Stone River Golf Club

First off, I am a very positive and reasonable person. I expect to play fairly slow on a weekend, especially when it is 82 degrees in mid-November. I expect that a group of 2 will have to wait on holes and not get waived through when it is stacked up with nowhere to go. I expect members to bunch up and get priority over non-members at all golf courses. I don't expect to be expecting to get hurt or play a 5 hour round on such a short golf course.

My 12 year old son and I went out Saturday with a 1:00 tee time. We chose this course because we were traveling West towards Rockwall to make a 6:00 church service that evening and this was along the way. We showed up at 12:15 to get some warm up in. We paid $71.42 for both us us to play, which included a large bucket of range balls. The price was very reasonable, as we normally pay between $75-$100 when we play.

It was fast and easy to pay, get a cart, and get a bucket of range balls. The staff was very helpful and friendly. I was informed that I could not hit long irons or woods on the driving range. After driving around a bit (one more sign at the split would be most helpful), we found the driving range. It was very windy and served its purpose to get some shots in and warm up, so no complaints from me. It would be very helpful if they put up high nets around the range, so they don't have to worry about balls getting onto #12 fairway, or over the fence into the pasture. This would also allow woods and long irons to be used as well. I understand there just isn't real estate available for a proper driving range.

Tee time was 1:00 and we got off the tee shortly after. Up to this point the experience was great, but here is where the round went south. The group in front of us were not very good golfers at all. No problems with that, as we are not scratch golfers either. The problem is the group was waiting for a green to clear some times 350 yards away just to shank a ball into woods, water, etc, took a ton of time. They gathered on the tee box and talk and socialize for far too long, even when the hole was already cleared by the group in front of them. There were multiple holes where we waited 20+ minutes to tee off. There was a marshal out on the course, but he didn't do anything to help the pace of play, perhaps not to bother or upset the members.

The foursome behind us were some young guys having a good time playing a 2 man scramble . The problem was, they were not waiting for us to clear the green or fairway before they tee'd off. Several times we had golf balls whizzing past us. We were actually pretty worried on half the holes because we heard them teeing off while we were within range. They were very nice guys, and did comply when we asked them to at least yell fore if they thought we were in danger.

I kept reminding myself that it was great to be out enjoying time with my son and give God thanks that we had the physical ability to even be playing, when many don't. From a layout, course shape, being in a cool new neighborhood, it was a neat golf course.

The real problem with this golf course isn't the driving range, the workers, the golfers, layout etc. The problem is the way the golf course is designed/setup. It is set up so that literally you SHOULD wait for the green to be cleared on almost all the par 4s, before you can tee off. This makes for extremely slow if you wait and extremely dangerous if you don't. They need to find a way to ensure you cant reach the green on a tee shot, or prohibit you from trying. With equipment like it is today, 270-300 yards to a green is very reachable for most people, especially with extremely firm fairways. I didn't want to wait, so I hit irons off the tee and posted a very good score.

It took us 4.5 hours to get done with our round, and the only reason it didn't take longer, is because the group in front of us quit after 15 holes. We played the last 3 holes in 20 minutes or we wouldn't have made service, or finished before dark.

Sorry to be negative, and I am sure that it is a very fun course to play on a weekday when it isn't very crowded, but take my advice and skip this one on the weekend or when its crowded until something changes.

Well maintained course. Not a lot of rough to hit into.

Played one of the best rounds of golf I’ve played in 20 years there today. Shot an 81. Almost broke 80 if I wouldn’t have 4 putted two greens. You’ll have that in the game of golf. Greens were fast and well taken care of, freshly mowed. It’s a beautiful course surrounded by houses. I’ll definitely play here again soon.

Pace of play was absolutely horrible today. You know it’s bad when it took 2 1/2 hours to play the front 9 and the two groups in front of our put together group, which we all paired up on the 5th hole, quit after 9 holes. Only saw the marshal one time and was driving to see if someone lost a towel, rather than monitor the pace of play. This is a pace I would expect on a weekend at a top tier course, not an outlier course on Wednesday. I like the course, but better management of the parings and pace. I’ve played this course a week ago in less than 2 1/2 hours, so there was no reason for today’s fiasco.

Course was in pretty good shape. Greens were excellent. Great course for the price.

first this is a fun golf course, the only two knocks on this course is 1. the driving range is to far from the club house and 2. they used the same colored pin no matter where the pin was placed. it didnt matter if it was front, back, or middle all pins were blue.