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Sawmill Creek Golf Resort & Spa
Rating Snapshot
About
Sawmill Creek Golf Resort & Spa is southwestern Ontario's premier golfing destination. Located just east of Sarnia and less than an hour from London, the golf course is a conveniently situated getaway that feels much further thanks to an idyllic location along the shores of Lake Huron. The course is a par-71, links-style design that is challenging enough for avid golfers but still playable for beginners. The gently rolling landscape was enhanced even further with the addition of more than a million tons of earth, which was carefully molded to look as though it had always been there. The meticulously crafted mounding adjoins the fairways, providing a continuous flow throughout the golf course. In addition to the mounding, golfers will also face large bunkers, tall fescue, bluegrass rough, and desert-like waste areas. It may appear daunting, but Sawmill Creek is not as tough as it looks.
| Tee | Par | Length | Rating | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 71 | 6445 yards | 71.0 | 133 |
| Blue | 71 | 6109 yards | 69.5 | 130 |
| White | 71 | 5710 yards | 67.7 | 122 |
| White (W) | 71 | 5710 yards | 72.8 | 127 |
| Red | 71 | 5194 yards | 65.2 | 113 |
| Red (W) | 71 | 5194 yards | 69.5 | 121 |
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black M: 70.9/134 W: 77.3/141 | 377 | 193 | 349 | 332 | 158 | 491 | 439 | 545 | 192 | 3076 | 405 | 423 | 389 | 136 | 505 | 195 | 486 | 159 | 507 | 3205 | 6281 |
| Blue M: 69.3/130 W: 75.2/136 | 352 | 179 | 331 | 317 | 145 | 456 | 406 | 526 | 173 | 2885 | 384 | 405 | 368 | 127 | 477 | 169 | 460 | 139 | 486 | 3015 | 5900 |
| White M: 67.7/126 W: 73.2/132 | 331 | 167 | 306 | 301 | 138 | 425 | 381 | 501 | 153 | 2703 | 364 | 384 | 347 | 118 | 454 | 153 | 437 | 117 | 467 | 2841 | 5544 |
| Red M: 65.3/116 W: 70.0/127 | 310 | 159 | 280 | 262 | 131 | 405 | 361 | 452 | 127 | 2487 | 322 | 328 | 324 | 109 | 406 | 123 | 412 | 98 | 444 | 2566 | 5053 |
| Handicap | 7 | 13 | 1 | 11 | 15 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 17 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 2 | 16 | 6 | 18 | 4 | |||
| Par | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 35 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 36 | 71 |
| Handicap (W) | 3 | 7 | 5 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 1 | 9 | 15 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 14 | 18 | 4 |
Hot Deals at Sawmill Creek Golf Resort & Spa
1-4
Course Details
Rentals/Services
Practice/Instruction
Policies
Food & Beverage
Bar, Restaurant, Beverage CartsAvailable Facilities
Clubhouse, Meeting Facilities, Banquet Facilities, Spa, LockersAvailable Activities
Swimming, Billiards
Reviews
Reviewer Photos
Improvements are happening, the course will need time to heal from its prior neglect.
This was my 3rd time playing Sawmill this year. From a course that in it’s prime was a 4, that went down to a 0, it’s now maybe a 2. The biggest improvement so far this year has been the greens, which were playing quite fair. Aerating the greens last week will certainly make them better. The fescue and bunkers are basically weed areas. Just take a drop (without penalty stroke for lost ball). Bunker work is in progress.
The hope is for more players to justify the expense needed for continuing improvements.
You get what you pay for….I paid $11
So expectations were low…and unfortunately, they were met. Tee blocks are okay, especially if you move to the back blocks as so few rounds are played there. Fairways are thin and weedy, and not cut consistently. Rough is heavy and thick, and what used to be rough is just weedy fescue. If you go in the fescue, consider it a lost ball. Greens were punched and sanded as I played so you can imagine how bad….and the supposed greens underneath the sand were sparse and weedy. Bunkers were so overgrown that you didn’t know they were bunkers (if you remember the holes from the good old days).
Rumour has it they are trying….there was a Marshal driving around, there were workers on the course…..there will be a very long recovery period needed.
So…would I play again for $11…unlikely.
Slowly Getting Better
Overall, the course played decent. They ran it to the ground for the last few years, but surprisingly they had a large grounds crew out working on the greens. They finally started repairing the bunkers.
Under Improvement
Given a couple month improvement this course may be on the way to a glimpse of former glory - great links layout but needs work
Rogers group
its a start. The intentions of getting the course back to 5yrs. ago is great and will take a super great effort to do so. Nice new carts
Jury is still out
I booked and paid through Golf Now app .. when I got to the pro shop they had booked other golfers in our spot. The pro shop staff, nice guys but really don’t know what’s happening. It was a bit of a fiasco for my group of 4. They had to squeeze us in.
Course is improving but has a long ways to go. No food or amenities available. One small bathroom.
If they keep improving this will be a nice course next year. Love the links layout … plus new carts.
It’s very unfortunate that someone with golf course knowledge doesn’t take over this course. It is a very nice layout and it’s location is very good also.
Getting better
Sawmill Creek has certainly seen better days, but compared to last year - conditions are improving. I said I would recommend the course to a friend, but it would have to be a select friend … who wasn’t too particular. :)
Value is there
Had fun, course is in better shape than last year, the owner is going to add more improvements soon. It will be a long term project to bring the course back to its original condition. Still, greens are improved (puttable!), but bunkers are still a mess. Suggest they turn most bunkers into grass bunkers, leave maybe one bunker per hole as a sand bunker. For the money, it's hard to beat. But I don't shoot for score at my age, I shoot to make some pars and maybe a birdie now and again. So I'm good with the course as it is. 'Better than last year' is my recommendation. Great deal, good fun if you're not serious.
Course condition is far from what it needs to be, but it is better now than it was last year.
This year the greens have been improved to the extent they can now provide a reasonably decent roll of the ball to the hole. So that's a positive.
Bunkers have allowed to go to seed, grass and weeds growing out of most. Suggestion: turn 80% of the sand bunkers into "grass bunkers" (establish playable short rough instead of sand). It will keep costs to a minimum. It would be a severe negative to cash flow to have the 100+ bunkers maintained daily with good sand - grass bunkers make far more sense, only maintenance would be regular cutting.
Fairway grass needs work (it's patchy now), but are playable; the rough is pretty deep and balls are easily lost (not a good thing obviously). Fescue and similar grasses need to be kept well back from the fairway and the modest rough that bound the fairways. No need to penalize players excessively with ankle deep rough had fescue.
All in all, a better experience than in 2022. The course has a maintenance schedule in play this year, and that's the important thing. For maintenance, the greens keepers need to concentrate on the Greens, Fairways and playable rough, and seed most bunkers with grass, keep some greenside bunkers in play (maybe 20 bunkers or so - the increase in grass bunkers will be penalizing enough). For players, the price is right, the course is improving, and a fun game of almost realistic golf can be enjoyed right now. My partner and I really had a great day, four hours of sunshine, unhurried golf, and a few birdies and pars.
It’s cheap, and better than mini putt
No carts (no big deal) NO BEER!!! 😡. Lots, and lots of dandy lions. The homemade hole I built is nicer.
Okay Course
We enjoyed golfing here. It was not busy and we felt we had the course to ourselves. All the bunkers were overrun with weeds, not much sand to be found, and some of the greens were very bumpy and not in great shape.
