Christmas Mountain Village

I was at the Dells a few days on vacation and decided to play here. The elevation changes were awesome. Bring extra balls because if you don't hit it straight, you will more than likely lose one

Nice weather before the storm. Staff was excellent. Course was in great shape--much sand, so great drainage. Pace was great. We use red tee box and some time they are not in best of shape. Pro shop was well stocked. Gas cars were clean and ready to go. Easy to find your way around the course. Excellent prices for this off season Christmas gift.

Following is a letter I sent addressed to the President of the company. I did not receive the courtesy of a reply, which I think tells me something.

Sir,

I played your golf course for the first time last weekend and thought you might want to know what my impression is.

The good news… I liked the course. I would play it again, if not for …

The bad news… I did not have a very favorable impression of the staff.

My daughter played in the Div 2 WIAA Sectional yesterday, which was held at your course. As preparation, I took her up there to play a practice round last Sunday. When I called to make the reservation, I told the gentleman we wanted to play the course that the Sectional would be played on. He told me to tell that to the person in the pro-shop when we arrived, and they would help us. I did that when we arrived. The person (young lady) told us it will be held on the Oaks course. I discussed it again with the starter. We played the Oaks. Imagine our surprise to arrive at the Sectional yesterday and find out that they were to play the Oaks front 9, then the Pines 9 holes. The young guy in the pro shop told me that’s how competitions are always done, because the Oaks back 9 is difficult to walk. I thought to myself “Well, that’s one way to boost the home field advantage for the local team… send the out of towners to the wrong course.” Either that, or the staff here just doesn’t know what’s going on.

In addition, when we played the Oaks practice round on Sunday, our tee time was 8:30 AM. There was no one visible in front of us but one group behind us. I looked at the starter’s sheet and noted that the previous group teed off at 8:06. My daughter and I were paired with another two-some, who are members of your course. We played at a normal pace, but on hole 5 a guy in a cart (George, according to the member) told us we are playing too slowly as there are two open holes in front of us and we are holding up guys behind. We looked behind and saw no one waiting. He told us we would have to speed it up. We said ok, and he left. On #6, he approached us again and told us we are not going fast enough, we would have to skip #7 and go on to 8. I told him we are not wasting time, and that the reason there is a gap in front of us is because we teed off at 830 and the previous T-time before ours was 806. I also told him if we see anyone waiting behind us we will let them play through. He then became agitated and brusque, and told me we had 2 choices if we wanted to continue to play… to skip a hole, or move to the Pines. I told him we are here to play the Oaks, not the Pines, as practice for my daughter’s Sectional. He said, fine, then we must skip a hole and if we still don’t play fast enough we would have to skip another hole. We skipped #7 and continued playing. Several holes later he came by again. I asked him how we are doing. He said “Fine, now.” I told him that’s interesting, since we are playing no differently than we did on 1-6, and if we are really that slow I’m surprised the guys behind us have not caught up to us and closed the 1 hole gap created when we skipped 7. He said nothing. Perhaps he just didn’t get my point, that the gap in front of us was there when we started, not caused by our pace of play. We never saw him again.

My personal feeling is that he was paying “special” attention to us, i.e. harassing us, because we had a young girl in our group who he assumed would be holding up play. However, she is a good player who can beat the majority of the men who play your course. She, or any of us, were NOT playing slowly.

The bottom line is our experience at your course was not very enjoyable.

My suggestion… drop the cop routine. The club we belong to has no cop, and we don’t have a problem with slow play. We members are all adults with a sense of etiquette. We know enough to watch behind and allow faster groups to play through. We don’t’ need to be treated like children by a grumpy old man.

I felt that given the time of the year that the course was in pretty darn good condition. My whole group had to battle with the leaves and lost several balls as a result but hey it's November. We will play this course again but earlier in the year.

Played 9 holes course in great shape set for my draw on most holes

The weather was poor(wind, light rain), but good enough to play, the course was in good shape, despite the time of year. Definitely worth the money. The staff was great, My putter surface broke before we tee'd off. The staff gave me a loaner putter, that was awesome.

The course is beautiful and my wife and I had a great time. We did not put as well as we should have on the nice and fast greens. We will love to play it again.

Good for resort residents and campers. Some scenic holes on the higher back nine. Lady bugs in the fall season woods are a nuisance and the sound of gun shots nearby were unsettling. Errant shots mean lost balls, stroke penalties...and might be avoided with clearer descriptions of some holes. People are friendly, but I'd look for another 4 star course, if I came back to the area.

Grass is stickier than we were used to, so was a challenge in that respect - very little roll so ball didn't travel as far. But it was fun and the weather was beautiful.

Booked a round (18) at Christmas Mountain for the second time within a week. Unfortunately this round was rained out, but received a rain check with no difficulties. Then went into Mulligans and had lunch and enjoyed ourselves and had excellent service for both of the people working there. Starter here is very friendly and accomodating (Bob). Will definitely return here in the future.

To be honest, when I see the regular price around $80 I expected the course to be a bit nicer. The fairway and greens were both fairly beat up and the bunkers were quite hard. However, there has been a lot of rain in the area lately so that may have contributed to this.

Overall it's a decent course...but certainly not up there with some of the other nice courses in the Dells. We were staying at the attached resort though so it's tough to beat that convenience, even though the great Trapper's Turn is a mere 5 minutes away.

In summary, a solid course that may have been in a rough shape due to the weather. The pace of play was a bit slow due to them allowing some groups of 6 for whatever reason, but the course wasn't packed so that may have been why.

As a first timer here, I regretted a few tee shots due to left and right hazards of heavily grassed steep rocky slopes on which it was easy to lose (and find) balls.

Greens were in very good condition with subtle undulations. Again, as a first timer, I know putting would have been easier with prior knowledge.

Pace of play was 4.5 hours as we followed a queue of 4-balls. Not a long course and even at my age I thought I would expect to play to my handicap next time. Poor changing facilities (no showers).

The course was in great shape. Play was brisk which we like. No delays!

VALUE WAS GREAT AND COURSE WAS IN GOOD CONDITION.

The staff was helpful but the golf course didn't look taken care of very well.

The Oaks at Christmas Mountain was a nice course in very good shape. The course is cut through the woods and moderately challenging so have an extra sleeve or two of balls if you are crooked off the tee. The fairways were in great shape as were the greens. The greens were on the slow side, but not obnoxiously so. I would play the course again. Saw deer through out and heard a turkey gobbling in the woods. The bartender in the 19th hole (Mulligans) was friendly and the food and drink was reasonably priced.

Just about had the course to myself. Don't know where everyone was, maybe still off season, but my round was less than 3 1/2 hours. Course was in very good condition.

Was excited to play this course, but day started off with my tee time being pushed back 20 minutes due to course being overbooked. As a single placed behind a number of foursomes, pace of play was awful. Only time I saw a marshal was when he cut in front of me from out of the woods on a tee box and I nearly launched a tee shot right at him...he wasnt even paying attention. Course was in good shape, but the slow play and non-existent presence of staff to keep people moving along became tedious and tiresome. Actually skipped over the 18th hole and went home because it was such a mess. An absolute disaster from start to finish, and with the wealth of courses in the Dells area to choose from, I will take my game elsewhere in the future.