Spoiler… Preserve at Eisenhower pics and impressions below. If you haven’t been there yet and want an untainted first look, stop here…
Overall, my number one takeaway, is that the greens are spectacular- both in conditioning and design. Some of the smoothest surfaces I’ve putted on, and while not lightning fast, they had some speed and firmness. All seem to have been enlarged and much, much interest was added… The 2nd takeaway is that the improvements are positive overall from a layout and playability perspecitve, though i think the course is for sure more difficult.
The 3rd takeaway is that some changes seem (to me) to be a little odd. While some of the hershey kiss tall fescue mounds are well thought-out, some definitely seem ham-fisted into the layout. It looks like, in some areas, they replaced bunkers almost in-kind with the mounds, like an inverted volume type of intentional design cue. I don’t think that’s true for the majority of the mounds, but on a few holes you can see fairways framed by these mounds as bunkers would be. The only problem with all of this though, is that based on the length of fescue and thatch on those mounds and surrounds when i played, a ball hit into these areas is almost 100% lost.
Now, that isn’t good, obviously. But really that’s the only big negative. A few things need time- the bermuda isn’t fully out of dormancy and there are definitely a few bare patches, but overall the grassing looks great. Tightly mown green surrounds spilling into the next tee is always a nice touch, and offers much more interesting shots around the green.
The course has gotten significantly harder in my mind, even ignoring the added length. And despite any gripes, our 4some of walkers and riders finished our round in under 4:15, with only a few balls in the group lost to those fescue mounds. Also we all shot about our course handicaps, so maybe it’s not that much harder? Curious to hear what others think!
Some mediocre photos for this mediocre review:
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Thanks for the in depth write up. I never played the old course but I have a tee time for the morning of the 15th and I’m excited to get out there.
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What’s the walkability rating out of 5?
Thanks for the update.
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The course has a walkability rating of 4/5 in my book.
Honestly, and I hate to be that guy, but it’s definitely a better experience walking than riding. The treeline thinnings and the fairway cut green/tee connections are largely missed with the cart (my buddies actually commented on this out there… they said they’ll walk next time)
Edit: maybe even 4.5/5…
Love it. I am also that, can prefer walking to riding, when possible. I’ve got a tee time lined up for memorial day but hoping to sneak out prior to that. Any really memorable holes stick out to you?
I played there Sunday. My biggest concern was drainage. There were a lot of very soft / wet areas. Can anybody speak to the infrastructure?
I know they did a significant stream restoration and re-routing to divert water to other areas. Curious to why it was wet Sunday when we hadn’t had rain for awhile before that. Drainage was always an issue before the renovation.
I also played sunday, and I believe the wet areas I saw were all from irrigation. You can see they laid tons of sod just before opening, and they had to keep that wet with temps in the 80s. Also I believe you have to water the crap out of Bermuda early on for it to be well established.
There are going to be inevitable drainage issues at a new course though, for sure. I wonder if they’ve used the extra time to fix anything, and what tweaks will be made this year
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1, 10, and a few others were adjusted to add some approach angle thought and interest. They added some risk reward as well…
11 stuck out to me, a short dogleg right par 4 with water all down the right- bite off as much as you want. A signature hershey kiss dune just to the left of the green and water to the right is a bit iffy, but I thought it worked.
I liked 4 and 18- good tough uphill dogleg right par 4s. 5 is now (edit: a decent 4 from the back tees, and a) risk reward 4 (from the forward tees), either a forced 250+ carry or lay up to 175 (better than the old par 5 that was there).
12 is and was, in my opinion, dumb. That was the only one i was at all offended by, though.
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@uglypar what do you work for a golf architecture firm or something?? Write-ups are excellent dude, I highly regret my home depot sunday. Will have to get out there soon!
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Anyone else think that it’s possible this penal mound concept the architect came up with could have been the result a riffing with your buddies on some overly effective magic mushrooms. I haven’t played it yet but I’m looking at the pics thinking “ I can miss a fairway by 2 feet and be penalized with a lost ball?” Seems a little harsh for a heavily played muni. I’ll admit to some bad trips and resulting crazy ideas (car painted mirror that the cops couldn’t see), but I’m not certain this one is going to work out the way he thinks it will.
If the lost ball rate is as bad as you say then that’s a bit crazy. At least with bunkers you’re not searching for balls. The movie keeps playing, it doesn’t stop.
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I got a lot of joy out of 13. Not for the golf, but I saw an eagle and a hawk dive bombing the pond on 13 for fish.
Big fan of the conservation efforts.
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I may be exaggerating slightly when i say any ball hit into any mound is almost 100% lost. Some are more patchy than others, and the steepness i guess will ricochet balls off of it. But there are definitely several instances where a 3 yard fairway miss will result in a lost ball.
I imagine as they get some feedback they’ll figure out a happy medium for that fescue height.
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Great review. I played there on monday, and had the exact same thought on the greens. All of the greens were really interesting and had their own challenges. It was a bit damp when i played so we had a lot of trouble getting a feel for the speed. Overall a lot of undulations that gave you some very interesting shots. I played from the blues (1 up from the Ike tee), which was probably way longer than i should have been playing as 2 of the par 3s were around 200 yard at those tees. Overall my takeaway is a lot of the natural preserve aspects will grow in over time and make the course even nicer.
Id have to agree with " The only problem with all of this though, is that based on the length of fescue and thatch on those mounds and surrounds when i played, a ball hit into these areas is almost 100% lost." The fairways hide some of their width from you off of the tee at least at the blue tees, and makes you realize that replaying the hole you’d do things a lot differently.
Word to the wise, whatever grass the rough is closer to cart paths at the 2nd cut off the fairway it grabs the hell out of your club. I’m no expert on these things, but I had a fair amount of shots on par 5s i wanted to take back, because i should have just done something easy to get in the fairway instead of trying to send it for distance.
I wanted to take a few more pictures to show more of the course, but here’s a few I got to add to @uglypar .
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I have one extra thing to add.
While your Garmin has updated the name of the course, the yardages are no yet updated to include the swapping of the par 3 and par 4 locations on the scorecard. Thats hole #5 and hole #6. Garmin still thinks 5 is a par 3 and 6 is a par4. After that the yardages are kind of ok, but you can tell thework on the greens has changed the mapping enough that your clubs might be off if you’re relying on garmin GPS only.
I saw that the Grint had it updated, so I’m hoping garmin can update soon too. I just submitted a garmin support message for the course renovation as well in case they hadn’t gotten that before.
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Good call- I should have also mentioned in my review that this course is not yet in the MSGA/GHIN system/app (as of yesterday). The Grint does have updated course/slope ratings, but I don’t know if those are accurate. Green tees (one up from blues) were showing a 72.0 course rating with a 72.8 from blues and 71.8 from the combo tees… so at least the Green is off.
I called the course earlier this week, and they said the rating people played it the week before it opened. Curious how long that takes to process- I would think they would have had that settled before the opening, but I imagine there’s a process (shoutout #yearoftheprocess).
Edit: Also wanted to add a critique of the tees… the options are: Ike (tips) at 7,100+, Blues at 6,700+, Greens at 6,100+… There is a Blue/Green combo option on the card, but overall people don’t like bothering with the back and forth. My first thought was that gap is huge, and we’re going to see a lot of people playing from the Blues that should be playing from the Greens.
Yeah me included in that I definitely should have played the Greens. Blues are the real back tee and the Ike tees are just insane and almost there as a gimmick or a draw to some tournaments maybe college golf?
Overall the Greens provide a challenge enough for folks regardless of it being a shorter distance in my opinion.
Agreed, the changes made it challenging still even from shorter length.
Confession time: I really don’t like playing tees that are less than about 6300 yards for a par 71 or 72. It is 100% pride/ego/vanity related, but a good score doesn’t feel the same when I’m hitting wedges all day.
Do others have these same feelings? I’m in my mid 30s, 100-105 mph swing speed (260 carry max), and a 4 handicap.
I think they posted something on FB the other day that they are working to update the MSGA/GHIN.
Edit: Says raters are coming out to finish the longer tees today and will be updated next week. Women’s ratings have already been updated
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Nice, thanks for the update! That might be why the green tees are rated 72 on the Grint- as a ladies rating.
You all know I wouldn’t give two Fs about these course ratings if I didn’t shoot a good round out there Sunday 
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