Blue Heron Golf Course

The staff was pleasant and that was the highlight. The greens were burned up, bare spots, and poor at best. The fairways were terrible. The carts were the worst. Don't bother playing. You will regret it; we did.

I played this course with my family on Sunday. This was the worst course I have ever played on. The whole course was weeds and leaves. You spend more time looking for balls because the fairways are so thick and full of weeds. The t-boxes are complete sand. The greens are almost all dirt and bumpy. Holes all over the greens. I would not even rate this a 1 star but I had to. i wouldn't recommend this course at all.

The first words of every review are the most important.

As a result, I wanted to be as careful as possible not to taint the kindness of the people who golf here, the friendly young gal who greeted me at the pro shop on the day I decided to try this place out or possibly the many people who "tried" to make this an option in the Seattle area for golf.

However, I have to say the first word that came to mind after I started walking into the fairway of hole #1 was "skanky." As I was driving home, I told myself I would look up the definition of the word to make sure that by no means that it would be derogatory or degrading by any means. Merriam-Webster defines it as:

1 slang :repugnantly filthy or squalid

AND

2 slang :of low or sleazy character

It's definitely not the 2nd definition, but after I upload the photos I managed to take before walking off the course after 9, you might just agree it matches the definition.

On this beautiful Sunday in late Sunday, I was greeted by 6 kind young men who let me "play through." They knew they would take a bit of time and gave me the chance to finish before I puked in disgust. I was helped by 2 other groups of kind folks who also let me play through and despite the 2-5 balls I would hit on each of the front 9 holes, I got it done in record time.

Now, bear in mind, I like good courses. I used to be a member of Sahalee and I've learned over time, since golf takes up quite a bit of time, you should choose carefully.

When I was inspired to play this past weekend, I had no idea why this course that was priced at $54 a round could be priced at $23. It seemed like a rare opportunity. There were most tee times in the $40's and $50's and I thought I was just lucky.

However, all my golfing buddies along with me had never heard of this place.

I now know why.

Beyond fairways that remind me of the worst cut lawns in our area, the greens are basically well trimmed roughs posing as the end of the hole. Using your putter is a waste because the "green" has balls bouncing all the way to the hole. You might as well chip.

There were many trenches around greens.

There were blackberry bushes lining hole 9 for 300 yards.

And there was the clubhouse that had an arrow that pointed to the left, but should have pointed upwards since the pro shop was on the 2nd floor.

Either the owner(s) of this place don't care or they simply don't know what golf is.

At all costs, if you care about golf, you might want to truly reconsider if you decide and "take a chance" on this place.

However, with all this said, this is a PERFECT place for anyone who is wanting to literally "learn the game" or "practice with your 5 year olds" or even take 5 strokes for every shot.

I might leave my putter at home though.

And make sure you bring a ton of balls...then again, you might find a ton while playing the holes adjacent to the driving range.

Speaking of, the range might be the best thing next to the kind people playing and working here. It's off the grass (from what I saw). However, driving 30 minutes in from downtown Issaquah isn't worth it, in my mind.

Sorry folks, but for the sake of your employees and the future people who might "take a chance:"

Start maintaining this course or take it off the list of golf courses in Seattle.

Seriously.

Most of the greens are in rough shape, the course fairways are in terrible shape, lost a few balls in the middle of fairways because of holes in them.

The worst conditions on the greens I have seen in 4 years playing the course. Dead, dry and not much fun. They do now have electric carts, which is a real plus.

First I would like to say thank you too the new owners, anyone who puts their time, effort and money into keeping a golf course around is something we all should appreciate and admire, cause once they bulldoze, its gone forever. I began golfing here in 1984 when it was the Carnation golf course, the holes are the same except they switched the 9s and made the 438 yrd 12th (old 3rd) a par 5(was a 4). I like the layout and it played fast and brown, just like its supposed too. but the greens were slower and softer than the way they should of been so was expecting hard holding greens but got soft receptacle ones which was kinda strange but its very beautiful with no houses around the course and i will return

Terrible course. No fairways, weeds everywhere. Brown spots on greens. Course is not taken care of. Staff was very friendly.

Very difficult to walk your scores especially from the tips

The price was excellent and included a cart. We played at a time when the course was not to busy so play was nice and quick. We had a very nice time.

The course conditions have steadily deteriorated since Blue Heron was re-opened under new management a few years ago. It appears management has gone from aggressively improving the course to now neglecting it. The tee boxes are more dirt than grass, some of the greens have large browned-out patches, and the rough is littered with brown clumps of mowed grass.

The only positive was the brisk pace of play due to an almost deserted course on a beautiful Spring day.

Average course nothing exciting. The ruff was brutal, (long)any ball an inch off the fairway was tough to find. Tons of grass clippings everywhere hiding balls as well. On a positive note, the staff was super friendly.

When did Blue Heron change the rules from 4 players at a t-time to 5 players? I could see this if it was a Tuesday afternoon, but on a Monday of a 3-day weekend? Really? The guys were nice and let us play through at the 12th hole, but what about the first 12 holes, where we had to wait every single hole. Also, they leave their grass clippings to the side of the fairway, which makes it impossible to find your ball if you hit it outside of the fairway, even 2 feet. The greens really need attention. On the upside, the staff are very friendly, and they have good food.

Fun course just need a little tlc understand weather issues as well

There's definitely a lot to like about Blue Heron, I live about an hour away from Carnation so this was a pretty good drive for me to a course that I knew nothing about. I got a great deal on Golf Now for a $20 round which included a cart for me and my golf companion for the day, had I paid full price I probably would've been upset given the course conditions, which weren't terrible but they also weren't great. I'm gonna start with my pros.

There was a great mix of shapes to most of the holes, I can recall at least 5 holes with dog legs which really challenges players to chose their club and distance wisely. On top of that, there was a good amount of hazards and water to hit over. The greens were in good condition and surprisingly firm given this time of year. Given its remote location you'd expect the course to be heavily wooded, but outside of OB there are just enough trees dividing each hole to make things not feel congested, you also won't have to worry about someone else's tee shot flying directly at you. Outside of the first one, each of the par 3's felt unique in both distance and setting which is hard to come by and a huge plus.

Next are my cons.

The biggest area of need was for the fairways to be mowed, it was so thick and hard to find tee shots that it really slowed down the pace of play for everyone, not just our group. This is understandable given the amount of rainfall we received this winter, but some of the grass appears to have not been cut in 4-6 weeks. The course wasn't muddy for the most part, some fairways were actually firm and resulted in the ball bouncing instead of plugging (rarely), there wasn't really any difference between the fairway and the rough since all the grass was long, the rough just had more of it. The strangest part of my whole experience here was that there were patches of grass in areas between holes that had been mowed that morning or the day before, but these were areas that weren't even connected to holes...? I'd never seen anything like it and it was frustrating given the fact that the course desperately needs to be mowed from top to bottom. The course was firm enough to drive power carts on so it seems reasonable to expect the lawn shorter than it was, but it didn't ruin the experience.

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives in my opinion and once spring is in full effect and the course has had the chance to dry out a little bit so the grass can be properly maintained it would be a fun play. Given the shape it's in now I wouldn't pay full price to play here, but the price I got was worth it.

Played very well for a day after rain. Fun course. Super friendly staff and lovely views