As I wrote about in my last post, I spent the Memorial Day weekend in Dallas with my fiancé and family. I played a course in Carrollton on Saturday called Indian Creek. It was a nice little track and would recommend it to anyone looking for a course in that area. On Sunday, it was a different story. We played a course in Coppell called Riverchase Golf Club. I found it online a few weeks back and my brother booked the tee times for early in the morning so we finish in time to make it to the cookout by 2:00 PM. Needless to say, we were almost late with the close to five hour round it took to get around Riverchase.
We pulled up and the clubhouse was being renovated, so we checked in at a trailer set up for the pro shop. The course sat between apartment complexes and neighborhoods. From the back tees it only played 6593 yards. From the first tee box, you can see it was tight, with OB on just about every hole and water mixed in on a majority of the holes. Also from the first tee box, you could tell it was going to be a long day when the threesome in front of us waited for the green to clear on a par 5. All of this while being 250+ yards to the green and into a stiff 30 MPH wind. Either way, on their second shots not one of them came within 150 yards from the green. So we are already held up.
We waited on the 2nd hole again. And then the 3rd hole. And then the 4th hole. So you get the picture. There was 1 1/2 holes in front of this threesome. On the 7th hole we finally saw a marshall and informed him we are two hours into our round and are only on #7. I told him we have waited at least 3-5 minutes on every shot. The groups behind us were stacked as well. The marshall proceeded to tell me I was wrong and the pace of play was perfectly fine. At this point I started to get irritated.
On the back nine, we stopped at the trailer clubhouse to get some drinks. By the time we went to the restroom, got a soda, and drove to the #10 tee box, they were just pulling the head covers off of their drivers. And guess what, nobody was in the fairway or on the green. We sat there for another ten minutes until this group hit their tee shots and then hit their second shots. By #13, the same marshall came by and we informed him AGAIN we were waiting and this group was a hole behind. He then said he would check it out. He followed this group for two holes while we waited on every shot. I never saw him tell them anything and by #14 he had driven off on his way, and the pace continued to be slow for the remained of the round.
By the time we finished it was 4 hours and 50 minutes. It was horrible and what irritated the most was the marshall arguing with us about the pace. On the other hand, the course was decent besides the fact it seemed they aerated every other green. Two holes would be fine, then the next three would be punched. Then the next three holes would be fine while the next two would have holes in them. I couldn’t figure out why they would punch only certain greens, because it sure messes up the pace from hole to hole.
Overall I would probably not go back there and I would definitely not tell anyone about it. It really is a shame because the back side is really a good layout. There are some unique and fun holes that you really have to place your tee shot.
In the end, it was a great weekend to spend playing golf with my dad and brother. It is not too often we can all three get together to play. If anyone has other course recommendations in the DFW area let me know, I will be going back up there soon.
