Monroe Valley in Jonestown PA review 04-19-2014

Monroe Valley

Monroe Valley is a long solid par 72 course at 6455 yards from the whites and a stout 7000 yards from the blues nestled in a valley hence the name. Let’s start at the club house. The inside is a bit dated and tons of open room that is just kind of odd and empty.  The staff inside was great. On the day I was there when I went to pay he gave me a discount that was only offered to the email newsletter members. The Greens fee with cart was to be $39.00 but the discount got me down to $19.00.  Cannot beat $19.00 for a round of golf with a cart I thought.

Now let’s move outside now. The cart fleet was newer gas powered Yamaha units.  They were in very good shape but lacked everything else as they did not even have divot mix or a holder for it on them. Though that was odd right out of the gate as normally you would want the players to take the best care of the course as possible. They have a driving that is natural grass. Only issue with it was it is at an odd angle and if you hit the ball left a bit the ball will go into the #9 fairway. When playing #9 this was an issue.

Now let’s talk about the course itself and how things went.

To start the first tee was backed up 2 foursomes right out of the gate So we started about 15-20 min late due to that. The fairways were some kind of Kentucky blue grass or so.  It was as if I was playing golf in my front yard.  I did not mind that so much as lots of places in Pa use that kind of mix due to high traffic play so it holds up and does better in a dry summer. Most of the fairways were wide and tree lined. One large issue was found on the fairway of the #9 hole. While playing you get mishit balls from the range that land on the fairway. The course had some nice streams that wonder through and along some of the fairways as well as some ponds.  Some of the water hazards are very well placed so that they force you to layup to them or risk it and try to go long. Only issue with the ponds is that they had tons of ducks that were pooping all over the adjacent fairways and greens. Due to so many streams there were a lot of low line areas with some drainage issues. Even some of the greens were very wet and soft as well.  So wet to the point that some of the bent grass has died and there were bare spots. One other thing is that there is some tall fescue growing in odd areas. I think they need to look at that and use it more in-between adjacent fairways in low spots that have drainage issues to hide some of that. One of the biggest issues is that on some of the fairways even right in the middle of there were total bare spots. Most of them were like mud and dirt holes and some even had harsh stone in them. They were not there for drainage but poor grounds maintenance.  It looked like there was not even an attempt at trying to fix them.

So overall this entire course could use some work.  I still think the layout of the course is very nice and it was a great time playing it.  I think if they spend the time fixing the greens and some of the fairways this would be a very nice course to play.  As it stands right now do I think $39.00 is a fair rate for the course?  No. Now $19.00 yes even $29.00 and I would go as far as $35.00.  I know it is only $5.00 less but I just do not think the $39.00 rate puts them at the right spot with other courses around them that are better kept. Would I golf there again?  For $19.00 yes I would golf just about anywhere for $19.00 but the $39.00 rate is a hard sell to get me back.