St. Helens Golf Course

My wife and attempted to play this course today. We first played this course three years ago shortly after we moved to Portland. While the course and it's conditioning were nothing to shout about, it was a perfect place to take my wife who's learning the game. The course isn't that hard and there weren't a lot of players so she wasn't intimidated. We also love it's rural setting. She really had fun and I enjoyed just trying to hit golf shots on a course. So needless to say we were really looking forward to playing there today. I made our tee time last night after purchasing a "hot deal". Today about 3 hours before are tee time, I received a phone call from the course informing me they were not going to honor my Golfnow tee time. I tried to get an explanation of why, but due to the heavy accent of the gentleman calling it was a challenge just communicating with him. He was becoming aggitated as I was trying to understand what was going on, so I told him I would call golf now and hung up. I called Golfnow and explained the situation. I was informed they would need to contact the course before I could be refunded and placed me on hold. They were unable to reach anyone at the course and restated they would need to do this before I could be refunded. Fortunately I still had the number from the call saved on my cell phone. They were able to reach the gentleman and confirm my story. They were also told that the course claims they are no longer partnering with Golfnow, which was news to them. Needless to say I won't be making any tee times at St Helens in the future. I'm just grateful I was called before we had left. I would have really hated to go through this mess at the pro shop or in the course parking lot.

I had heard that the course had really been upgraded. It was mowed and in good condition. Greens had lots of character making them a challenge. As nature provides some of the rough was really rough but a lot of it was normal. Many hills and doglegs. This was not a boring course and not an easy course for beginners. It was a nice fall day with lots of pretty fall colors in their sweet gum and silk trees.
Jim, a long time employee made the experience enjoyable as he was friendly and helpful.
Looking forward to playing there again and maybe make the 9 hole course into an 18 as it is challenging enough that it would be like playing a full 18 different holes.
I seldom lose a ball when I play..Today .I lost 2.
Sharon

I've played this course since I was fairly young. It used to be much nice and much better maintained but in recent years ownership has really let it go. IF it were better maintained I would say it was a great course for beginners because in the afternoon even on weekends there isn't much of a crowd and people are fairly friendly. However because the course conditions are not so good if your not very experienced you will probably lose a lot of golf balls. But if you don't care that much about getting a good deal or can get one of the cheaper tee times on golf now its a fun course and you can play it pretty quickly.

For this course the price is good. The course is dry and littered with leaves/braches so its difficult to see your ball even in-bounds....The people are always friendly...My husband is the golfer...So, if you are just wanting to practice shots and putting this is the course for the price...

Lots of tall grass along the fairways; golf balls are extremely hard to find. Greens are bumpy and slow; the ball just dies before or after the hole. The sand bunkers are in very poor shape-they appear to have been neglected. Cart paths are rugged. Fairways are okay.

I was excited to play this course with my family during the week and take advantage of the Golf Now price. I did not have high expectations because the price after taxes was $7.50 and I have played this course many times in the past. I was just looking for a simple round of golf.
The course is unkept and finding balls among the daisies in the fairway is difficult. I lost two balls on fairway drives and hunted out few more. Losing my ball in the fairway was frustrating but being followed by the mower is why I decided to write a review.
Over the course of the last four holes the mower followed us at a distance of 50 yards and would watch us as we played. I thought this was purely circumtantial after two holes but by the 4th hole I was left wondering why we were followed by the mower.
If you go to this course, invite the mower to play so you will not have to invest thought into the curiosity of his mowing skills.
Pay $10 to walk and go to Wildwood.

Went with a deal on golfnow. The staff was terrible, aggressive as soon as we showed our deal. Then, I was playing with my daughter, and he said we couldn't play with only one bag. I said I was caring the 6,8 irons with me as always not to provoke any delays (done that in many 'fancy' golf courses and they never said anything despite the fact that they have way more traffic) but he refused to let us go and wanted me to pay 13$ to rent an old extra set of clubs. 13$ is more than what i payed for one person. So no, I refused and said my daughter would play alone... Good way to enlighten the mood and enjoy an afternoon of golfing. The worst is that NO one was on the course, like 3 reservations for the whole afternoon (no one was in front or behind us during the whole time), what I pointed out but he obviously just wanted to bother us and get more cash. As if it wasn't enough, he followed us all around with his cart...Awesome behavior! Apparently lots of time to loose instead of actually do something useful for the course, in very poor condition. Well we will NEVER come back again because this course is very poorly managed and has the worst grass Ive ever seen. It looks like backcountry lands where they just cut the grass... Ive been traveling and playing in many public golf courses, that one is a pure joke. Heres a picture of a bunker, just for fun... One word ; AVOID!! The good ratings must be from them because I don't see how anyone could enjoy ; 1) been aggressed by the staff 2) play on that farmer land full of bad grass and bugs...
Next week, Im back to Merrywether where I can actually enjoy golfing in family... Cheers golfers :)

Very Poor customer service when checking in with Golf Now Voucher. The guy wanted to hassle me for no real reason.

Course is very poorly maintained. Fairways not watered consistently. Ground very hard. Poor maintenance on greens. Bathroom on course closed by order of county inspector.

Save your money.. many better values exist.

This was the first time my friend & I played this course. We had always heard that it was nothing special but good. Well, maybe it used to be a good course, but we found out that it has passed hands recently and the new owner doesn't really know how a golf course should be run! We probably will not spend our time or money on this course again.

First time playing here but I really enjoyed it. Not too crowded, super friendly staff. For the price, you really can't beat it!

I had a great time. Staff was very friendly and welcomed a first timer. He walked with me outside and give me a course lay out and advice for playing. The course is nice with rolling knolls and well maintained greens. The fairways were cut nicely and the course played well. Great value with no crowds. Definitely will return.

Better off heading into the cow pasture across the street, You will loose fewer balls in what is called a fairway.

I arrived ready to play on Saturday, May 24th with the deal purchased from Golfnow the night before. I was immediately greeted by Jim with the words, "we have a problem". I was told the owner would not honor the purchased deal and we would have to pay full price. Then we would need to contact Golfnow to receive a refund. I was told the reason was because that tee time was never supposed to be issued. There were literally four cars in the parking lot and nobody waiting to play but they still wouldn't honor the deal. After calling Golfnow for a refund, we went to play at Wildwood instead. I will never be back to the St. Helens Golf course.

We were not allowed the second nine. Add misrepresented, staff could care less if we ever came back and was obviously unconcerned with Golf now. I would recommend dropping this one

This course needs a lot of improvement. Some parts of the rough are foot long grass and the greens are in rough shape . This course would be fine if it wasn't overpriced. It would be worth it if it was 10 dollars for nine holes but it is 14 for 9 holes which is more expensive than wildwood in Scappoose which is far superior to St. Helens.

nice course, friendly staff, good greens, some interesting holes

When I played at St. Helens a couple of months ago, the course needed some earnest mowing and trimming. This time it was in much better condition. Cold weather has caused them to move a couple of tees forward, and when we played, a couple of greens were still frozen at midday (land a high approach shot on them and--whee!). Overall, its a serviceable place for a winter workout at modest prices.

I was the only person on the books in the morning and it was great to explore the entire course. I enjoyed the doglegs and big dips and that created different shots.

Fairways consist of rolling ravines and flats. The fairways are well maintained but the rough is thick along the sides. Using a motorized cart is well advised to conserve energy for the course.

The course was horrible. I wish I could get my money back.