Heron Lakes Golf Club - Great Blue Course

Although the greens are showing some very heavy use, the course wasn't as wet as I expected it. Fewer mushy spots in the fairway and far fewer plugged balls for January golf. As always, you have to navigate your putting around ball marks and goose waste, but for the cost and the fact that it is a public course it's not bad. The tee boxes have been moved up for winter play and this makes many of the holes easier, but counteracts the loss of ball flight and roll you don't get in the winter.

The Great Blue is a fantastic, very challenging layout, and fun to play... just not this time of year. Course is overrun with Geese and other birds, meaning bird droppings are all over the fairways. So much so that you couldn't walk or roll a pull-cart without getting the "stuff" all over your shoes and wheels. Greens weren't bad though. I was told by another player I had picked the worst week of the year to play here, because they are closed Christmas Day, meaning there is no one (players) to chase the Geese off the fairways. They just camp (and do their business) on them for 36 hours straight.

My GF & I played Greenback yesterday. We played winter rules in mid-December as anybody would. The course was in fairly nice shape. Not too swampy for our rainy winter weather. We especailly liked the greens. They were very smoothy and putts were makeable. We enjoyed our afternoon on the Greenback.

Stick with the Great Blue course, although both are virtually unplayable in the winter because of the soft conditions (ball plugging). Great Blue is a challenging links layout. ...both courses are often coated in geese droppings, coating pull cart tires with an inch of the stuff...small grass tees driving range

Don't be confused. The Great Blue Course is different than the Greenback. Both are nice the Great Blue offers the most challenge and is the nicer of the two. For a public course, it is in great shape and very walkable. I recommend for your golf outing in Portland, Oregon.

This is a beautiful links style course and very affordable. Challenging with lots of water and bunkers to negotiate. Pace of play was good at just over 4 hours. The layout of the course was what I enjoyed most when playing it. The rolling hills, doglegs around water and views from the tees, where you don't always see where the landing is, makes for great variety of shots. I'll be playing this one again.. and again.

This is a beautiful course with some tough bunkers and plenty of water hazards. Probably a bit beyond my skill level but still had fun. I did not realize the reason for the discounted price was because the greens had just been aerated until I got to the pro shop . It was still worth playing, I had wanted to play "Great Blue" for a while.

Sand traps were really in need of more sand. They were hard and it was very difficult to get under the ball and get it up and out of the sand. If it had been wet previously, it would have been more understandable, but obviously, this was not true. With all the traps on this course, it was indeed, a problem. Other than that, the course was in fine shape and $24 for Great Blue is a good price.

Greens were in poor shape. Fairways had alot of divot holes. Play was slow.

Would like to see the Cart Fee added as part of the total cost for the round like many places do.

Nice layout. I used every club in the bag--a good test for any track. Compact, but not tight and lots of variety for shotmakers. Greens were true and well maintained as were fairways and tee boxes. Wish I could say the same for the bunkers which were in poor shape and sand quality was inconsistent. My understanding is the bunkers were a work in progress, and the subject of my only complaint. If I was a better ball striker, I wouldn't have a reason to gripe. Staff was helpful and pleasant. Had a great time and will be returning often.