Grandview Golf Course

$16 (cart included), played on Tuesday, August 2008 at 8am

Our group of travelling seniors played Grandview Golf Course 8-2-10, for $20 each, using the Tee Time book. The course is just barely worth that price.

To begin, The course is a very compact design, with many holes running closely parallel, and not a lot of separation between greens and tee boxes. Kind of a goofy arrangement, too: front nine has only one par 3: back nine has four, including #10, #11, #13, and #18 (225 yards from the White tees - how's that for a wrap-up to your round?). The layout has the potential to be very dangerous, in my view, and yes, one of my foursome got hit by an oncoming ball today (and no, the offending party did not yell "Fore.").

Aside from serious design flaws, the course is in very poor shape. Tee boxes are rough and many lack grass. Fairways are very thin, with lots of bare spots (and there is a sign at the #1 tee box advising to play "Winter Rules," even though it is mid-summer). Bunkers are relatively few, but are very thin on sand and super hard. Greens are mostly smallish, not elevated from the adjacent fairway, did not hold especially well, and putt VERY SLOW. Very limited marking for yardage to the holes. On a couple of holes, it was hard to determine where the green was: #6 is an especially bad example of that, a very poorly designed hole with essentially no indications even from the fairway, where the green is (it's a double-dogleg par 4 of 415 yards with the green down in a valley and not visible until within 100 yards or so).

As an aside, my GPS was way off on a few holes, suggesting to me that some holes on the course have been re-routed since the GPS survey. GPS users, beware!

All of the foregoing means that our group will probably never come back to Grandview, unless we hear that there have been major changes. Kind of a shame, since the staff was very nice, and the clubhouse is quite attractive. Also, because of PA's strange "local-option" liquour laws, Grandview is in a dry township, so they cannot sell beer, wine, etc. But, they will permit adult beverages to be brought in, and will even store it in a cooler while your group is playing, so they are very accommodating in that regard.

There are two very nice couses only a few miles away (Honey Run and Briarwood East), for essentially the same price, and they are a much better golfing experience. In addition, Briarwood can sell adult beverages.

We do NOT recommend Grandview.