Gracewil Country Club, West Course

$31 (cart included), played on Thursday, May 2023 at 8:00 AM

Decided to spend a whole day and play three (3) courses on my way to Pentwater before working at our camp this weekend. In talking to the starter/owner Kathy Wilson (daughter of course designer/builder) she said I should play the West Course Front 9 @ 3,045yd / Par 36 first and then the East Course Back 9 @ 3,110yd / Par 36 to get the feel of both courses. For the $33 18/cart this worked out really nice. There's a couple of rolling ravines that meander throughout both layouts, with the treelined fairways, you are pretty much going back and forth, up and down. The fairway grass is very full and cut a little too short for me and doesn't stand the ball up about 50% of the time. The smooth, firm and slightly raised greens are mostly average size with golfers fixing their pinch marks as very few burn marks were noted. The West Front 9 #1 starts out with a nice 445yd straightaway Par 5 with your 2nd shot hitting uphill to a small round blind green. The #2 is a feel good 295yd Par 4 to a narrow long green. The #3 is a narrow 485yd Par 5 with a squeeze about 240yds out from the tee box. The #4 is a narrower 370yd fairway Par 4 that has a creek in front of the green, OB if you go long on this Hcp 2 hole. The #8 is a 415yd Par 4 that protects it's Hcp 1 by placing a 40yd deep swamp 10yds from the front of the green to catch your short 2nd shots. The #9 is a 180yd, uphill Par 3 to a large blind but round green. Enjoyed the challenge of this 1929 local Family designed layout as local golfers were filling the parking lot at 9:15am when I made the turn. Ended up shooting 39 w/15 putts on this cool May morning. Now on to the East Back 9 layout.