St. Andrews Golf & Country Club - Joe Jemsek Course

Got a cheap Hot Deal which doesn't include a cart, so we walked and pulled our clubs. St Andrews - Joe Jemsek course is an old style layout with tree lined fairways, decent rough, and some water hazards, especially on the last 2 holes which are extremely challenging. It's been a dry winter and some of the tee boxes were hard and bare, but overall the course and greens were in good shape. It was a nice sunny day, but the winds were howling at 40 mph which made for some interesting shots. We played a two against two betting game and it came down to the last shot on the 18th hole, so it was a fun day even with the wind.

St. Andrews is still a little pricey for a mid-day weekday

Played the Jemsek course from the whites.

Wind gusts up 30+mph kept people off the course so pace of play was however fast\slow we played.

Some motor carts had full cart covers which was great because the wind would have taken the life out of us.

New GPS is a nice touch.

New asphalt cart paths are great.

Greens and fairways were still semi-dormant\thin - expected.

Bunkers were decent.

Course water fountains not yet active.

Ball washers were full but no towels were present.

All in all...thumbs up !

Love this local gem. It has a great selection of 36 holes and a phenomenal practice center.

Greens were covered in sand with no attempt to make playable. I understand it’s that time of year where they prepare for winter, but the course made zero attempt on clearing off excess, top layer sand on greens. I’m talking greens that were effectively bunkers, oftentimes with no signs of aeration underneath. Course is probably nicer in the summer, but given there’s no off season rate for an off season quality, probably won’t be back. Also they Don’t allow carts on online tee time bookings, forced to pay another ~$75 in cart fees upon arrival, feels like a way to trick players into a cheaper rate when almost all tee fees on GN include cart fees - $19 per person is much higher than most courses cart rate for a low grade gps. Surprise cart fee also pushes a lot of people into walking, slowing down course pace of play a lot.

Attached a screen shot but historically this course costs no more than ~$70 to play in prime time hours; didn't realize in between the day I decided to golf and actually book the price went from $51 to $67 without cart, and $87 total with cart. Additionally the greens were aerated AND sanded pretty heavily, which really does not help the frustration about the price.

For $80+ they are definitely out pricing themselves even in prime time conditions let alone aeration and sand; as there are many better courses around here for not much more. Also every one of the holes is ~340 - 430 dead straight without much variety. If they are going to charge that much they need to redesign this place pretty substantially.

St. Andrew’s was always “old reliable” in that you can almost always find a time to play and really did give you solid value for the money you paid, but I will now start to look elsewhere.

I sort of knew this was coming as they really did a good job at improving course conditions, but they’ve increased their prices and I think are out pricing themselves. I paid $87 for a 7:48 tee time Sunday morning with cart, with aerated and sanded greens that looked like a beach. Just a few days before booking they raided the price from $51 (see screenshot). The only bonus from a month ago is they’ve added screens to the carts I guess.

But this course is not worth the money for $87, every hole is pretty much 340-430 dead straight, not a lot of variety which may or may not be a negative for you, but there’s plenty of comparable courses in the area that offer better value and more variety.

We have always enjoyed Saint Andrews golf course. We appreciate the variety of holes. It would be helpful if GolfNow informed us that the greens were recently aerated and very sandy.