Looking to hit the links? Here are three more Milwaukee-area courses for you to consider.
Blackstone Creek Golf Club
N112 W17300 Mequon Rd., Germantown
(262) 255-4200
Blackstone Creek Golf Club was built in 1974 under the original name of Lake Park. The course is co-owned by Frank Romano (owner of Fire Ridge Country Club) and Troy Schmidt. It's a mature course with dense woods lining many of the fairways. In the days that it was Lake Park it used to be three, nine hole courses, patriotically named the Red Course, White Course, and Blue Course. At the end of No. 12 is an artifact of the old Lake Park. There lies a par 3 hole which is no longer in use. The hole is still kept up, but has not been used since they built the new No. 17 that runs along Mequon Rd.
I've played this course several times over the summer and have gotten mixed feelings about the staff. The first time I golfed this course I went based on an internet special on their website. It seems though someone there isn't computer savvy, because the prices on the site have not been updated since last summer. Though the young man working the desk that day was unaware of the price I quoted him, he did me one better, he gave me the senior rate for the miscommunication listed on their site. Overall the check-in staff is friendly and accommodating. The bar staff and the beverage cart staff are very friendly. The beverage cart staff is willing to take a card and run a tab for you at the bar inside the clubhouse.
The place is beautiful with the exception of what seems to be some construction to the west of the club house. It's seems that construction eyesore is for sale.
The course itself is in very nice condition. The Menomonee River bisects the course diagonally from northeast to southwest causing forced carries on many of the holes including some of the par threes. There are some signs of water damage, which is understandable since most of this course is low lying. The damage is caused from heavy rain overnight and a clear, hot day the next day; ultimately causing a magnifying glass effect that fries the grass that is under water. Other than the water/sun damage the fairways are in good condition. They're mowed to a nice height and fairly consistent with the strain of seed used year to year.
The tee boxes are in great condition making that walk up appealing to the eye. The greens are also well maintained allowing for fast, yet makeable putts. Many of the greens at Blackstone Creek have very little undulation, but there are a few that will test your approach shot capabilities and putting prowess. The pin location front to back is indicated by a smaller flag below the big pin flag. When the small flag is low on the stick it's a front pin placement, as with the small flag placed high on the stick to indicate a back pin placement.
The golf carts at Blackstone Creek are an average run of the mill cart. They run well but there's nothing fancy about them. The carts do not have any yardage marking equipment such as laser range finders or electronic range displays.
Overall this is a nice course that is bogie golfer friendly and comes at a nice price of $35 for a weekday 18 hole round with cart. It's $42 on the weekend. They have a twilight special on Fridays, weekends and holidays starting at 2 p.m.; it is $20 with a cart for 18 holes.
Score: 4.25 (out of 5)
Kettle Moraine Golf Club
W365 S4299 Highway 67, Dousman
(262) 965-6200
Kettle Moraine Golf Club is a nice out-in-the-middle of nowhere course where your putting stroke will not be interrupted by the screaming siren of an emergency vehicle. Quiet and scenic, the course is worth every penny of the $26 to play it.
The staff, both on the phone and in person, is friendly and welcoming. When I set out to play that day I did not book a tee time in advance. The gentleman working the Pro Shop that morning was very accommodating in fitting me in with a tee time. After ringing me up and handing me a cart key and score card, the simple "have a good round and hit 'em straight" that I was told on the way out the door gave me a feeling of being appreciated on my way to the first tee. That simple little comment put me in such a great frame of mind that I ended up birdying the first hole.
The course was in great shape. The grass was thick with very few weeds. The seeding throughout the fairways seems consistent. The avid golfer can tell whether the course's super is using the same seed or is using whatever seed is on sale at the time he shopped. Not at Kettle Moraine, they've managed to keep over-seeding every year with the same strain of seed; the color is fairly uniform from tee to green. This in turn makes for consistency of shots from the fairway and rough.
The play out here is challenging. The challenge is not necessarily the obstacles such as bunkers and/or water, but more so the elevation changes from tees to greens on many of this course's holes. There's a par three in which you have to club down two clubs because the green is so far below the tee. The terrain is deceiving, adding a formidable challenge on nearly every hole. The pin placement on the greens is represented by a colored flag system. It's the typical color coding of red=front, white=center, and blue=back.
Overall this course is a nice course to play and the staff is very pleasant to deal with. Their practice facilities are very nice, though they skimp a little on how many range balls a golfer gets for the money they spend.
Score: 4.75
Whitnall Park Golf Course
6751 S. 92 St., Franklin
(414) 425-7931
Part of the Milwaukee County Park System, Whitnall Park Golf Course is considered one of the system's three championship courses, though I don't think I would agree with this assessment. It takes a bit more than a nice course to make a championship facility. A championship facility comes with a certain air to it, Whitnall does not have it.
The check-in desk staff didn't have the warm, welcoming personality one would expect from a course that charges nearly $40 on the weekend for 18 holes. On the other hand, I didn't get the feeling I was a hassle. It was nothing more than a business transaction for them. The staff is not very perceptive; it had rained that morning causing all the golf cart seats to be wet, this fact apparently was lost on these young men in the shop as I was not even offered a towel to dry the seat with. To further the cart issue, the carts were parked literally tire-rubbing-the-next-cart-tire close together. Making it impossible to get into the cart from anywhere but the passenger side of it. The carts themselves were nothing special, just your average grade of gas powered cart, and no GPS or ranger finder.
I inquired as to whether the course had a practice range to warm up on. It did not, which is puzzling because Whitnall hosted the district State Amateur District 6C Qualifier. How can a course host such an event and not have a practice range? A golfer is stuck swinging in the air, with no feedback on what their swing is doing that day, be it a draw or fade, you'll find out on the first tee. The course does at least have a putting/chipping green, which is in very good condition and is an accurate guide as to how the actual greens will run for speed. As far as the course itself, it is in fairly good shape.
The tee boxes are cut to a good length but there are a few stray weeds and some crab grass sneaking in on a few of the boxes. There are four tees to choose from on each box: red, white, blue and black. Yardages for those markers are shortest to longest from the green respectfully. It seems that the tee markers are left in the same location for too long. There is heavy damage in these locations from several days of golfers teeing off in these locations.
The fairways, while they are an appropriate length, have some brown patches from the recent heat spell we've had. The grass should bounce back from this after having some rainy weather the past few days. The turf definitely looked as though the grounds crew wasn't watering enough. Greens were the same way, nice length but definitely showing signs of heat stress. They're having some trouble with geese on the greens as well. There were a couple greens that must have had 30-plus piles of goose droppings. I don't know about you, but goose excrement doesn't make me want to pick my ball up after I'm done putting.
Overall the course has some challenge to it, but it needs some work. Another issue I saw on Whitnall is a lack of any water coolers. There is a soda machine at a cross roads between the front half of each nine and the back half of each nine, but there are no water coolers on this course. This might be a great way to raise some revenue, but not everyone wants a Powerade for $2.50 a pop.
It's a nice course, but I don't think it's worth the price. If you can wrangle up a deal for Whitnall, fine, if not move on to a course that's friendlier all around.
Score: 3.00
