Riverbend Golf Complex

Got a great price via GN Hot Deals. Course was in very decent condition. Finished 18 holes in 4 hours!!! Love the 19th hole at the Half Lion. We’re totally pleased with our beginning to the weekend!

Pace of play on the front was fantastic with no issues, driving range closed for renovations so that was unfortunate but not the biggest deal. Once we finished 9 we walk straight to 10 and a new group has just been squeezed between two groups. Takes them 20 minutes to tee off and throughout the rest of the round that group was 20 minutes or more per hole, on the tee box on 7 different occasions with our group waiting, this group cheered with their beverage and proceeded to take 3-4 tee offs each. Our 2-2.5 hour round turned in to a 4-5 hour round.

Teed off at 815, and never saw a cart girl. We saw it parked by the pro shop, but it never went out. Not to mention no drinking fountains. Need to do something about the water in the bunkers, please!

Good course with some rough spots but solid fast greens.

Perfect weather. Grass in very good shape, overall. Had a few chances to try out the bunkers and they were in good shape, too! Course marshal a little on the gruff side, for no reason we caused.

Played today and was pretty disappointed. I learned to play at Riverbend almost 30 years ago, playing over 100 rounds there over the years. It was always my favorite golf course to play and have fun at. I hadn't played there in quite some time because I moved to Olympia, but today I popped on to play 9 holes in the evening. I started out with smiles and great memories from rounds past , but after I got going, I discovered it isn't what is used to be, not even close.

First the good: Staff was great. Fairways are firm and in pretty good shape. Layout is still really fun and has great potential for all levels.

Now the bad and really, really bad"

Greens were still healing from being punched. It is mid May, why so late? Every other golf course I've played in the last month has recovered their greens from the spring punching, these seemed like they just punched them a week ago (or if longer, they are taking way too long to heal). They were exceedingly slow and bumpy.

Tee boxes were terrible on several holes, especially the two par 3s on the back. They had more dirt than grass. I'm not exaggerating, no grass in the hitting area with very uneven round and holes everywhere. Honestly it is embarrassing how much they have let it get away from them.

The "sand" in the bunkers is literally non-existent. I hit out of a greenside bunker on 15 and it it was 100% packed dirt! It is so frustrating to hit a shot over the green because there is no sand in the bunker. You have no chance of saving par without a very unconventional chip shot that no one ever practices because we expect sand to be in a sand trap.

With all the money they made selling the par 3 across the street and with golf being exceeding popular right now, you would think they would have the $ to do the simplest things like grow grass, and put sand in a bunker.

How are they going to expect to host the Riverbend amateur and other big events with the course in this condition? I was going to sign up but not this year.

Not sure why they would stack people to go out every 10 minutes.. also not sure why there was never a Marshall to keep the slower players on pace..

It's sunday and Mother's day, so we thought it will be really crowded and slow. However, we were pleasantly surprised. We teed off at noon and finished before 4pm. There were plenty of golfers on the course, including many women and moms. But everyone kept pace and made it a really nice golfing day for my whole family.

Great day on the course, a personal best and finally kept the same ball for complete round.Ball washers, bins and foot brushes on each hole even saw the beverage cart several times!

We plan Riverbend quite frequently, because it is convenient and relatively easy to get a tee time. The layout of the course is decent and pretty typical for a city municipal course. I enjoy the course for the most part, but the lack of maintenance is extremely frustrating. The greens are typically bumpy as they don't roll them frequently, and the sand traps are never raked. It had rained the day before our Saturday game and all the sand traps were wet and hard. You would think on a weekend morning they would send some one out first thing to rake all the traps. It really makes it difficult to play your best when the traps are hard packed mud and you can't hit a straight put on the greens. With a little more maintenance this could be way more fun to play.

Weather was supposed to iffy but it turned out nice. Pace of play was decent, we kept up with the group ahead of us and the group behind us did not have to wait much. Bunkers need to be raked by the staff more often, but the greens were in good shape

Nice day with a few cool breezes. Course is dry so fairways and some greens are rather hard so watch your approaches!