Macatawa Legends Golf & Country Club

$31 (cart included), played on Tuesday, October 2020 at 9:00 AM

I was excited to find this 2005 Raymond Hearn designed course in the Holland area available for Public play and at a reasonable price.......$35.00 18/cart. Being familiar with three (3) of his others, Royal Scott (1962), The Grande (2001) and Hemlock (2002) I was really looking forward to see what challenge awaits me. Water, Water and more water that mostly stretched from tee to green on ten (10) holes. Its basically a flat Links style course that has large ponds (Drainage??) with holes wrapped around them. The conditions were "Off the Hook" from the five (5) tee boxes (7,246yd - 4,960yds), tight full grass fairways, thick playable rough, fluffed sand traps and unblemished greens rolling at 10-11...WoW. Being located about 2 miles from Lake Michigan, windy conditions were making things very tough to stay out of trouble on this Par 36/36 layout. Having GPS on the carts was a life/stroke saver for us first time players here. We chose to play from the Whites (3,190/3,286 / 71.6 / 133) because it seem to be a two (2) club wind on almost every hole as we wanted to enjoy ourselves today. The #1 hole is a 390yd dogleg right Par 4 with a large sand trap on the inside corner that needs 230yds to clear from the Whites. They don't waste anytime getting to the Hcp 1 hole on #2 being 588-408yds Par 5 into the wind and water RH side, tee to green. The #3 is a 183-112yd Par 3 with sand carry, tee to green. On #4 is your short 507-354yd Par 5 but still has water down the entire righthand side. The #5 Par 4 has a wide open fairway to the raised protected green 398-279yds away. The #6 Par 4 348-239yds has water down the lefthand side and also in front of the green. The #7 Par 3 stretches from 239yds down to 137yds (196yd Whites) and has deep grass bunkers protecting those missed shots. The #8 Par 4 is a 424-300yd Hcp 5 that you need to stay to the lefthand side of the fairway to have a look/shot to the raised green. Finishing up on #9 a Hcp 3 ranking at 462-310yds has a challenging 2nd shot as water borders the entire righthand side, including the green. The Back 9 starts out with #10 being a straightaway 448-317yd Par 4 with surprisingly.....No Water. Getting to the Hcp 2 doesn't take long as the #11 Par 5 is a 619-427yds with water down the RH side and also in front of the green. The #13 is a 214-139yd Par 3 that has water located on the lefthand front of the green so stay right. The #14 Par 4 plays 425-302yds and has a long sand trap carry (200yds from Whites) on the RH side of the fairway. The #15 is a 440-296yd Par 4 that has water on the LH side challenging your tee shot for its Hcp 4 ranking. Finishing up with a 554-379yd Par 5 and having water down the lefthand side protects its Hcp 6 very well. They have one great course here and clubhouse that is complete with dining and logo stocked Pro shop. Enjoyed the great conditions and playing with my son Barry (45/44 w/32putts) and shooting 43/44 w/38 putts as the fast greens had my number today. This is a MUST play if you're in this area during the week for the $35 price.....it doesn't get any better than this.