Rate: Golf Now Hot Deal $115

Tees: Overseeded and in good shape

Fairways: Evenly overseeded and great shape. Stripes always a nice bonus  

Rough: Not overseeded wall to wall so rough was a bit more thin 

Bunkers: Plentiful! With riveted faces. Good shape.

Greens: Mackay side has had its greens redone more recently so they are firmer and a bit quicker  

Gators: One BIG boy, one decent, two smaller ones  

POP: We were the first out on the afternoon wave so we played in a bit over 3 hours  

Cart Paths: No issues

Rate: GolfNow Hot Deal $145

Tees: Mostly good. Not sure what can be done but any tee box that is always shaded are in HORRIBLE shape  

Fairways: Overseed took well. Pretty even consistency. They are a bit shaggy and balls simply don’t roll out on them. 

Rough: They don’t overseed wall to wall so the rough was pretty thin 

Bunkers: excellent 

Greens: Pretty good. A few spots here and there. The greens are pretty slow but with the undulations on most of them, if they played too quick you would be looking at 5.5 hour rounds  

Gators: “Big Boy” wasn’t on property today but we did see a baby, a midsize, and one 13-14 footer.

POP: 4.5 hours. Had a twosome couple walking in front of us. 

Cart Paths: Perfect

Has been almost 10 years since I played Heritage Club. It was ok. The back 9 is much better than the front. Other than one par 3 (13) the other par 3s are pretty meh. 12-14 is the best stretch by far and 18 is a good finish. 

Conditions were good not great. The $150 paid felt a bit much and that was a Hot Deal.  Paying the going spring rate of $190+ just isn’t worth it. Way too many better options at that price point. 

Excellent practice facilities and the practice green right on the ocean was nice. It was firm and fast, i couldnt believe how firm it was playing. There is a lot of water but I would say its mostly avoidable of you choose to be conservative.

 On their signature hole, The Waterloo it's impossible to take the water out. Its basically a banana shaped hole. Off the tee you can play a long iron to give yourself a larger landing area but you will have a forced carry over water 2nd shot if you want to use a 3wood. If you take on the risk of hitting driver you have a very narrow landing area where a miss right will be in the water.  The reward is a much shorter forced carry but there is water all down the right side.

Im not sure how much excavation they did when building this course because there were a lot of bluffs and elevation changes. Greenside bunkers were deep and mean. I visited many of them and am proud I got them all out in one shot except for one. All the geeens are heavily guarded with bunkers. A fairway bunker usually comes in to play for your driver as well so being straight off the tee is crucial. 

The green complexes are severe and elevated. Pretty much every hole had an area on the green that would repel balls off the green to a runoff area. I was expecting the greens to be a lot faster but Im sure they dont want to shave them down too much until tournament. Rough was deep and thick. 

The only hole with an unobstructed ocean view is the par 3 10th hole. A few others play along a marsh.

Overall it is a good mix of long and short holes that put a wedge in my hand for my 2nd shot which is always nice. Par 3 distances were perfect. None of them were crazy long around 140-160 but heavily bunkered. 

I look forward to hopefully playing here again in the future.

Rate: GolfNow Hot Deal $109

Tees: Overseed was perfect and flat 

Fairways: Lush overseed  8/10

Bunkers: perfectly playable 

Greens: Listed as UltraDwarf Bermuda but something else maybe. Yellow colored and “seedy” They rolled fine just not sure what they are  

Gators: Was promised 3 or 4 by starter and got ZERO

POP: 4 hours

Cart Paths: Just fine. 

Started on the back 9. Just the wife and I. Enjoy this course. It has several forced approaches and a few holes I personally think are bad designs (16 and 18). You get some great views of the Intracoastal waterway and the design never gets boring. 

Rate: GolfNow HD $78

Tees: Firm for putting tees in but turf was good and tees were flat  

Fairways: Course wall to wall overseed  Fairways in good shape  

Bunkers: Perfectly fine  

Greens: Smooth and receptive but slow compared to what they “looked like”

Gators: ZERO

POP: 4 hours and 20 minutes  

Cart Paths: Great

This Arnold Palmer course is always one of my favorites. Hole 8 and 9 are worth the price of admission and the finishing three holes might be the best finishing stretch in MB. 

Rate: GolfNow Hot Deal $107

Tees: Not overseeded and thin in spots

Fairways: Overseed took pretty well. Some thinner patches but completely serviceable. 

Bunkers: Good shape. Well maintained. 

Greens: Medium speed. Smooth and receptive. 

Gators: EVERYWHERE! I honestly lost count of how many we saw. If you like these scaly critters like I do, get to Oyster Bay

POP: Smidge over 4 hours. 

Cart Paths: HORRIBLE

I prefer playing holes that don't have many houses visible and don't really see the other holes as much.  This is probably the reason that the front 9 of the Witch course was by far my favorite in MB.  It was like you were the only person on the course.

From my memory of the courses and notes I took, here is our lineup for this year (next week).

Are there any I am missing?

Day 1: Oyster Bay

Day 2: Rivers Edge

Day 3: Glen Dornoch

Day 4: Heritage Club (I know this SOUTH but I have to have my Fat Jacks Wings)

Day 5: Thistle (All 27)

sorry for rant but it was annoying.  of course i made triple so sure that didn't help my angst.

anyone play either of the above recently.  looking for playing conditions/course style recommendations for some friends coming in.

I drove into the Brunswick plantation monday on my way back from a round at Leopards chase.  the 4 wholes i saw all had house lined fairways.  Is majority of course like that.

Then went by Meadowlands and that looked more open with less houses.

are course conditions similar?

thanks