Radcliffe Friendly Fairways

A beautiful weekday and nothing much to do, my 12-year-old son stated he wanted to go golfing and drive the cart. Because my son is a junior golfer with not much experience, we decided to find a 9-hole rural course and decided to check out Friendly Fairways in Radcliffe, IA.

We arrived at the golf course and checked in at the clubhouse. Using the Iowa PGA member card we were able to play 9 with cart for $10. The scorecard showed a par 36 with two par 3’s and two par 5’s. We jumped in the cart and headed for number 1.

As we started our round with well-placed tee shots in the tree lined fairway, it felt more like we were playing in the light rough. This is to be expected when playing small town courses, and to be honest, I play most of my shots from the light rough anyway. All the fairways were in good shape, especially considering we haven’t got much rain in the last two or three weeks. The greens here were in good shape, average size, average speed and without too much undulation. As far as bunkers, water hazards or elevation changes, there wasn’t any.

The pace of play at Friendly Fairways was excellent. It was excellent because there were only a few golfers on the entire course, making it very relaxing and a lot of fun for my 12-year-old son, who was able to play all 9 holes without being rushed. He also enjoyed cruising around in the cart, which he wouldn’t normally been able to do.

The difficulty of this course was pretty easy. It is an excellent course for beginners, kids or seniors to get out on and just have fun. I had so much fun with my son that he wanted to go back for another round. All in all, this course is just “Friendly.”