Stoneleigh Golf Club

Guest (cart included), played on Saturday, August 2008 at 10am

Playing here was a strange experience. Great conditions - tees, greens fairways. Great clubhouse & staff. Beautiful location.

BUT - this has to be the worst course design that I've ever seen. Blind shots, stone walls in play (ever have to hit an approach shot with a 5-iron over a stone wall 6 feet in front of you?). There are holes where one stands on the tee with no idea where to hit to, or in the middle of the fairway with no idea where the green is. The land is not bad for a golf course, but whoever designed it blew it badly.

They say that a good course designer "finds" the golf holes on the land. Whoever did this one didn't look hard enough.

$36 (cart included), played on Monday, September 2009 at 8am

Played here 9-28-09, and what a test of golf! The length from the Whites is "only" 5665, but it plays much harder than the slope of 124 would indicate.

First, very beautiful course, lots of great vistas, and the surrounding homes are right out of House Beautiful: all are high buck, and on 2+ acre lots...no suburban ghetto here. Course conditions were wonderful: fairways were in fine shape, greens putted medium fast, bunkers were in excellent shape, and tee boxes were very good. \

The rough, on the other hand, was punishing: very long (more than 6 inches), thick, juicy, and very hard to miss, as many of the fairways feed left/right off the short grass. Our foursome lost at least six balls in the rough that we saw going in...and that were only a few feet away from the short stuff.

Layout and design are superb, but IMHO, a little unfair, and very difficult for a first-time player (as I was today) to decipher, as it is not always clear where it is best to target your shot. You almost need to drive up and scope out every hole before a shot to see what dangers might lurk. A number of semi-blind tee shots (you can see the green, but not the landing area, or vice versa), too, which is not one of my favorite things. Design features lots of elevation change, many stone walls in the darndest places, and water on a few holes. No two holes look remotely alike, which is good, but it was sometimes difficult to find a sprinkler head with yardages, which is a real problem with this much elevation change. This would be a good course to use a GPS range finder. Most of the greens are very large, and some have some very severe countours and tiers; no pushovers out there.

One hole worth mentioning is the #1 handicap, #11, an uphill dogleg par 4 of 351 yards, with the bend coming in the last 125 yards, and with a very steep uphill shot over a stone wall to a green which has a ten foot false front. Can you say double-bogey??

Course is definitely NOT walkable, due to severe elevation changes and some significant distances between holes. Clubhouse looks nice, but the pro shop is spasely stocked, and the snack bar was not open at all...could not even get a cup of coffee. On-course grounds staff was cheerful, with waves and greetings.

This is one of those courses that you would like to play again, certain that you could better your score by at least 5 shots...maybe!! Give it a try.

$26 (cart included), played on Tuesday, June 2009 at 2pm

Outstanding layout that is challenging yet fair. Stoneleigh Golf Club has a lot of stone walls, many dating back hundreds of years. The stone walls encroach into the playing area are an integral part of the course. The course is a true test of golf.