McCormick Woods Golf Course Review

[paztormike]

In Port Orchard WA

McCormick Woods is located in Port Orchard WA, they used to be the premier golf location on the Kitsap Peninsula, but now are overshadowed by Gold Mountain's Olympic course, and Trophy Lake Golf Course, both of which are within 20 minutes of McCormick. You have to admit that if you live in this area, these are some really great golf courses that are really never all that busy.
I really think that because they used to be THE place to play in the area that they have been overpriced for quite a while, and they are trying to redefine themselves in the area.

I have golfed this course dozens of times as I used to live in the area. I still have family in the area, and McCormick is still my father's choice whenever we play out there.

Compared to the Olympic Course and Trophy Lake, McCormick woods is probably the least desirable of the three. Although now that they are lowering their prices in response to the depressed economy, you can certainly make the case that if you are paying 60% of what you'd pay at Trophy that it's not a bad value. Although, you are almost always certainly paying less to play the Olympic Course which is a municipally run course and a superior course to Trophy and McCormick (in my opinion.)

Anyway...

The Layout
Without a doubt McCormick has some really fun golf holes that are well designed, it also has some holes that started off as a solid idea but just have some big flaws.
Hole #1 Here's a 385-400ish Par 4. Your are driving over a knoll and can't see your target in the fairway, which is cool. BUT, the fairway slopes dramatically left to right toward the woods. I have had drives where I hit my ball quite a bit left of center in the fairway and it rolled all of the way through the rough into the edge of the woods, which is weak. In fact, unless you intend to draw the ball, you should not consider playing driver on this hole.
There are quite a few holes where you really shouldn't hit driver, even from the Black tees because hitting it 280 plus will get you into a mess even if you hit it relatively straight.
#5 has water on the left, but if you play out to the right of the water, the slope is so severe that you will probably end up in the water even if you land it next to the right rough.
Hole #9 is another weird thought. It looks like it wants to be a risk/reward hole, which let's face it, we all love. But your risk is to try to cut the corner by hooking the ball to the bottom of the hill or trying to blast over the trees on the left. But the only reward is that you might end up in a diagonal creek or on a severe slope. Your only reward is a small flat area near the creek that will give you a 240-250ish shot uphill to the green. If you choose to hit an iron or hybrid to the safe plateau on the right, you have 250-260 to the hole on a level surface. A much easier and better shot than the uphill heave that you face from the bottom of the valley.
#10 is one of the worst driving holes on the course. Draw it or die, here. No reward for playing safe because of the location of a patch of trees in the middle of the fairway.
#12 is another hole where hitting a long straight drive hurts you.
#15 is another hole where hitting a long straight drive hurts you. I played there last week and the tees of this 90 degree dogleg right were on the extreme right side of a tee box actually forcing you to play more than 90 degrees away from the green. The further you hit it, the worse shape you were in.
11 is a great par 3 with a fun green
13 is a really gorgeous par 5 that you can reach with a big drive. Nice deep green with good slope in the center.
16-18 are three good challenging finishing holes. Strong par 4, fun par 3 and a long par 5 with a valley in the center for 18.

When the greens are well maintained, there are a few interesting slopes, most of them are somewhat elevated and protected.

I should also mention that this course is mostly lined by trees. The front 9 is surrounded by homes for most of the holes, but the back 9 is much more secluded and beautiful. No doubt that there is a ton of beauty out here. It's green and pretty, for sure.

The Course Condition
This is where I have my biggest beef with this course. First of all, if you changed the position of a couple of tee boxes, you could really change the layout of this course and make it more interesting for a good player. A good greens keeping crew could make this happen pretty easily with the help of an amateur designer.
But the silly thing about this course is that while most of the greens are well maintained, the tee boxes are uneven and are often just destroyed with divots. This really is not a hard fix.
Also, some of the tee boxes are huge, and MOST of the time, the tees are in the worst place on the box, like I mentioned above with hole 15 and hole 12 and even 10. If you place these tees on the side with the dogleg, you require a silly tee shot almost away from the green.
Also, I am sometimes surprised by the length of fairway grass and the fact that most of the yardages on sprinkler heads are missing. This is an easy fix. But for years, this has been a problem.

The pro shop.
I would like to say that I have always found the staff in the shop welcoming and helpful. There is a guy in there named Bjorn who has been there for years and is kind, patient and helpful. My dad can be awful at times (he's getting old and losing some of his memory and most of his patience) but the pro shop treats him with respect even when he is not kind to them.

The Bottom Line
If you are a short-ish and accurate hitter, bring your long driving buddies and let them get punished by the course while you win every bet. Otherwise, if you are a fan of great architecture, you might be frustrated by the layout. Most of your approaches into the greens are fun and challenging though. If you can keep your drives in play, you do have an opportunity to score well and enjoy a good round.

Personally, I'd never play here if I could pay the same or less and play the Olympic at Gold Mountain, or if my dad would want to play anywhere else. McCormick is usually not nearly as busy though and heck, my dad loves it. it's beautiful out there and there are certainly some fun holes.

[RainShadow]

Good review. I played there once a few years ago and hated the layout.
A couple of decent holes, but I certainly wouldn't play it again. Well maybe for $25.
Too many 4irons off the tee leaving FW or long iron second shots.

[bradski]

If I was local it would be ok but it's not worth traveling across the water to play. and when you can get golfnow deals on gold mountain.

[paztormike]

[quote name='bradski' timestamp='1317705909' post='3622357']
If I was local it would be ok but it's not worth traveling across the water to play. and when you can get golfnow deals on gold mountain.
[/quote]

Totally agree. It has a lot of potential to be better, but as long as they refuse to set the course up well and level out those tee boxes, it's just nowhere near the quality of Gold Mountain or Trophy Lake.

*Update. I played at McCormick Woods last week 10/3. (My dad wanted to get out and play, and this is still his course of choice) They did tell me that they had punched the greens when we made the tee time. I was pretty bummed again with the awful condition of the tee boxes. My dad plays the white tees, and on the 17th hole, he asked me to check out the tee box. The markers were only placed a couple of feet from the back of the box, and there was not even a lie that was close to flat. All lies were dramatically uphill and the box was chewed up. Unreal that they would allow this.

[TheMackDaddy]

My freinds all hate Mccormick Woods... At the worst of times its nothing more than a mud hole with slow greens.

[Slammed67]

I played today September 23rd 2012. Nice weather low wind golf weather index of 8. The tee boxes as mentioned above were the worst I have ever seen in my entire life. Uneven and divot filled, no sand in any boxes to fill divots as well. The front 9 was a soggy mess, brown spots every where on and off the fairway the greens were in great shape green and smooth but played as slow as if there was a tsunami rain the night before. The back nine was much better lush green and tightly mowed fairways. The greens were flat and green but again played extremely slow. The angles of the tee boxes are out of sorts and leave terrible second shots no matter if your using a driver or a 2 iron. I had been told that the staff was very courteous by friends and family. This was not the case the girl in the pro shop was extremely snotty. I really enjoy traveling around the northwest and golfing with friends and my dad. But I will never return to this course. This is a RMG club "Ryan Moore Golf Club Course" and out of the 3 this is by far the worst. Priced at 81$ with cart is absolutely ridiculous for the shape. I would much rather play RMG the classic golf club in Spanaway,WA Owned by RMG for 71$ and twice the course. Do yourself a favor and play Olympic at Gold Mountain with deals as low as 28$ with cart on golf now.com