North/West at Sycamore Hills Golf Club

This course used to be great about TWO years ago when you only had to pay about $50 (almost $70 now after only a 2 season difference) for a 18 hole round that you could finish in under 5 hours. NOW they jacked the prices up like everywhere else even though they haven’t actually put any real money into the course, and they book tee times about 5-7 minutes apart from each other without a ranger to control start times so you are waiting on every single hole. They have 3 different nines so you would expect there to be plenty of room between you and the other golfers, but no. They jam-pack every nine to the point where you would be lucky to finish in under 6 hours. The course itself is decent, about a 6.5 out of 10. But again when courses no longer care about the experience or the golfer, and they just make it into a cash grab like every other public mediocre course, it ruins the game and makes you not want to play as often as you should be able to. SHAME ON YOU SYCAMORE OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT, YOU HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE “NEW AGE” DOWNFALL OF GOLF. You better be paying your staff a minimum of $20 an hour to make these prices justifiable, and if thats not the case then you should seriously consider a change in CEO. This course and Maple Lane are banned from my play list of courses in the macomb area. I suggest yall boycott it as well to hopefully open their eyes to revert back to what they are worth and to make the game enjoyable again at their course..

Course is actually in pretty good condition. Greens are nice. The only problem is they have 3 9 hole courses. We had a 6:32 tee time playing south to north. Made the turn after playing two hours. They had the north tee box backed up with multiple groups with 8:30-8-40 tee times. . How does that make any sense? They should at least start behind us on the south course or on the west course. Horrible management by the club house.

For the cost to play the course, you would expect better fairways for August. Everything was a mess out there, and every shot was like hitting of hardpan. Not sure what the issue was, but I have played this course for years, and this is by far the worse I have ever seen.

This review is solely for the 9-H of the North Course. I’ve played the West and South which are in better condition, not by much. Still, this is a north course review. Top to bottom: Tee boxes were in very rough condition. The gold tees (tips) card says 3,000. That cannot be true, far less than that. Course/Fairway conditions, terrible. Multiple large areas of dead spots. Their par 5 was converted to a par 3 from the fairway due to overflow from the Clinton River. Which I’ve been told has happened multiple times. Layout is terrible. The rough is a combination of multiple weeds, dead patches and what may be “rough”. Green complexes. Geez. Again multiple dead patches, ball marks, shaggy and poorly cut holes that had the donut effect around them.

I never want to play on that 9 again. Bello Woods is sadly in better condition then that North 9 was. They’ve seemingly invested in a lot of amenities. But definitely not in that north 9 Very disappointed.

8-10 Handicap Golfer.

I had a 6:45 am tee time, the second of the day. The front 9 went very quickly. When we went to the back 9 there were other golfers placed in front of us and the back 9 took much longer, waiting 10+ minutes on each tee. The reason we made a 6:45 tee time was to play the ENTIRE round without waiting on every tee. WE will not be back thinking we will play quickly with a very early tee time.

Took 30 minutes per hole and could not make it past the 5th hole. There were 6 different carts on the 5th hole and we waited 45 minutes before complaining to the ranger. The ranger and staff were extremely disrespectful, condescending, and rude. Gave us rain checks for $52 when the tee-time was $67. The par 5 on south was unplayable. It’s been like that for 3 years. Would not recommend.

The course is nice but very overcrowded. Not sure if I’d have better luck on a weekend or in the morning but they book out twilight tee times, and there were literally 8 people on the tee box for my time. Everyone in front of us was stuck behind someone. Barely finished 9 before dark after I teed off at 6.

I know twilight rates are attractive but if you’re gonna book tee times then why book so many people at the same time. The course seems they could have better control over the pace of play but don’t bother. I won’t be going back for twilight, maybe I will give an earlier tee time a shot someday.

Straight trash. And they’re still charging $67.

Staff:

One staffer wasn’t rude but wasn’t very welcoming. Two people said “good morning” walking in and both got zero response. He got the system going and then left. Starter was an absolute moron. We requested west and north because we knew South would be trashed. He then decided it would be a genius idea to send us to South to start off. What an idiot.

Course conditions:

No way this place should be charging full price! $67 for this flooded, currently diseased course is a complete ripoff. There’s google reviews from 3 weeks ago talking about course conditions (not from the rain) and the course is still the same.

Tee boxes are unleveled and beat to dirt. Most fairways are all mud. Zero grass. Most balls had to picked up and moved backwards because the fairways were either flooded or all mud. 3 of our 18 holes instructed us go to the other side of the River and tee off there because the fairway was all mud and being “repaired”. Two par 5s were turned into Par 3s all under 140 yards because of this and we were still charged full price. Ridiculous.

Pace of Play:

They have three sets of 9 holes. Our group of 4 had a 6:30am tee time. Played the first half in 2 hours. Made the turn and had to wait for three additional groups on the tee box before we could start our back 9. Poor management and poor coordination between the staff. Groups making the turn should have priority over the groups that are just now coming in. Took us 3 hours to finish the back 9 because of this poor coordination between the starter. 5 hours total when it really should have been 4 hours.

We are never coming to play here again and I’m contemplating putting in a claim to receive my money back. This was the worst experience I’ve ever had golfing. These golf courses in Macomb need to be shut down for their lack of management.

I was able to play 18 holes in 2hours 45 mins. It was early morning day after 4th of July. Several holes in rough shape from flooding and no discounted rate for losing 2 par 5’s that were turned into par 3’s. Take notes from bee tee who offer the discounted price because of the conditions on a couple of holes.

Fairways are burnt out and dead from flooding. Greens are burnt out and damaged. $70 for this course is not worth it all. It used to be a really nice course.

Every tee box is beat up. Multiple Par 5’s are cut down to par 3’s due to terrible fairways conditions. Multiple greens are riddled with disease, honestly the course needs to just take a pause and let everything grow back and heal then I’ll gladly pay full price. Paying $67 for that on the weekend is absurd.

Honestly super disappointed, usually play this course several times a summer and enjoy it. I can’t believe they didn’t disclose either pre-booking or when talking to starter that 2 of the par 5’s were completely under construction and instead it’s a drop shot for a 150 yard par 3 now.

I understand it’s rained a lot and they are doing the best to repair quickly, but I felt like the rate they are charging for 6 short par 3’s (and not being told ahead of time) was crappy.

Will be back as I believe they are a solid track and they keep things very nice, but for a $75 round on the weekend to get that was bad.