The Timbers at Troy

Timbers used to be the best $50 hidden gem around. The fairways were ok, as were the bunkers however the greens where it counts the most were horrible worst ive seen anywhere all year and worst ive seen here in 10 years. Every green had 50 unrepaired divots, small patches of dirt, just not manicured in the slightest bit which made scoring tough. The pace of play was good so that was a plus which leads me to my next complaint. We hit a bucket of balls got to the first tee at 9:37 for a 9:40 tee time, the starter let the 2 playing with us go off 10 minutes early and accused us of being late because we should of checked in and been ready to play at 930, well then your pro shop should not of sold us range tokens at 920 and told us that. Someone must of seen the 2 newbies we were playing with driving on the fairway and reported us, guy comes up and yells at us about cart path only Im like it was not us, well tell them, no wait I dont know them YOU tell them it is not my job. So warning about ONLINE rates Timbers is one of the few on here that does not include carts, very nice bait. So the course was soaked it never drains well anyway. So we thought we were playing for 42 a man NOPE, even with cart path only we paid almost an additional $40 for the cart, come on now it is one cart even my country club only charges one cart fee but 18 and change per man is ridiculous. Anyway NEVER again not when for a few more bucks I can play Renditions, Lake Prez, Blue Mash, Mountain Branch, or even Bulle Rock.

I play here a lot. Like the layout and it is just a fun course. Today some of the fairways have bad condition but doesn’t really matter to me much.

Played Timbers yesterday for the first time in five years, hoping it had improved some in my time away. Used to play here often in the early 2000s, and stopped when its conditioning slowly deteriorated. This course was never great. It’s a bad layout and it obviously lacks the kind of funding needed to properly maintain the course, but man is it bad. The fairways are complete muck. They clearly don’t drain well, and the course makes almost no effort to fill in divots. Vegetation off the fairways is completely overgrown, likely untouched in 15 years. I’m sure this place would love to blame its current woes on COVID complications but it’s just a bad track. To fix it would require a total overhaul, better drainage and a ton of tree maintenance. A friend of mine had his son with him and so he inquired about a cart for nine holes at twilight. The course told him it would be $36 more for the two of them to ride nine holes together. It’s madness that Howard County, one of the richest counties in the US, has its main public track that is this bad.

Course only advertises the walking rate - charges $25 to ride solo or $18 to share carts. Course itself was in terrible shape. It just rained the night before, so I give them a little bit of a break. Fringe had long grasses growing all over it and the greens were chewed up from ball marks. We were the 3rd group off, so I can’t blame it on groups ahead of us. Course could be nice, but it seems like they don’t take pride in keeping it in top shape. Do yourself a favor and spend your money elsewhere

The course was in fair condition. Fairways need to be aerated, greens in good shape. Just not happy with what has been done this year for golf rates with this automatic increase in greens fees to offset losses from Covid and increased demand for single carts. Courses need to be smart in the offseason to adjust to the market and investigate other more affordable cart options.

Is a nice course, with friendly staff. However, Kemper Sports, or Howard County (who owns the course) is not really taking care. They spent millions of $ a few years ago and re-did the bunkers. Now they're crap, as simple basic maintenance is not being done. Is it too much to ask that they be (machine) raked once a day? No one replaces divots, or fixes ball marks on the greens, which has led to little maintenance of the course, other than to cut the grass! Save your money (as it is pricey), and other public courses are better maintained.

During this unfortunate pandemic the staff at Timbers have demonstrated true professionalism in following safety guidelines intelligently. I have played here 4 times during the pandemic; each time the staff have been fully masked up and behind plexiglass in the Pro Shop and the Lunch counter. They have hand sanitizer available right at the front door and 6ft markers. The course is also in great shape.

The rates are deceiving. Almost every other course on this app and many others show the rate with cart included. Timbers is a great course but they advertise these seemingly low priced tee times and then you’re slapped with a $15 cart fee when you get there. This is one of my favorite courses. But for a municipal course, it’s a bit on the pricey end