Sanctuary Lake Golf Course

Sanctuary Lake does everything wrong when it comes to course setup, management and design. Be prepared to play a 5+ hr round if you play during the weekend. Most people blame slow play on the people, but this one is ALL management, and it always amazes me how oblivious they can be:

Let's start from the top. You know it's going to be a long day when you get to the first tee, and they're running 20-25 minutes late, and you had a morning tee time. The ONLY way this happens is by having tee times which are too close together. 6 minutes intervals here, I believe, which is absolutely nuts. If you can't keep your players teeing off on time, then it's YOUR fault, because you're jamming too many people in together. It only gets worse from here.

Two, the layout is awful. 4 or 5 completely blind tee shots, some of which the tee box aims you toward the opposing fairway. How someone who has ever played this course is supposed to know where to aim is beyond me. But what it ends up doing is having people look for balls all over the place, because there are few landmarks, and once you get into other fairways, you slow down yourself and the other groups.

Three, blind tee shots in which there are unseen hazards and long grass. So it's bad enough when you can't see your shot land, but then having long grass which you can't see from the tee and it only slows things down even more.

Four, 3 tee boxes which all converge in the same very small area. #1, 7 and 12, if I remember correctly. You'll have half a dozen carts which make it look like a traffic jam, it's loud, and obnoxious.

ALL four of these is the fault of management and design, and they are the sole cause of 5+ hour rounds.

On top of all of that, they use ILLEGAL, yes, ILLEGAL cup "rings" which go all the way up to the surface. Look it up Supers, the cup liner has to be 1" below the surface of the green according to the USGA. These things are terrible. They're for the lazy superintendents, so they don't have to move the pins every day. What ends up happening is that the holes develop an "anthill" effect, where everything breaks away from the hole. You will almost NEVER lip "in", everything lips out.

Finally, the stench on this property around the 1, 7, and 12 is disgusting. It literally smells like someone took a dump on the first tee box depending on the wind direction. Definitely gotten worse since I played here 3-4 years ago. I couldn't wait to leave this place.

I'll never play another Troy course outside of some special event.

In general, we liked the course, but the condition was not good. Even for the better rate through GolfNow, it was overpriced. The greens were very slow and a bit bumpy. The tee boxes were chewed up. I would play again if I hear that the conditions improve, but I will have a hard time convincing my friends to return.

Great course, drains great, only thing needed was a better pace

A good course but you need to play it a few times due to a few blind tee shots. You'll also have to watch out for the holes that run parallel with each other. There aren't trees to knock down errant shots. Only problem I had was the starter putting me - a single with a foursome. The ranger finally fixed things up on the 4th hole and teamed me up with a twosome that had played through on the five of us

Course in good shape for early spring. Greens as expected sanded and varied.

Great course, elevated tees, overpriced.

Golf in March is a bonus, course was a bit wet so cart paths only. Some greens were not open, temporary greens cut in on a few holes. Course is built on landfill so you do get a bit of Methane smell in low areas. Overall a nice design and I'd like to play it again during the summer months. For $20.00 green fee it was a good time.

Course was ok. It was way too busy. And I heard from other friends , that , the staff here overload the course. It was a slow pace , which doesn't allow you to get in a rythim.

Beautiful day so it was busy everyone trying to get in another 18 holes.. little slow but not too bad once got past first few holes. Natural habitat very relaxing & makes you feel you out on the country. Really like this course.

great staff and course. Greens were fast. challenging elevations.

Great course, but tends to get backed up at the 4th hole. Having just really started getting into golf this summer, this course was a great confidence builder. Challenging, but pretty straightforward. No trees, but still easy to lose your ball off the fairway in the high grass.

We teed off at 7am on a Saturday morning.... The starter forced us to pair up with another 2-some that played ungodly slow. We had 4 rangers come and try to speed us up and asked several times to allow them to let us play as a twosome. At the end of the round we had 3 holes open in front of us because they forced us to group up. Poor course management and really poor attitudes by the employees.

Played a wonderful 18 at the Sanctuary on a Monday afternoon; cruised through in about 3.5 hours (not sure what pace-of-play complaints are about!). Course was well kept, holes are nicely designed, not too easy and not too hard; the front nine is nice but you can see a bit of surrounding traffic etc--the back nine disappears into the woods and is absolutely lovely. Staff was friendly, and they stock Michigan craft beer! Beware the sneaky 17th hole: a 260-yard par 4...total man-eater.

Had a great outing. Course was in great shape. Challenging, but fair. Fun and attractive layout, especially the back 9. No problems at all with pace of play on a weekday. Very fair price. Friendly staff. I'd say this is one of the more underrated courses in the area. Will definitely be back.

I love this course. It has some challenges. The only downside is the pace of play is always very slow. There are always backups at the tees.

This course should be available for $20 all day. There isn't anything that makes it better than other local courses. It's actually just a big dump because they have exhaust pipes that let out a very nasty sewage smell throughout the course. I can't say i would recommend this course because of the price and the pace of play was terrible. 6 hours for 18 holes is unacceptable. I only played here because i had a buy one get one free. The course is very well kept and has a nice layout but the price, smell and pace of play ruin it for me.

Played this course many times in the past. Was decent up until this year. Every time we played this year the pace was very slow. Had to start out on 10 which wouldn't be a big deal normally. Started 15 min late because of over booking. 2-1/2 hour front 9 with a twosome. Tried to make the turn at 1 and there was a league lined up so we had to play the back 9 again.

Dried dirt and mud holes in the middle of the fairway. Some areas had dried dirt as big as 6 golf carts

Complained to the ranger and he gave us 2 buy 1 get 1 free passes. Won't even use them because of pace of play and course conditions.

Six hour round was way too slow. We almost quit after the first nine took us three hours. Not one ranger driving the course to speed up slow players. I will not go back.

was a second round of golf for the day golfed early in the day then after work meeting tried to get another 18 holes in but the pace of the other golfers was too slow ran out of day lite

Course today was in great shape, seems like everything on the course was cut or trimmed.
...bunkers may ;have needed a little attention.
Staff was very Friendly....start was a little anxious tho....just doing his part.
This is one of favorite courses to play, ...have to find a deal though, bit overpriced.
Staff was very friendly.