Hilldale Golf Club

5900ish yards from the whites with a 135 slope? I’ve never played a short course like this with such a high slope rating. I think it’s 6400 yards from the tips but as a first timer at a course I always refer to the slope on the scorecard to determine which tees to play… and a135 slope is perfect imo. Anyway, the course is in great condition. The greens roll well, but beware, they are trickier than they appear. A potentially great score was spoiled by too many three putts. Fairways are in great condition and require a certain amount of precision and strategy to hit. Bunkers are hit or miss. Taking off one star for the bunkers and the par 5 13th hole where Interstate 90 is in play if you hook or pull your tee shot. Personally, I hate holes like this. Even moreso due to the fact that there is no tree cover to smother errant shots (I hit the fairway but I still hate holes like this). But yeah, I recommend this course if you’re looking for a change of pace and/or are trying to dial in your long irons/hybrids/fairway woods. An under appreciated Robert Trent Jones gem that is still fairly affordable compared to other courses in the area.

Pace was very slow due to one group— at least two holes behind. Need a ranger to enforce pace

A ranger yelled us for playing slowly when we waited for 3 minutes on every hole. The guy was a raging psycho. Tried to pass his issues on us, very poor behavior by him.

Overall the course was good- well maintained and the course is built into some hills which is a good challenge without being too aggressive.

There are 2 holes that need a bell to notify the tee box that it’s ok to drive because they are blind holes and at both holes I almost got hit while setting up for my approach shot. (And no, I wasn’t taking up too much time, pace of play is always a priority).

Additionally there needs to be more signs directing carts to the holes. There were a few times where it was not obvious, especially to first timers.

Would I play there again, yes but only at a deal price.

The pace of play was awful, ranger constantly barking at us. Still light out and ranger stops everyone and says course is closed, last hole

Course is in real nice shape. Fairways and greens both were better than expected.

Course is in good shape except for the bunkers. The bunkers could use some sand. I was told when I teed off the course was pretty wide open. There was just a few twosomes in front of us. This was true but the twosomes in front of us were playing at an almost 5 hour pace. The ranger on the course did nothing to speed up play. This occurred on a Thursday afternoon. I can only imagine what the pace would be on the weekends with a full tee sheet.