Squaw Valley Golf Course - Comanche Lakes Course

Course was freshly mowed and had multiple inches of grass clippings in the fairway. You could hit right down the middle of the fairway. The greens are in horrible shape but the bunkers are worse. I've never seen bunkers that bad.

The course was in great shape - there were a handful of greens that had really bad sections on them, but in general, everything was green and well taken care of.

Where to begin? This review applies to Lakes and Links. Let’s start with the employees of this course. The green situation has been stated over and over. No point going there. The employees of this course by and large have gone way down hill in just the last year. Kid in pro shop is arrogant, marshals harass and follow you around now sometimes 2-3 on just one course which is ridiculous during a week day. Yet they say nothing to foursomes of 16 year olds throwing clubs, leaving gouge marks on greens, which honestly are so bad, you can only tell because of the depth. Cart girls with attitudes, I could go on. The entire vibe and friendliness of the course has gone the way of the greens. Time to start over. Clean house. Take a bobcat to the greens, and maybe have them ready by next summer. Get equipment that stops burning the course with fertilizer spills on fairways, etc. Get back to having a staff who cares, and isn’t just there because school is out. Lots of other courses have actual grown ups working the pro shop. This place needs a huge reality check. When the starter and the kids working at the cart barn, are your friendliest employees, you have big problems. Golf industry is ebbs and flows, so SV will be removed from my rotation, and hopefully in a few years management will be turned over, and maybe some money will be put back into course maintenance. Let’s hope. Somerville County has a real gem here, hopefully things shape up before this place becomes a Waxahachie or Split Rail. If things remain as is, don’t be surprised.

In the three years I’ve been playing here the course condition has deteriorated. The sand traps are nearly unplayable and more importantly the greens are ruined. 10-40% of the greens are just dirt. Sad to see because I love the layout and the course.

I have never played a course where the greens were this bad. There were lots and lots of dead areas, so we were putting across sand most of the time. They had also punched the greens. A normal “punch” machine makes holes that are about 12” apart. At this course, it looked like they went back and forth, back and forth, until the holes were about 1” apart. I have no idea what they were trying to do. If I had known about the conditions of the green when I looked for a place to play, I would have gone somewhere else.

This course is in good shape except for the greens. But they are getting better since a recent punching. However, quite a few greens had some large very bad areas.