Heron Lakes Golf Club - Great Blue Course

Best public course in Portland metro. But high handicappers should remember their manners and keep moving regardless of difficulties. Don't expect to break 100 unless your handicap is under 20.

The course is wide open with few shade trees. A great walk, but perhaps not on a hot day.

This is one of the hardest courses in the area. Has taken me some time to learn how to play. Greens are always good. Final 4 holes are tough. The pin on 17 was ridiculous. Only bad part of the day besides the wind and lack of focus

I knew better than to play this course in the winter but I wanted to see if anything changed. Nothing has changed. Since this course was built on a wetlands it doesn't take much rain or moisture to make this course soggy and muddy. I lost balls in the middle of the fairway due to plugging in the mud. Surprisingly the course was busy.
Not 1 bunker was raked. Why? Every other course I have played this winter has had their bunkers prepared for play.
I'll be back in August after things dry out a couple of months. In the meantime I will stay at Stone Creek and the OGA.

great course, great time....

We played the front in 1 hr. 45 min. 2 hr 30 min. on the back!? Most courses this time of year have good rates for all you can golf later in the day with a cart, no marshal to supervise! Sooo what do you think, people jumping from hole to hole, playing in front of you, driving the golf carts wherever they want, etc. etc. making the back nine much longer and frustrating!

Every city should be so lucky to have a 36 hole facility like this. The Great Blue is interesting, challenging, in great shape and has friendly staff working there.

Be careful on the par 3's. Two of them are directly over water with no bail out and one of them was set up on this day so it was impossible to carry. Nonetheless, this is a great course that I love every time I get a chance to play it. Only thing I don't care for is the amount of water on this course but that's a minor thing if you hit the ball straight.

The course was in great shape and we had a great round. We had to wait on every hole, which was the only downside.

Small undulating greens. Good variety of holes - doglegs, long and short. If you like tree-lined courses this isn't it. Tough track with lots of water and even more bunkers. Par 3s are extremely tough with forced carries over water. Handicap of par 3s is all wrong. #11 is not the easiest hole in the course!

I was extremely disappointed by the poor customer service. When I checked in the two pros at the shop were talking to each other while I stood there for 5 minutes and said can someone help me. Then I got a dirty look and checked in. The front 9 taking 2 hrs and 40 min! I went into the shop and told Nick Popovicci that I wanted a refund for our back 9 because I did not have the time or patients to for a round to take over 5 and a half hours! He said “well it is what it is and 2.5+ hrs for 9 holes is our course standard.” I asked him why they didn’t have a ranger moving people along, or why they might have over booked tee times and he gave me some rude answer. At one point we had 3 groups waiting on a tee box. I told him I was upset that he didn’t even offer a sorry or we apologize for the inconvenience. I told him I didn’t fly from NC to play your course to be treated like this and he said well I don’t know what to tell you. I will never return to your course again. This club needs to fire him before you lose more guests and need to have some training on customer service.

Quality was terrible, the driving range or lack thereof was nothing but a mud pit with zero grass. When I attempted to hit a few balls in front of the rope an employee asked me to hit behind the rope. The balls were all chewed up and dirty as well. Not to mention how could you have a golf course next to a race track!? The entire round I heard nothing but motorcycles racing. They also had people playing in jean shorts and cut off tank tops. Save your time and money.

I had fun but the course was tore up from their men's club championship. They should have sand/seed on carts to fix divots on fairways. Lots of ball marks on the greens that were not fixed. No cold water on course and it was hot..

I was disappointed in the condition of the greens. I dont think they were cut that day and there were a lot of ball marks making them pretty bumpy. I just played the Reserve, Pumpkin and Tualatin so that is hard to compare but the greens were terrible in comparison. The latout is great the course is very challenging but the poor condition of the greens was a problem. I played here once in 2014 and the greens were fine but not so much this year

Course is in great shape, however, the sand traps could use some work. Most don't have any fluffy sand so you can't hit out of them as you normally would. There are A LOT of traps and the inconsistency of them is a challenge. We saw the drink lady on the 2nd hole and didn't see her again until we were approaching the 18th. Since there is no easy way to stop at the turn to buy drinks it was a thirsty round for us. There are water fountains on the course so you won't die but we don't happened to be a fan of public drinking fountains. Make sure to pack your own drinks and snacks.

Fairways and greens were great, considering we're in very dry and hot season. Hope it was well water they used because the water table is fairly high at this location.

For a city run course just excellent. Well maintained and well run. Close to river. Lots of water but forgiving. Plant to hit this one next time I'm in Portland.

The course was not in very good condition. There were many burnt out areas in the fairway, especially on the back. The bunkers were horrible, very little sand in the bottom of the traps which prevented making a routine bunker shot as the club bounced off the dirt . and the greens had just been "needle tined." Wish I had of known that before making the reservation. Very disappointed in this outstanding layout-needs a lot of work.

Fairways green, course does good job keeping watered and playable.

The course is in great condition. The sand in the bunkers is very playable

Greens could have been better.
Beverage cart, could have come by more than once.

Great value for under $20 a round with a "hot deal." Marshals were friendly and informative, and they made their presence known on the course to keep the pace up as much as possible. The greens were a little more beat up than normal from people not fixing their ball marks, so I fixed 3-4 every hole. My biggest complaint would be that it was a sweltering 91 degrees out and I only saw the drink cart once, and that was right before the turn, so it was virtually pointless. They could have made quite a bit from my foursome alone if they had been out.
All in all, heron lakes is one of the best public facilities in the portland area, and the two courses offer something for every skill level.

Greens were a little slow but weren't cut yet. Fairways were excellent. Course played great but wish the greens were quicker.