Review of the Heather's Club

[larrybud]

In Bloomfield, MI

Was invited to this little 9 hole course yesterday. It's a private club, and frankly, I surely wouldn't join this club because of the golf. Talk about a tricked out golf course!

I also wasn't impressed with the greens, but I'll give that a pass. They were aerated about 3 weeks ago, and they were quite slow. They are very tiny, however, for the length of approach shots that you're forced to make... more on that later.

There are 3 absolutely tricked out holes like I've rarely seen before. Every hole on this course borders OB as it's cut through a development. I'm not a fav of these kinds of courses, but that didn't distract me.

#1 is adjacent to #9 and is wide open par 4 to the right, but OB left. The card says it's 390, but the card has to be wrong. It's more like 410.

#2 is a fair par 5 that's around 570 from the tips. OB right and left (you get used to that after a while!). I hit two decent shots but not great, that left me 100 out, so either the yardage is wrong or it plays a lot shorter (it is downhill most of the way).

#3 is a very long par 3. 230 from the tips, over marsh (about 200 yard carry). The green angled from front left to back right. I'm hitting a 4 wood on this hole, and unless I hit it in a very small area in the front of the green, I don't see any way I could ever hold this shallow green.

#4 being your tricked out adventure. Dogleg right of 350 yards, OB left, junk to the right that you'll have to carry on your 2nd shot. Ok, that's all fine. But the tee box is about 5 yard right, and you CANNOT tee it up except in a 1 yard wide area on the left side of the box, so you're standing in the rough, because the tee box is pushed right up against some brush that extends WAY out into your line. I hit a soft 4 iron that went dead straight, and ended up in the left rough. I would have had to hit about a 25 yard cut to make this playable. Either they need to cut the brush down, or, even better, move the tee back 20 yards and about 20 yards left. This would turn this hole into a very GOOD hole instead of a very bad hole.

#5 is a decent par 4. Short, but you can hit driver. I had a short iron into a wide but shallow green, which is elevated.

#6 is another tough par 3. 210, uphill, and we had a wind directly in our face. Again, quite a small green for a long shot.

#7 is tricked up hole #2. It's a 400 yard hole in which you cannot hit your drive any more than 240, and that would be taking a big risk. There's water at the end of the fairway that you have to lay up to. The green then angles from front left to back right. Super narrow. Almost impossible to hit and it's pretty much all carry over the water.

#8 is tricked up hole #3. If you thought the first two were bad, just wait. This hole is only 350, but you have OB left and a lake right. I'm telling you the landing area is no more than 20 yards wide. It widens slightly if you can bomb it 300 yards. Just ridiculous. They should just move the tee up and make this another par 3. They just tried to jam too much course into too small of an area. I was lucky enough to burn one right down the middle, but if I pushed it 10 yards, I would have been wet!

#9 is very similar to #1, but downhill. Lots of room to the right, OB left.