Silverado Resort & Spa - North Course

Course condition was excellent. Just don't expect the same conditions as what you see on TV for the PGA Tour. Most of the time it's set up for resort play. Lush and soft fairways and rough. Good consistent sand smooth but average speed greens. Tee boxes were full with no bare spots. It was February so I guess don't expect any thing firm and fast that time of year.

Staff is very friendly and accommodating. And there are multiple options for drinks and food onsite (although not cheap as it was $12 for a draft beer).

I personally disliked the routing of the course and the fact that a few holes looked and played so similar. At least some holes have some elevation change, so that's good. It's an old-school Robert Trent Jones, Sr Course that's in a very pretty setting of oak trees. But nothing spectacular on the layout.

Not the best value in the world, but I would still recommend playing it.

Beautiful layout in the Napa Valley. A challenging course but fun to play! Great amenities and staff! Will be back for sure.

With no pins due to county "social distancing" mandates and thick rough because of a smaller than normal staff, Silverado's tricky North course played even tougher than ever ... and I enjoyed every minute.

For such a classic design, the North seems to play harder than it looks. Nobody ever makes any putts (except the pros) and the par 4s seem to play long. If your game goes sour, suck down a burger dog. You'll feel better, and maybe even play better.

Silverado resort is a great spot. The North course is fair and challenging track. Conditions were great despite being just a week after PGA Tour event clean-up staff is friendly and great amenities on property and in surrounding area.

What can I say that I haven't already in the other five-star reviews I've given Silverado? I play it once a year at the Safeway Open media day challenge and never solve it and never tire trying. Everything is straight forward; yet nothing is as it seems. You just don't make putts out here, and the rough is gnarly.

There's just enough bunkers, elevation change and trees pinching fairways to keep your scores in check. Throw in a burger dog and beer during a round and some wine after for a memorable day.

The conditions of the North Course are amazing and the setting is stunning. I will definitely go to the Safeway Open and see the pro's play. Not my best day on the course but loved the experience. Had to have one of those burger dogs and it was totally worth it!!

Playing in the media day for the Safeway Open for the third year in a row, you'd think I'd have this course figured out by now. Nope.

Not even the pros - with their fancy green-reading cards and caddies - can solve the subtleties of putting on the North course. You think it's a straight putt and the ball will snap hard at the hole. If it looks like a big swinger, then the ball will stay mostly true to a straighter line. It's so perplexing why the ball doesn't go in the hole.

As I've written in the past, the course won't wow you with views of the hillsides like CordeValle, but its holes and terrain have just enough personality to deliver a five-star experience.

If I was rating the golf course architecture, I'd probably give the North course four stars. But the "experience" is five star.

Overall, the course is very enjoyable. It's not overly memorable visually, but its subtleties make for a fun and interesting day. Enough elevation change creates a few dynamic holes. The greens make the round. I don't know how anybody who isn't a member playing daily makes anything on some of the trickiest greens I've ever putted. So many hidden breaks.

The famous burgerdog on the course is well worth a try, but save room for lunch or dinner and a glass of wine at the resort. This is what you've come for ... the golf is merely a distraction.

When Silverado's North Course shows up on your TV screens in October as the new host of the Frys.com Open on the PGA Tour, chances are, you're going to like what you see.

No golfer should mosey through wine country without a brief intermission from the tasting room to walk this most pleasurable design -- even if the "easy" holes are few and far between.

A Robert Trent Jones Sr. design from the 1950s that was later updated by Johnny Miller (now a co-owner of Silverado), this is a course that just feels ripe to host a big event. Narrow fairways, tall mature trees and gentle hills, The greens are small and fast (and sometimes elevated), and the splashed bunkers are a brilliant white.

It's comparatively compact routing (compared to more modern venues like CordeValle) seems very spectator-friendly.

Now, anytime you play a golf course leading up to a PGA Tour event -- as we did -- you're going to get a unique experience. Frankly, I would recommend waiting until a week or two after the event is over with. Carts were on paths only (honestly, we should have all just walked it -- it's a very well-routed design) and the rough was gnarly to say the least. I suppose one benefit to the rough is that while our group would go on egg hunting expeditions just yards off the fairway, usually someone would find one or two extra balls that had barely been hit.

Now, the penal nature of the course isn't the norm here (it's really not all that severe, more in the mold of Jones' easy bogey/hard par mentality), it just comes with the territory of hosting a PGA Tour event. Now managed by Troon Golf, the course staff does ensure the resort golfer are going to get a fair and playable test, even if this classic course, with its narrow fairways and small, sloping greens, aren't a pushover for anyone. But golfers with a penchant for classic course design are going to have a new NoCal favorite in Napa on Jones & Miller's North course.