The Honors at Oak Pointe Country Club

The course is in great condition and the tee sheet is empty, even on an 80 degree Saturday in July. You don't see others on the course. After 9am there is a twosome every half hour, and that's it.

The reason the tee sheet is empty, is the layout. You don't get to hit driver here outside of the Par 5's, and even then you have to shot shape and hit your driver to specific parts of the hole or you are being penalized for hitting driver. Most of the Par 4's take driver out of your hands, requiring you to hit high iron 200-250 yards before hazards come into play. Then you're left with long approaches (150-180 yards) over hazards to narrow greens that penalize you if you miss.

The layout is not what you want in a country club course. It's target golf that beats you up unless you are accurate off the tee and have great precision in your approach shots. The range is only ~220 yards as well, so there's no practicing driver there, or hitting it on the course.

The greens are fast and run smooth. Bunkers have good sand. The rough is thick and punishes you if you miss the fairway. The tee boxes are flat and in good condition. The course is very green even though we haven't gotten rain in a month. Grounds crew does an excellent job here. They employ multiple people for bag drop who are very attentive.

This is an Arthur Hills layout on steroids. You have all the trademarks of an Arthur Hills course - elevation changes, narrow undulating greens, rolling terrain with wetlands and forests, doglegs around those wetlands and forests, par 3's over water, etc.. But they went a step further and decided to make it virtually impossible to hit driver on the course. Fairways end at 180-230 on many holes, limiting your driving distance. Expect a combination of hybrid or high iron off the tee and a mid-iron approaching the green on most holes.

Every shot is strategic. We usually golf 18 in ~3 hours, however we had to plan every shot as there are no normal holes on the course outside of the Par 3's. I hit my driver on exactly (1) hole, and if I made a point to hit it as much as possible, I would have hit it on maybe 4 holes. Distance off the tee is no asset here, you have to hit fairways - the rough is very thick which made finding balls and hitting out of it very difficult. There is a lot of marshland on the course and long wooden bridges between holes.

We had the course to ourselves while every other course in the area had a full tee sheet. We did not see another group at any point in the round, with a Sunday afternoon tee time. The layout keeps people off of Honors - it's challenging and people don't want to play a course where they can't hit their driver.

The rough needs to be cut - they're likely letting it grow out since it's still April, but outside of that the course was in perfect condition. Greens rolled fast, were soft enough to hold balls, and were smooth. Greens were hard to hit due to the distance you were approaching from and undulating greens.

I would absolutely play it again, I can only imagine how much more difficult the course would play when the trees aren't barren. I just wouldn't want to make it an every day (or every weekend) course.

Everything on the course is on great shape from the greens to the bunkers. Fun layout, challenging and fair.

This was a very cool track. The holes were challanging and ride around the course was enjoyable too! Greens rolled true and fairways were excellent. Great Course...look forward to playing the other 18 holes if ever possible.