Surprised at Fountain Springs Golf Club

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.

A Day at the Raton CC and Golf Course

The closest golf course to our campground located at the top of Raton Pass is the Raton Country Club and Golf Course.  Raton's only golf course is a nine hole course which plays to 6081 yards from the longest tees if you play eighteen holes.  The only information I have on the rating/slope is 68.6/120 for the men's tees and 69.4/113 for the women's tees.  There are four sets of tees to vary the length of the front nine and back nine.  There was a gentleman who was apparently playing eighteen holes who was walking the golf course but since it sits at about 6600 feet of elevation I would suggest making sure you are used to that before you take off.  I have to admit that walking up slopes on the course made us huff and puff a bit and we've been camping in higher elevations for the past six weeks or so.  

The normal price for a senior and an adult player who wish to play 18 holes using a riding cart would be $66, but I went online to the golf course's website and found a Golf18 deal for a 10:30AM tee time for $44.24.  It turns out we were the first people to actually take advantage of that special price too.  The manager then walked us outside and showed us where to hit our first shot, explaining that there was water about 172 yards out and down the hill.  He also told us how far out the dogleg was on the third hole which was helpful also, and explained a bit about the set up of the holes and how to get around the course.  That is always nice the first time you are stepping onto a new course.

As Mr. Rogers would say, it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  There were only a few of us on the golf course, so Denny and I were able to take our time and enjoy the scenery.  One young man we allowed to play through had driven 60 miles one way to play here as it was the closest affordable golf course to his home.  Ouch!

Like so many areas of the west, New Mexico has been suffering drought conditions and so the golf course has some rough patches but it is in much better condition than several of the golf courses we've played in California and Nevada recently.  They had just aerated a couple of the greens and the greens keeper actually apologized to us for that.  Wow!  We have played on greens much, much worse than that in the last few weeks, for sure.

The next two photographs are of the eighth hole; the first is taken from the women's tees and the second from the men's tees.  It is a par 3 hole and while the distance isn't long, the fast greens make it tricky.  Denny and I had gotten used to very slow greens lately and having much faster greens meant we had to adjust our thinking and out putting quite a bit.

You won't find a snack bar here, or any hot food although there is a cooler with energy drinks and soda at the pro shop.  What you will find is a nice little course with a friendly staff, great weather and nice mountain views while you play your round.  Just the kind of place we enjoy although we normally prefer a regular eighteen hole golf course over a nine hole course.  We'd play this one again.