denny and I teamed up with a pair of sisters to help speed things up but we still were on the golf course for five hours.One of the first things the foursome ahead of us told Denny and me while we were waiting to tee off was that there is a lot of water on the course. There are creeks and ponds scattered throughout the course, some of which are in play but most are avoidable with well played shots. Other than one extreme dog leg on a short par four (which had well placed signs with yardage to the dog leg) the golf course is not a difficult one and apparently is favored by those just learning to play golf. Hence the slow play. The sand in the traps is soft but balls can be putted out near the green since most of the sand traps don't have big lips.

At the turn there is a tiny hut selling hot dogs so you can grab one and head on over to the tenth hole without losing your turn which is nice. And the golfers here seem to all play here regularly so they are friendly and helpful with information about the course and where to try to land your shot for the best line. Thanks to pairing up with Kathy and Jane, Denny and I spent a slow but enjoyable day on the golf course. This one we would play again.

Quarry Ridge Golf Course in Portland, CT

Course description: hilly. Best advice? Stay in the fairway. Duh.

Denny and I drove a little further afield this week to take advantage of an Internet special price at the Quarry Ridge Golf Course in Portland, CT. If you "liked" the golf course on their Facebook page, you could play eighteen holes with a riding cart for $26. So I grabbed the coupon online and Denny paid the senior price of $42. That's a little bit more than we normally spend (2 golfers, one pension, remember?) but this was also the first time we've played golf in Connecticut so we were going to be able to check CT off our list of states.There are actually three golf courses in very close proximity to each other: Quarry Ridge, Portland Country Club and Portland West Country Club. The gentlemen in the threesome in front of us said that the Portland Country Club was a bit shorter but was always in good condition. When Denny and I had driven past the course on the way to Quarry Ridge the parking lot was packed.
There are four sets of tees at Quarry Ridge, the longest being the black tees with a yardage of 6389 and a slope/rating of 124/70.9. The blue tees which most of the men used have a yardage of 6049 yards and a slope/rating of 119/69.5. The red women's tees have a yardage of 4852 and a slope/rating of 117/68.7. As you can see from the pictures, on the first few holes the course slopes steeply off to the right and on others you might find some granite outcroppings to bounce your ball off.Just to make things entertaining, we discovered a couple of foxes resting and later playing on the seventeenth fairway. It appeared that one of the foxes just might have been playing with a golf ball.Water really doesn't come into play on this course. There are some thick woods and a few areas of thick weeds where Denny lost a ball or two but for the most part the challenges of this course comes from the uphill/downhill lies and not being familiar enough with the course to know how/where to play the dog legs. Play was a bit slow as there were a lot of golfers out on a Wednesday but the golfers were friendly and pleasant and Denny and I had a nice day despite the length of time we were out there.

There were some boggy areas on some of the fairways that were in a valley due to recent rains and some of the tee boxes were a little rough but for the most part the golf course was in decent condition for the amount of play that it gets. We had fun, and that's the whole point of being out there.

Torrey Oaks Golf Course

For the second week of our stay in Wauchula we decided to play golf a little bit closer to home at the Torrey Oaks Golf Course in Bowling Green, Florida. This time we paid $23 each to play eighteen holes with a riding cart and we were able to pay those rates for a 10AM tee time. Credit cards are accepted for that rate also.

The fairways and rough is a little rougher at Torrey Oaks than what they were at the Bluffs. It is a much shorter course, playing shorter than the distances given at the tee boxes and on the score card which was rather confusing for us first time players. Per the score card, the blue tees have a yardage of 6335 with a slope/rating of 128/70.7 while the women's tees have a yardage of 5075 yards and a slope/rating of 116/68.1. As I said, the course played shorter than that, as I ended up with four pars and that is unheard of for me--I am a bogey/double bogey golfer through and through. So I for one, had fun on the course.

There are a several holes with water hazards although they really don't come into play for the women's tees. There are plenty of sand traps and this is a course where they make sure to have a rake attached to the back of the riding cart so there's no excuse for not raking the sand traps.
There are houses built on the course and they can come into play with errant shots as can some of the trees but if you hit the ball straight this is an easy course for the average golfer. We were joined on the back nine by a French Canadian couple whose grasp of English wasn't terrific but who played some really good golf and we managed to have a good time despite a bit of a communication problem at times. For my golfing ego, I'd play this course again simply to see a lower score than I normally shoot.

Although we didn't check out the daily/weekly rates since we're staying at a free-for-us membership campground, Torrey Oaks Golf Course also has an adjacent RV park that is very attractively set up and maintained with spacious RV sites. Stay and play, as it were.

A Half Round at Coastal Pines Golf Course

Wednesday we traveled about 20 miles down the road to the Coastal Pines Golf Course near Brunswick, Georgia. On what would have been a terrific golf course to practice my game, I was only able to finish nine holes before a pulled muscle in my back made me quit for the day. Denny was able to finish the full eighteen holes of this rather vanilla golf course. What I mean by "vanilla" is that the fairways were wide open, the trees lining the fairways weren't too thick to hit from, and the hazards were avoidable for the most part. The greens were a bit tricky, having some undulation and slopes that were deceptive so there was some challenge involved there.

For the men playing the white tees, the yardage is 6347 yards with a rating/slope of 70.3/128. For seniors the yardage is 5964 yards with a rating/slope of 68.4/121. For the ladies at the red tees, the yardage is 4998 with a rating/slope of 69.1/120. The fairways on the back nine started to get a little rough and weed-infested towards the last few holes. Denny and I had no one in front of us or behind us for most of the afternoon although there were a lot of people on the driving range. There is no restaurant or snack bar at the clubhouse, only a pop machine and a small display of snacks for purchase if you get hungry or thirsty and there were no water coolers on the course, only a drinking fountain at the restrooms midway through the course.

I was able to find an online coupon to play for $30 a person with a riding cart and there were specials listed at the clubhouse including a special rate for Sundays. I'm sorry I couldn't finish my round here because I enjoy not being pushed or rushed on a golf course and the condition of the course wasn't too bad overall. Perhaps we'll get back this way again to give the golf course another try. Certainly Denny played well here, so that's an incentive to return.

A Rainy Day at Whispering Pines Golf Course

We gambled against the predictions of rain on the day we were scheduled to play at Whispering Pines Golf Course in Myrtle Beach just north of the airport and unfortunately we lost the bet. It's a shame, because this is probably a great course when you're not being drenched in a sudden downpour. Unlike many of the courses in the area, there are no homes along this golf course, just tall trees, well placed bunkers and some water holes to make it interesting.

From the men's white tees the yardage is 6245 yards with a slope rating of 70.9/192. For the red tees it plays 5176 yards with a slope rating of 70.0/119. If you play the most difficult tees, the yardage is 6771 with a rating of 73.4/131 and the senior tee yardage is 5497 and 66.8/115.
On a sunny day, this would be a fun course--we had to head for the parking lot early when the skies turned black and we knew we were in for it. Should we return next year as planned, I'm sure we'll give this course another try because the opportunity to play without fear of hitting condos and townhouses is rare in a reasonably priced golf course in this town. The only distraction is the noise of the airplanes taking off on a few of the holes that border the airport. But the airport isn't that busy so it's not much of a problem. We enjoyed this course even if we didn't get to finish our game.

Island Green Golf Course

I'm a little late with this one, but last week Don, Gary, Denny and I played the Island Green Golf Course. They had a special rate of $28 to play 18 holes with a riding cart that also included lunch and a beer/fountain drink (more on that later.) We were able to get a late morning tee time, the weather was ideal and our playing? Well, some of it was good, some not so much.

The course plays 6043 yards from the white tees with a slope/rating of 69.1/120. From the red tees the course is 4656 yards long with a course rating of 63.6/108. There are some houses along the course, there are a lot of old growth pines and waste bunkers as well as some deep lipped sand bunkers around the greens. The greens themselves are incredibly fast--none of us ever really adjusted to the speed of the greens and so our putting was rather abysmal.

This is a pretty golf course and the rate of play isn't too bad. When Denny and I played here in the past, you would sometimes see an alligator sunning himself on the island green at hole eighteen. This year he was nowhere to be found. Be advised that you are NOT supposed to stop and eat your free lunch at the turn--it messes up their timing or something. The four of us did stop for lunch and were chastised by the starter when we came out of the clubhouse. Lesson learned. Eat after play.

Out and A Round

Don't we have some amazing views out of our windows?

However, I digress. This post is about the tiny 9 hole executive course at the Maple Grove RV and Golf Resort--the only game in town. Literally. For miles.

Denny and I stayed here five years ago and we played the course at that time and I have to admit it was in much better shape then. The course is a par 31 course for 9 holes, par 62 for 18 holes with a slope/rating of 53.0/70 for the men at 3268 yards. For women, the slope rating is 56.8/80 over 3169 yards. This year, playing later in the year, the rough and fairways are in bad shape but the greens are surprisingly pristine. While playing short the greens are a tad evil with enough slope and curves to make putting interesting and a little challenging. You must walk this course as the pro shop has only a few battered pull carts to rent. Most of the campers/RVers who are members of the park (the golf course is open to the public) have their own power carts or pull carts.

In very little time we played nine holes (and yay! I beat Denny thanks to his not-so-good putting today) and were back at the rig with plenty of time to run some errands. While not an exciting course, it was a chance to hit some short irons and get a little exercise. And I beat Denny. Heh.

A Terrific Municipal Golf Course--Indian Canyon

I wasn't anticipating a good day at the golf course since the high temperature for the day was supposed to be 90 degrees and I tend to suffer from heat exhaustion if not careful. Thankfully, the skies were overcast which made for a much cooler day and so we were able to really enjoy playing at the Indian Canyon Golf Course in Spokane.

Recommended to us by two different golfers, we decided to give it a try and we're glad we did. Indian Canyon is hilly but water hazard-free and the sand bunkers aren't too evil nor too many. Denny played from the blue tees at 6255 yards with a rating/slope of 69.8/124 while I played the reds at 5336 yards with a rating/slope of 70.2/125. I have to say I was amazed at the number of hardy golfers walking this course because it is not but hills, slopes and inclines the entire eighteen holes and there were times I found myself huffing and puffing as I walked up to a green to putt out.


The par 3 fourth hole.The ninth hole. And no, my camera wasn't tilted, that's the actual slope of the fairway.The tenth hole.Of course, there were a few visual distractions, like deer and the fact that the golf course seems to be in the flight path of the Spokane airport, but that just added interest. The city of Spokane maintains four municipal golf courses, plus there are many others in the area. When we played with Mike, a Spokane native two weeks ago he was kind enough to list some of his favorites with comments so I've listed them below in case some day you'd be in the area and want to enjoy some great golf.

Indian Canyon * (* means favored by Mike) Hills. $28 Municipal course.
MeadowWood * Water. $28
Liberty Lake * Water. $28
Hangman * Hard. Water. $28
Circling Raven *** Best in area. $80 (leaves us out!)
Qualchan Hard. Water. $25 Municipal course.
Downriver Shady. Small greens. $25 Municipal course.
Esmeralda Easy. Open. $25 Municipal course.
Fairways Links style. Fast $25 See my post.
Coeur D'Alene Resort (Idaho) Resort style. $150 (yeah, let's play a couple of rounds!)
Wandermere Resort style. $25

There you have it--enjoy!