Bear Creek East = The Worst

Sad news in the DFW golf world - the greens keeper at Bear Creek apparently has been dead for some time...

Reaves sends me an email asking me if I'd prefer to play Tour 18 (which Steven Gribin said is in the best shape he's ever seen) or Bear Creek on Saturday. Naturally, I responded in favor of the known commodity. Also, I've never liked Bear Creek. It's never been in great shape and the pace of play has always been horrible out there.

Well, the pace was fantastic this week because the course has the absolute worst greens I've ever seen. No putt could roll even remotely decent. We might as well have putted on a rock pile. Even areas where they let the grass grow so high that the green looked decent, you couldn't control the line. The pictures attached do not show how bad this place really is.

I'm sure the superintendent would say that the fairways and teeboxes are in good shape. True, but when you can't put the greens, there's really no point in playing.

Worst of all, they don't seem to be doing anything to fix the situation. They gave us a discounted green fee because the greens were "aerated". However, there was absolutley no sign of aeration...no top dressing...no temporary greens...nothing. And $45 is still a rip off. I wouldn't play that course again if they paid me $45.


Oh, and they gave us a neat "quick check-in card" and a coupon for a green fee only replay round. Thanks, but no thanks guys. That course is officially off my list until someone I know and trust says it's perfect. There are just too many golf courses around to have to play greens like that.

The East course needs to be shut down and worked - hard. The East course is completely unplayable right now. The GM should be ashamed that he's taking people's money.

Probably the thing that pisses me off the most is that's the only round of golf I'll probably be able to play between June 19th and July 10th due to work, school, the holiday, and scuba classes. Perhaps as much as an entire month will go by between rounds and all I have in the middle is Bear Creek. It's really a shame. That course has so much potential. It's about the closest public course in DFW to matching some of the Hill Country courses that I'm learning to love...elevation changes, fully grown trees, and quality layouts.

Eventually, I'll get around to ranking the public courses in DFW. Bear Creek won't be on the list. Save your money. Stay away.