Here is a recent review of a course that opened too early. The reviewer even says as much but still issues a death sentence. I have deleted the names to protect the innocent.
Quote
I had an opportunity to play XXX last week in between my rounds at X and Y. I stayed away from this thread before the trip since I didn't want it to influence my review, but now that I have played it, I am ready to join the discussion.
I think XXX is bold, wild, and loads of fun. It has some really interesting and wild greens that make you go "Wow" when you look at it. The fairways are pretty wide, and have some interesting movements to them. And it is true that while there is distinct lack of greenside bunkers, I think the wild contours certainly more than make up for it in interest. There are some really fun par 4's like the punch bowl 17th which was a blast to play.
I really think this course shares the same DNA with Rustic Canyon with its really interesting greens and wide (flattish) fairways. I would have never guessed this is a
course if I didn't know it beforehand.
However, I cannot recommend anyone to visit this course right now. It is almost unplayable by mid to high handicappers.
And I am not talking about the spotty conditions. I couldn't care less about the bald spots and standing water. Stuff like that is going to happen with brand new courses. I thought the greens were in super condition overall and rolled very smooth and true. Conditioning is not the problem...
... in the fairway. But if you venture off the fairway, there are loads of problems. First, the fairway collars are cut at about 4 to 6 inch, and I fail to see why they need to be so long. Fairways are rolling pretty well, which means even good drives may roll off low spots and roll into the collars at which point they are hard to find and difficult to hit out of, which makes little sense to me.
This is doubly troubling as any ball off the fairway is an automatic lost ball. The "natives" around the fairways are about knee high and thick as anything you will ever see. There is ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE that you will find ANY ball if you don't hit the fairways. I know the fairways are pretty wild, but mid and high handicappers will still miss them, and when they do, they need not bother looking for the ball as it is impossible to find.
To put it another way, just replace the natives with water surrounding every fairway and those fairways are going to look pretty narrow even with their inherent width. But that is basically what you have at XXX. You top a drive? Lost ball. You hit a slice? Lost ball. Missed the green on the wrong side? Lost ball. You rolled the ball 10 yards in front of you into a rough? Lost ball. You get the idea.
To make the experience even MORE painful, they have UGLY eyebrows on every bunker. I drove right down the middle on the 1st hole which hit the fairway bunker and rolled up to the eyebrows. Lost ball. I hit a couple of other side bunkers and failed to find them. Lost ball. Lost ball.
I played 27 holes and lost 18 balls (I was going to play 36, but ran out of balls). I know I am not the straightest driver around, but this was a brand new territory even for me. In comparison, I lost about 3 or 4 balls per round at X and 1 or 2 at Y.
Why they refuse to cut down the rough, I don't know. But I am guessing that they wanted to keep the slope and rating high enough to attract "good" golfers (especially with such wide fairways and large greens) and this was one way to artificially raise the slope. The receptionist at the clubhouse said they do plan to burn the natives during the off-season, but why they failed to do so before the opening is puzzling to me.
If you are the type who rarely miss fairways, you will probably do just fine like ?, but if you have any bend to your shots, you should just skip the course and save the headaches and your balls.
I don't think I will be making a trek back to XXX any time soon (if ever). I would much rather get extra rounds at A,B or C.