a private treat

I never had the chance to play Blue Heron Hills before it went private years ago. I finally got out there yesterday and I have to say that I enjoyed the course, the setting and the facility. We were guests of some members and it was a great help to have their course knowledge on some holes.

I made a few rookie mistakes, like hitting driver on a short par 4 that only requires a five iron and wedge, but other than that I played very well. I did have 3 penalty strokes in the first six holes, two of them caused by unfortunate bounces. As for the rest of my round: after bogeying the first six holes, I played the last 12 at two over for a pretty solid 80. In addition to the 3 penalty strokes, I had three 3 putt bogeys. Those can kill ya. I now have the desire to play there again and avenge my freshman mistakes. In fact, we are seriously considering joining the club as members.

The finshing hole is a very difficult par four. I got a bit lucky on my tee shot and landed in a soft spot in the fairway. Had it been dry it would have led to my 4th penalty stroke as this hole features water, water, everywhere. The par 5's are pretty solid and don't really lend themselves to going for the green in two accept for the really big hitters. The greens are slick, soft and somewhat pocked up from ball marks over time, but very puttable. A couple of the greens featured some very severe breaks, one to the point of slightly unfair. The par 3's are pretty good and feature varying lengths from 140-195. We played the blue tees at about 6400 yards. In some spots the houses are pretty close to the course and it was a bit noisy, but not so much that it was a bother.