Jump to content
IGNORED

Boulder Creek (Streetsboro, OH)


saevel25
Note: This thread is 1275 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Recommended Posts

Played this course with Erik and two of his golf team members.

Layout - 5/10
Condition - 6/10
Pace of Play - 1/10
Visually Appealing - 8/10
Cost - 7/10

Overall, the course looks great, but it hides some design flaws that make golfing there not that pleasant. It was difficult to figure out where to hit the ball of the tee to maximize your scoring potential. The course was very soft and we struggled to find golf balls 10 yards off the fairway. A few of the greens were a bit wonky. A lot of the fairways were to narrow. There were very little bail out areas if you didn't want to take on an aggressive angle. So, there was a lot of risk with very little reward. All of this lead to a 5 hour round of golf. I think unless you get the first tee time in the morning, you will be having a 5+ hour round of golf every time out there. The course is just set up that you will be looking for 2-3 golf balls on 75% of the holes. 

Overall - 6.5/10

Matt Dougherty, P.E.
 fasdfa dfdsaf 

What's in My Bag
Driver; :pxg: 0311 Gen 5,  3-Wood: 
:titleist: 917h3 ,  Hybrid:  :titleist: 915 2-Hybrid,  Irons: Sub 70 TAIII Fordged
Wedges: :edel: (52, 56, 60),  Putter: :edel:,  Ball: :snell: MTB,  Shoe: :true_linkswear:,  Rangfinder: :leupold:
Bag: :ping:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

4 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Played this course with Erik and two of his golf team members.

Layout - 5/10
Condition - 6/10
Pace of Play - 1/10
Visually Appealing - 8/10
Cost - 7/10

Overall, the course looks great, but it hides some design flaws that make golfing there not that pleasant. It was difficult to figure out where to hit the ball of the tee to maximize your scoring potential. The course was very soft and we struggled to find golf balls 10 yards off the fairway. A few of the greens were a bit wonky. A lot of the fairways were to narrow. There were very little bail out areas if you didn't want to take on an aggressive angle. So, there was a lot of risk with very little reward. All of this lead to a 5 hour round of golf. I think unless you get the first tee time in the morning, you will be having a 5+ hour round of golf every time out there. The course is just set up that you will be looking for 2-3 golf balls on 75% of the holes. 

Overall - 6.5/10

I find your assessment very interesting. I've played Boulder Creek a few times (Maybe 4 times between 2018 and 2019). I've always played it during the day on a weekday and, admittedly, not since the COVID thing began. All the times I've played it I'd say the pace of play was very good. 6 or 7 out of 10. Again, I've only played on weekdays, during the day. Similarly, the condition has normally been very good. 

I will say this, the one BIG complaint I've had about Boulder Creek is their range balls. Yeah, weird, I know. But seriously their range balls were the WORST I've ever seen, and I've played some real goat tracks. Many of them would barely qualify as a ball. The last time I was there, 2019, I asked for my money back from the range bucket I hit. They gave it to me without even a discussion. You could literally hit clumps of dirt and get the same warm up as hitting what tumbled out of the range ball machine. 

Other than the range ball thing. I've truly enjoyed all the rounds I've played there. I've even liked the food. I hope it hasn't fallen down. 

My bag is an ever-changing combination of clubs. 

A mix I am forever tinkering with. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Not sure how far you drive the ball or the tee boxes you would be playing. Maybe the course plays different for someone who plays the white tees or shorter. They may not be able to cut any of the corners and it may play more reasonable. 

Matt Dougherty, P.E.
 fasdfa dfdsaf 

What's in My Bag
Driver; :pxg: 0311 Gen 5,  3-Wood: 
:titleist: 917h3 ,  Hybrid:  :titleist: 915 2-Hybrid,  Irons: Sub 70 TAIII Fordged
Wedges: :edel: (52, 56, 60),  Putter: :edel:,  Ball: :snell: MTB,  Shoe: :true_linkswear:,  Rangfinder: :leupold:
Bag: :ping:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

@saevel25 I had to go back and check my Arccos data. The last time I played Boulder Creek was actually Late July 2017.... not 2019 or even 2018. So, it's been a lot longer than I thought since I've played there. Wow, time flies.

Anyhow, I only have 2 rounds of Arccos data for Boulder Creek. I played them both from the blue tees. I do know that I played a company outing there from the whites as well. I don't remember the difference between the blue and the white being particularly dramatic except for one of the par 3's. Anyhow, according to Accos I was playing pretty well (for me) the last time I played there. I averaged just under 260 yards with the driver. (That's total distance, not carry ... obviously, Arccos data is always total distance). According to Arccos, both times I played it looks like hole 13 and 15 gave me a lot of trouble (I averaged nearly a triple bogey over the 2 rounds on those 2 holes). Otherwise I played okay. I had birdies on 2, 6, 11, and 18... not all in the same round. 

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. What I was interested in is that you rated the condition of the course very low, 6/10. I seem to remember it being in great condition. (Albeit, except for the range balls.) With the number of courses which have closed in Ohio, I really hope that place doesn't fall into disrepair. 

If I ever get my game back to reasonable. I'll get up there and give it another shot and report back to you. 

My bag is an ever-changing combination of clubs. 

A mix I am forever tinkering with. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • Administrator

Many of my issues with the “design” are related to pace of play and/or safety issues. Trees that needlessly block your view of an area, for example… stuff like that.

Obviously, based on only one playing, and I’m only really highlighting the things I think could be better or that are negatives. I’m not including the positive aspects of the thing here (I’d rate the course as a 5.5/10 or 6/10 - it’s not worth two hours for me to drive, but it’s still a slightly better than average course). So, mostly just the negatives…:

  1. Why have rough there? There’s also a dense bunch of pines right that serve no real purpose. Thin them out and allow recovery shots as well as easier tracking of a ball hit into them.
  2. Mostly fine. Short right fwy bunker kinda useless.
  3. The fairway is 17 yards wide at 250 yards. Left is dead. Right is trees. Difficult holes are fine, but nobody is going to want to be in the valley left, so there are going to be a lot of people looking in the trees right.
  4. None of us hit the green from 210 yards, and we spent about six or seven minutes progressively looking for everyone’s balls. Total balls found: 13. Number that were ours? All four, eventually. Did we still wait on the next tee after playing out? Yes. Balls were embedded everywhere on this hole.
  5. No real issues here.
  6. The left fairway is again 17-18 yards wide, the right fairway is 22 and runs out after 260 yards. We were hit into on this hole even though we kept a cart in the left fairway plainly visible from the tee by someone who hit through the middle in the trees where three of our tee shots went (all but one ended up downhill to the right with a relatively clean angle to the green. I reached with a 6I). Pace of play nightmare type hole.
  7. Mostly fine. You can’t see that the water extends around the back as much as it does, and it’s almost the same yardage from every set of tees, which doesn’t make sense to me. I wonder how the front tee players play this hole.
  8. Great example here of some bad stuff, IMO. First, trees just off the tee block your sight line to the left rough, nearly hiding all of two bunkers that are left as well as the cart path (behind more trees) on a cart-path-only hole. Then up the right, there’s an elevated bunker that hides the pond behind it, with thick, soft rough that’s 50+ yards from the cart path. Flatten the hill where the bunker right is so you can see the pond. If you want a bunker there, put it down by the water to stop balls from rolling in, though honestly it’s just not necessary as players hitting bunker shots over a pond are going to chunk or blade them 90% of the time, leading to slower play. Thin the trees out so you can see up the left side of the hole, both for safety and pace of play reasons.
  9. The fairway is again 21 yards wide just before you get to the hazard, which is about 230 yards off the back of the long strip tee, and 260 off the black tees.
  10. Good hole, though the possibly blind second shot is a mild pace of play/safety issue. I say possibly because I was in the left rough, and hit a 7I over trees to 40 yards shy of the green. It appeared that it may be blind going up and over the hill, but maybe it’s not tall enough to actually be blind. If not, the hole is fine/good.
  11. Decent hole.
  12. Fine. Green has a good amount of slope for a 210-yard tee shot, not a big size.
  13. Good hole.
  14. Trees right by the tee block your view up the right-hand side if you hit a ball to the right edge of the fairway, let alone just into the rough. The cart path is up the right-hand side, too, making it a pace of play and a safety issue, especially as most players slice. Otherwise, a good hole.
  15. Generally I’m not a fan of massive features on a green when it’s a blind shot. The green has an odd shape, a big tier, and is completely blind (you can see the flagstick). “It’s only blind once” they say, but for a busy almost “destination” type course (I’m using the term loosely, for just folks within an hour or two), this is another place where a few minutes of pace could be saved. Decent hole otherwise.
  16. Another 19-yard wide fairway at 250 yards off the tee.
  17. We could barely see the top of the flagstick from where we were teeing off (fortunately it was toward the back). I love a good downhill island par three, but it’s generally good to be able to see where the ball lands. Otherwise much of the drama is gone, unless you want to run forward so you can see the green.
  18. A good hole with a poor choice of hole locations yesterday. And a minor safety issue, as three of us drove well over the hilltop. We waited long enough so we knew they’d moved on, but people could be hit into here.

I think the course could be pretty darn good with a few changes, starting with firming up the conditions. Plugged balls in areas that are clearly too wet to mow very often (long rough) are a pace of play nightmare, and also just not fun golf. Firmer conditions would let better players hit 3W on some tees and still feed the ball into better areas instead of trying to hit driver into 20-yard-wide areas with a giant slope right and trees left (or vice versa).

I played pretty well. Got boned once or twice, but that’s fine, and they weren’t even on the obvious holes (once I think was a bad yardage - I think he got the slope behind the green and not the flagstick). The greens, because of how soft they were, were beat to heck. So many ball marks, footprints, etc. Billy Horschel would have done his Chambers Bay wiggly snake hand motion a few times on putts.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

10 minutes ago, iacas said:

Why have rough there? There’s also a dense bunch of pines right that serve no real purpose. Thin them out and allow recovery shots as well as easier tracking of a ball hit into them.

I agree with this. I don’t get why they wanted to force a non driver teeshot to hit the fairway. 

11 minutes ago, iacas said:

but nobody is going to want to be in the valley left, so there are going to be a lot of people looking in the trees right.

I can attest that being left here sucks.

12 minutes ago, iacas said:

You can’t see that the water extends around the back as much as it does, and it’s almost the same yardage from every set of tees, which doesn’t make sense to me. I wonder how the front tee players play this hole.

Yea, it only changes the angle to the hole. It might matter more with wind direction, but I think they could consolidate the tee boxes. Maybe one way left and one way right. 

14 minutes ago, iacas said:

Great example here of some bad stuff,

Not a big fan of this hole. It’s a big safety issue with the tee shot to a blind landing area. 

16 minutes ago, iacas said:

Generally I’m not a fan of massive features on a green when it’s a blind shot. The green has an odd shape, a big tier, and is completely blind (you can see the flagstick).

I didn’t like that my 70 yard shot ended up in the rough when I pushed it like 5 yards right. Not a fan of blind shots to these sort of greens.

 

Matt Dougherty, P.E.
 fasdfa dfdsaf 

What's in My Bag
Driver; :pxg: 0311 Gen 5,  3-Wood: 
:titleist: 917h3 ,  Hybrid:  :titleist: 915 2-Hybrid,  Irons: Sub 70 TAIII Fordged
Wedges: :edel: (52, 56, 60),  Putter: :edel:,  Ball: :snell: MTB,  Shoe: :true_linkswear:,  Rangfinder: :leupold:
Bag: :ping:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

13 hours ago, iacas said:

Many of my issues with the “design” are related to pace of play and/or safety issues. Trees that needlessly block your view of an area, for example… stuff like that.

Obviously, based on only one playing, and I’m only really highlighting the things I think could be better or that are negatives. I’m not including the positive aspects of the thing here (I’d rate the course as a 5.5/10 or 6/10 - it’s not worth two hours for me to drive, but it’s still a slightly better than average course). So, mostly just the negatives…:

  1. Why have rough there? There’s also a dense bunch of pines right that serve no real purpose. Thin them out and allow recovery shots as well as easier tracking of a ball hit into them.
  2. Mostly fine. Short right fwy bunker kinda useless.
  3. The fairway is 17 yards wide at 250 yards. Left is dead. Right is trees. Difficult holes are fine, but nobody is going to want to be in the valley left, so there are going to be a lot of people looking in the trees right.
  4. None of us hit the green from 210 yards, and we spent about six or seven minutes progressively looking for everyone’s balls. Total balls found: 13. Number that were ours? All four, eventually. Did we still wait on the next tee after playing out? Yes. Balls were embedded everywhere on this hole.
  5. No real issues here.
  6. The left fairway is again 17-18 yards wide, the right fairway is 22 and runs out after 260 yards. We were hit into on this hole even though we kept a cart in the left fairway plainly visible from the tee by someone who hit through the middle in the trees where three of our tee shots went (all but one ended up downhill to the right with a relatively clean angle to the green. I reached with a 6I). Pace of play nightmare type hole.
  7. Mostly fine. You can’t see that the water extends around the back as much as it does, and it’s almost the same yardage from every set of tees, which doesn’t make sense to me. I wonder how the front tee players play this hole.
  8. Great example here of some bad stuff, IMO. First, trees just off the tee block your sight line to the left rough, nearly hiding all of two bunkers that are left as well as the cart path (behind more trees) on a cart-path-only hole. Then up the right, there’s an elevated bunker that hides the pond behind it, with thick, soft rough that’s 50+ yards from the cart path. Flatten the hill where the bunker right is so you can see the pond. If you want a bunker there, put it down by the water to stop balls from rolling in, though honestly it’s just not necessary as players hitting bunker shots over a pond are going to chunk or blade them 90% of the time, leading to slower play. Thin the trees out so you can see up the left side of the hole, both for safety and pace of play reasons.
  9. The fairway is again 21 yards wide just before you get to the hazard, which is about 230 yards off the back of the long strip tee, and 260 off the black tees.
  10. Good hole, though the possibly blind second shot is a mild pace of play/safety issue. I say possibly because I was in the left rough, and hit a 7I over trees to 40 yards shy of the green. It appeared that it may be blind going up and over the hill, but maybe it’s not tall enough to actually be blind. If not, the hole is fine/good.
  11. Decent hole.
  12. Fine. Green has a good amount of slope for a 210-yard tee shot, not a big size.
  13. Good hole.
  14. Trees right by the tee block your view up the right-hand side if you hit a ball to the right edge of the fairway, let alone just into the rough. The cart path is up the right-hand side, too, making it a pace of play and a safety issue, especially as most players slice. Otherwise, a good hole.
  15. Generally I’m not a fan of massive features on a green when it’s a blind shot. The green has an odd shape, a big tier, and is completely blind (you can see the flagstick). “It’s only blind once” they say, but for a busy almost “destination” type course (I’m using the term loosely, for just folks within an hour or two), this is another place where a few minutes of pace could be saved. Decent hole otherwise.
  16. Another 19-yard wide fairway at 250 yards off the tee.
  17. We could barely see the top of the flagstick from where we were teeing off (fortunately it was toward the back). I love a good downhill island par three, but it’s generally good to be able to see where the ball lands. Otherwise much of the drama is gone, unless you want to run forward so you can see the green.
  18. A good hole with a poor choice of hole locations yesterday. And a minor safety issue, as three of us drove well over the hilltop. We waited long enough so we knew they’d moved on, but people could be hit into here.

I think the course could be pretty darn good with a few changes, starting with firming up the conditions. Plugged balls in areas that are clearly too wet to mow very often (long rough) are a pace of play nightmare, and also just not fun golf. Firmer conditions would let better players hit 3W on some tees and still feed the ball into better areas instead of trying to hit driver into 20-yard-wide areas with a giant slope right and trees left (or vice versa).

I played pretty well. Got boned once or twice, but that’s fine, and they weren’t even on the obvious holes (once I think was a bad yardage - I think he got the slope behind the green and not the flagstick). The greens, because of how soft they were, were beat to heck. So many ball marks, footprints, etc. Billy Horschel would have done his Chambers Bay wiggly snake hand motion a few times on putts.

Wow, thanks for the extensive review of this course. I don't have a good enough memory to comment specifically on any of these. I'm going to have to go back through my Arccos data and refresh my memory, then I can comment. The course is like a 2-1/2 hour drive for me as well, but it's a course we normally like to play when we do sales team events. Plus I used to have customers up in that neck of the woods so I'd play it with them once in a while. 

I've always enjoyed my experiences at the course. Of course, none of us play at the level of you or @saevel25. AND, I've I've never played it while it was soggy. I really do appreciate the review you and @saevel25 gave. I've always thought of this as one of the premium type courses in the upper Ohio area, so most of my Ohio friends rave about it. 

My bag is an ever-changing combination of clubs. 

A mix I am forever tinkering with. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • Administrator
6 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

AND, I've I've never played it while it was soggy.

I’ve heard that’s the perpetual state of the course.

It hadn’t rained in weeks when we played.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

17 minutes ago, iacas said:

I’ve heard that’s the perpetual state of the course.

It hadn’t rained in weeks when we played.

Yep, I think it was about 2 weeks of no rain. I played 4 courses the previous 4 days and 3 out of the 4 the courses were pretty firm. 

Matt Dougherty, P.E.
 fasdfa dfdsaf 

What's in My Bag
Driver; :pxg: 0311 Gen 5,  3-Wood: 
:titleist: 917h3 ,  Hybrid:  :titleist: 915 2-Hybrid,  Irons: Sub 70 TAIII Fordged
Wedges: :edel: (52, 56, 60),  Putter: :edel:,  Ball: :snell: MTB,  Shoe: :true_linkswear:,  Rangfinder: :leupold:
Bag: :ping:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Note: This thread is 1275 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Want to join this community?

    We'd love to have you!

    Sign Up
  • TST Partners

    TourStriker PlaneMate
    Golfer's Journal
    ShotScope
    The Stack System
    FlightScope Mevo
    Direct: Mevo, Mevo+, and Pro Package.

    Coupon Codes (save 10-15%): "IACAS" for Mevo/Stack, "IACASPLUS" for Mevo+/Pro Package, and "THESANDTRAP" for ShotScope.
  • Popular Now

  • Posts

    • Day 85 - Played 9. Driver was solid, approach shots were pushed, chipping/pitching was better, putting was rough. 
    • Day 514, March 28, 2024 Quick ten minutes while waiting for the wife to come home for our trip.
    • Day 262: did a stack session. Worked on rehearsal swings during rest breaks. 
    • It's been a little more than a year since I can last remember hitting golf balls and today I just got my second cortisone injection in 11 months. I thought maybe shortly after the first injection I was going to be able to start playing again with therapy but the pain while doing my backswing past halfway just didn't subside like just lifting my hands up in the air did. So today the Orthopedic surgeon put more in the backside of the shoulder than before to address the tendon more. I'm going to try therapy for another 3 months and if I  can't swing the club without pain then I think surgery is going to be my next option.
    • I was just down visiting family in southern California and we played a couple rounds of golf. I hit my ball into the deep rough near some tree's and my cousin's husband offered me his Sim 2 Rescue Hybrid to try out. And I felt the same way, wow! I loved it, it also had a Pure DTX grip on it which I loved. As soon as I got back home, I ended up buying two used Calloway Rogue X hybrids, 3 and 5. So far I've only tested them out at the range, but I love them. They're much more forgiving than irons for me.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to TST! Signing up is free, and you'll see fewer ads and can talk with fellow golf enthusiasts! By using TST, you agree to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, and our Guidelines.

The popup will be closed in 10 seconds...