Heron Lakes Golf Club - Great Blue Course

this course drains water well. it is a great course no matter the conditions.

I usually expect more from Heron Lakes with regards to how other players respect the game of golf, but my last two rounds have me pondering if I should move on to other courses in the area.

Municipal courses offer their array of characters on any given round, because I don't think there is much you can do to keep non-golfers off the course, but was dismayed when I found a threesome on the turn tee box that hadn't been in front of us all day. They were visibly intoxicated, smoking cigars and cigarettes, and beyond rude. Wearing five year old Seahawks tee shirts with holes in them gave their attitudes away, and they wanted nothing more to deny my group the right to play through. We followed this drunken motely crew before we could skip past them on #15 and move to #17. A call to the pro shop did no good.

In the least, I would expect them to let us through; then again they pulled can after can of PBR from their bags.

Here is my feedback: enforce the dress code, beverages from off site aren't allowed, and listen to those who respect the game.

Both the Heron Lakes courses have got to be some of the best "city" courses throughout the country! They are a great value for the type of course. The only issue I found was the lack of people fixing their divots....but that's what you get with a Muni I guess? The divot issue was pretty bad in that the greens were almost un-puttable because of current divots and scars from old ones not fixed.

I know Heron Lakes Great Blue is a nice golf course, but I'm not sure what happened there. It looks as though they put down too much fertilizer and then didn't water enough or something. I understand it's summer and all, but to have burned out dry patches on the greens? I was paired up with a couple of gentlemen who told me it was the worst they had ever seen there. Hopefully by the end of September the course will be in better shape, notably the greens. Heron Lakes is a nice golf course in a pretty easy to get to location so I will be back to play it again.

Nice course, easy to walk. Greens are plenty big, but need more attention from players fixing their ballmarks, plenty of bumps on the greens make for lost strokes. Plenty of room on the fairways, which were in good condition overall. Sand in bunkers quite heavy and wet. I'm guessing there was heavy rain in the past week.
Pace felt a lot slower than it was, but this course could easily be played in 3.5 hours without rushing, if players would just pick up the pace between shots. Freight train line is alongside course, and there was an extremely long , slow train rumbling and squealing by almost the entire back nine, could be distracting to some players.

Great Blue: This course is more challenging then Greenback, we had a great round with excellent rate of play and pristine tee boxes and fairways. However, the greens we in sub par form... Almost every green was very bumpy but playable without too much issue, except for #17 which looked to be very damaged and in unacceptable condition. Overall be course was fantastic and offered a real challenge to the average golfer, highly recommend.

If the greens were in better shape it would be an easy 5 stars

Staff was very friendly, and the starter had us off right on time. The cart lady was also very friendly, but she was the only one working both courses so we only saw her on holes 8 and 18... I spent a lot of the day looking for water fountains. the bunkers weren't in great shape and were hard panned. Most of the greens were bumpy and not well taken care of. Some of the fairways had some dead patches or muddy spots. It can be a good course if it were better taken care of. The pace of play was a little on the slow side, but that should be expected for a Saturday.

We were somewhat dissapointed with this being our first round here and the great things we had heard. The fairways and thw coursw in general were fantastic, fairways ran well and were a stiff challenge with how tight landing areas were. The greens however were the worst I've ever seen. I beleive the 17th was prettt much all dirt with some patches or really bad looking grass. Was super bumpy and you had no shot at getting a ball to go where you wanted it. There were 5 or 6 more greens that weren't as bad but had the similar patches of dirt and were extremely bumpy almost as if they are diseased. This course has the potential to be the best
In Portland if they can bring the greens back. The other 12 to 13 holes without this issue were fantastic.

This is a nice course that is in great shape. The staff was somewhat friendly and we went off right on time which was good also

It is a great links style course. I am a hacker, but if you hit smart shots you can score. Lots of bunkers and waste areas make it very challenging.

I got a great deal through golf now. The course was in great shape an the green were rolling good. I highly recommend this golf course.

Putting greens had many burned out spots. it affected many putts.

the green is too bad too much hole much dead green.

The Greenback course at Heron Lakes offers wide fairways and big greens with enough sand and water to be challenging.
Course conditions were excellent and we played in just over four hours with two people walking and two riding. It is difficult to find a better value in the Portland area and I would recommend either the Green Back course or the Great Blue at Heron Lakes.

Sad to say the course is in TERRIBLE condition! Do not play it!

Enjoyed an early A.M. round with tocho261 on a Golfnow prepaid deal for $19. We walked the blues (6491/71.9/137) in 4H, teeing off a little after 6 and finishing a little after 10. Challenging layout that is currently in good condition. Lots of red/yellow hazards that are lakes or marshland that you need to avoid, plus an above average amount of traps as well. There are zero homes that you can see from anywhere on this course, occasionally you will have railroad or racetrack noise, but this track and it's sister Greenbelt course (shorter & easier in my opinion) are pretty isolated considering they are less than 10 miles from downtown Portland along the Columbia River. The greens putted really nice, firm and medium fast. Definitely well above average for a city course and some of the nicest greens I have recently played on. Both the fairways and rough were nicely maintained, you generally had lush lies. There are several areas on different holes that are brown that they were soaking, trying to get green again, but overall, both were very good. The tees were decent, above average for a public course that gets alot of play. The only thing below average was the sand traps. They could use some new, additional sand and had not been raked/maintained in at least a couple of days. Only a few holes have water and there was no drink/food cart, luckily it was a cool, overcast morning. But this course is worth playing, especially for under $20.

Greens had Burnt sections that looked as if they were over watered and then not watered for days causing whole portions of the green to die. Course was poorly watered throughout with Dead spots on Tee Boxes, Fairwways and Greens all throughout the course. Worst condition I ahve ever seen the Great Blue Course. Course Management needs to be addressed.

I have played this course many times over the years, good links style course and in the summer it plays like a links course with hard and fast fairways, lots of risk/reward opportunities. But disappointed with the greens, very bumpy

The course sets up for a left to right player. I only broke out my driver on three holes. Fairway bunkers made for selective thinking. Greens were well manicured, but the fringe had heavy ridges on several holes. Blind holes toughened the course, but with experience the course would be easy to negotiate. Clubhouse individuals were not friendly.

Slow but kind of expected on a summer Saturday. Drink cart didnt come around on entire front 9, and when she did show up on the back her card machine was broken. She said shed be back but never came. Not good when play is slow and you aren't hitting very many good shots.