Rose City Golf Course
About
Rose City Golf Course is the second oldest municipal track in the Portland area. In 1921, A.H. "Jay" Gould played his first round of golf ever at Eastmoreland Golf Course. After returning home, he decided to look for a good place to hit golf balls and came upon The Rose City Speedway. He spoke with C.P. Keyser of the City Park Bureau and obtained permission to burn the tall grass on the infield so that golf balls could be found.
Jay and friend Herbert George used shovels and hoes to carve out a nine-hole course on the speedway infield. Tin cans were used for cups, packing cases for tee-boxes, and iron rods and rags for flags. The Oregonian and Journal Newspapers ran a story on the new golf course and 30 golfers showed up the following Sunday to hit balls around on the burnt grass and dirt. The main hazard was a head-on train collision that occurred earlier in the summer and partially blocked the seventh green.
After a few weeks, the Rose City Golf Association was founded which marked the beginning of the course. Full cooperation from the city and donations from businesses and individuals solidified the construction. George Ott drew up a nine-hole plan and work began in the spring of 1922. Play continued in the spring, but was stopped in the summer due to long grass and no mower. Play started again in the fall, but stopped again due to motorcycle racing. In the winter of 1922-23, the viaduct on the west end of the track washed out and put an end to the races. On Jan. 31, 1923 the first green fee ticket was sold to Jay Gould and in the spring, more than 800 played in one day. The city then took over the course completely.
Today, Rose City Golf Course is an 18-hole, par-72 course with rolling fairways that are lined with a variety of large trees. Water comes into play on holes 10, 11, 14, and 15 and greenside bunkers are well placed.
| Tee | Par | Length | Rating | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | 72 | 6552 yards | 71.7 | 123 |
| White | 72 | 6164 yards | 69.8 | 119 |
| White (W) | 73 | 6164 yards | 75.3 | 126 |
| Red (W) | 73 | 5589 yards | 71.8 | 118 |
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament M: 71.0/120 | 367 | 388 | 502 | 341 | 171 | 425 | 364 | 216 | 384 | 3158 | 475 | 465 | 200 | 367 | 329 | 133 | 473 | 414 | 423 | 3279 | 6437 |
| Blue M: 70.9/119 | 367 | 388 | 502 | 341 | 171 | 425 | 364 | 216 | 353 | 3127 | 475 | 465 | 200 | 367 | 329 | 133 | 473 | 414 | 423 | 3279 | 6406 |
| Blue/White M: 69.4/116 | 343 | 362 | 502 | 323 | 171 | 390 | 333 | 216 | 326 | 2966 | 475 | 465 | 200 | 351 | 320 | 133 | 473 | 378 | 405 | 3200 | 6166 |
| White M: 68.6/116 W: 74.5/120 | 343 | 362 | 476 | 323 | 154 | 390 | 333 | 190 | 326 | 2897 | 450 | 446 | 180 | 351 | 320 | 120 | 462 | 378 | 405 | 3112 | 6009 |
| White/Green M: 67.4/112 | 325 | 325 | 476 | 308 | 154 | 369 | 303 | 190 | 280 | 2730 | 450 | 446 | 180 | 298 | 262 | 120 | 462 | 353 | 395 | 2966 | 5696 |
| Green M: 66.5/108 W: 71.4/114 | 325 | 351 | 447 | 308 | 123 | 369 | 303 | 142 | 280 | 2648 | 424 | 432 | 166 | 298 | 262 | 77 | 416 | 353 | 395 | 2823 | 5471 |
| Red M: 62.7/103 W: 66.4/109 | 241 | 262 | 383 | 240 | 123 | 288 | 262 | 142 | 220 | 2161 | 353 | 365 | 142 | 260 | 262 | 77 | 416 | 275 | 294 | 2444 | 4605 |
| Red/Gold W: 66.0/108 | 241 | 262 | 383 | 240 | 123 | 288 | 262 | 142 | 205 | 2146 | 340 | 312 | 142 | 260 | 262 | 77 | 340 | 275 | 294 | 2302 | 4448 |
| Gold M: 62.1/100 W: 65.0/105 | 241 | 262 | 383 | 240 | 123 | 288 | 262 | 142 | 205 | 2146 | 340 | 312 | 142 | 253 | 230 | 77 | 340 | 220 | 294 | 2208 | 4354 |
| Handicap | 7 | 3 | 15 | 13 | 17 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 11 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 14 | 18 | 16 | 4 | 2 | |||
| Par | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 35 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 37 | 72 |
| Handicap (W) | 11 | 5 | 1 | 17 | 13 | 7 | 9 | 15 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 16 | 12 | 14 | 18 | 2 | 6 | 8 |
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Reviewer Photos
Really Good City Course
The course was in great shape-greens pretty firm and quick; fairways in good shape. However, pace of play was awful-almost 5.5 hours to play-no marshals on the course
Fun course. Challenging greens.
Enjoyable course with a diversity of holes. Greens can be challenging.
Nice course in good condition
Rose city is a great course in the City of Portland. Very Challenging from the Blue Tee. The play was a bit slow on a weekend evening but we enjoyed it throughly. My GF bagged her first Hole-in-one on the 5th hole, about 125 yds from the Red Tee.
Worth playing.
I enjoyed playing here(score not withstanding) and will be back again.
Early bird special price can't be beat. Course in great shape.
Rose City is always in great shape and offers some longer hole challenges on the back nine. Friendly staff and good pace of play.
for the time of year,and just having rain during the week the course drained well.
I feel that the course was in good shape being it looked like they had plugged and sanded it recently. the greens were a little slow.
I would like to see a better discount when booking afternoon tee times as with after 3 pm it becomes twilight rates and you don't really save much. All in all the course was in good shape but play was slow.
Nice public course with easy access in middle of Portland, nice scenery and good greens
Excellent public course with nice putting greens, not overly long but enough trees and water to make it tough
The course was fine, have played there many times.
The only reason I rated the value as poor is that after arriving there, I found out the price at the course was $20. With the booking fee I paid golfnow, I actually paid $2 more per person than if we had just booked at the course. I will check this out in the future and not necessarily use golfnow.
Good public course
This is one of the better public courses in Portland. It was re-done about a decade ago increasing the distance and improving the tee boxes. This is a good course for the money. The biggest downside to this course is the removal of water from hole #15. This used to be a gorgeous hole over water, but now just an ugly grassy mess.
bad experiences here
Three different times over the past few years I've been hassled at Rose City when making a reservation through golfnow. They either don't have my reservation or try to charge me more, all with a snotty attitude. The course is an unimaginative layout, with soft and muddy conditions in the winter.
The greens were in great shape.
For as wet as the weather has recently been, the greens at Rose City were beautiful and quick. The only thing less than pristine on the greens was the preponderance of ball marks that other players hadn't repaired. The ball plugged somewhat regularly in the fairways due to the recent rains, but course maintenance had removed most of the leaves so we were still able to locate the vast majority of our shots.
Old Style NW course
Very straight forward with a variety of holes. Scoreable if you keep ball in play and can read greens. Number 18 is a legit Par 4. Take advantage of the first three holes on the back nine if you want to score