This review is a few days past due. Maurice Hurst and I played golf at Bayou Oaks on Saturday, December 23rd as a way to celebrate Christmas between friends and have some fun. It turned out to be a pretty good day all around including the weather.
Upon arriving at Bayou Oaks at City Park I saw the amount of cars in the parking lot and knew it would be a busy day for the golf course. A good sign golf is healthy in the New Orleans area. There was no attendant at the bag drop but I got lucky and there was a parking spot right by it so I didn't have to carry my bag far. However, I also forget on this property that you can get a cart and bring it into the parking lot.
When checking in to the golf shop I was greeted by a person I had never met before. This was very special as I was greeted more friendly than times in the past, with a smile, and a Merry Christmas. A good start to the day. While on the practice putting green I met another golf professional and had a wonderful conversation. The day was going wonderful and the round had not even started yet.
We were supposed to be paired with another two-some but they never showed up. The starter was very friendly and explained to us the number of groups that would be ahead of us and even asked if we would like to wait for another two. We proceeded knowing we would be two behind a foursome. We ended up playing through them on the 5th hole and had a great pace on the front 9.
Bayou Oaks at City Park is very good about its beverage carts. This day there was one on each 9. One girl even had a Santa hat on and was in the Christmas Spirit. Both were very friendly and knew the golf etiquette to not drive up on golfers hitting or putting. The only downside, and not that big a deal, is that we only saw each beverage cart one time on each side. You'd think with a beverage cart per 9-holes you'd cross them more than once. I know the course was busy but there were quite a few gaps in groups with holes open as opposed to two groups on every hole.
The main complaint we had was when we got to the 10th tee and a twosome was put in front of us. The marshall's excuse was they were annual pass holders and he didn't know where we were. Which means he didn't bother to check. We were coming off of 9 green when we saw the twosome driving just ahead of us to the tenth tee. After playing through the group earlier we had 3 holes open behind us. Although there was another group directly in front of the twosome on hole 10 by the 11th green that group ended up a hole and a half ahead of the group put in front of us. Because there were still no groups within 3 holes behind us we hit extra chips and putts to try and keep a rhythm while being stuck behind the group that got put in front of us. I will say by the 18th tee the twosome ahead of us did catch back up to the group ahead of them but that looked more like another group on 18 slowed them down. We played the back 9 in 2 hrs and 20 min compared to the 1 hr and 45 min it took to play the front nine.
As for the golf course itself it was in really good condition.
Tee Boxes: 3.5 out of 5
The tee boxes were good on every hole but there were a few that had the tee markers in an area that had been sanded. This was more on the par 3 holes but it didn't leave much area to tee a ball up on grass. One par 3 in particular there was only about 1/4 of it useable if you didn't want to tee the ball up in sand. The strange part is there were plenty of areas where the tee markers could have been and not have any sand around them.
Fairways: 4.5 out of 5
the fairways were in excellent condition. They were cut low and playing pretty firm and fast. The only reason they are a half point from a perfect 5 is due to a few areas that were cut unevenly around the edges of the rough. It looked like they either cut the rough to make the fairway 5 feet wider or let the rough grow in and forgot to cut the edge. Only once was it a playability issue as the ball was sitting in grass which made you question a possible flier. Not something you should think of when on a fairway.
Greens: 4 out of 5
The greens were dormant and running fast and very smooth. The reason they are only a 4, actually, has nothing to do with the golf course but is a problem caused from all the other golfers. There were a lot of unfixed pitch marks on every green and plenty of spike marks from golfers dragging their feet. We probably fixed 4-5 pitch marks each per hole. I get that with dormant greens it is harder to notice the pitch mark from your own ball but there were plenty that were visible. If every golfer fixed just two per hole that they saw I wouldn't be talking about this.
The bunkers were good as well. Even the areas where golfers didn't bother to rake their footprints and where you could see they stepped right over the rake.
All in all Bayou Oaks at City Park - South Course is in really good condition and worth playing. I am still not sure it is worth over a $100 green fee, however, the deal rate we got of $79 was worth it based on the conditions alone.
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