Bayside Resort Golf Club – Course Review

Summary

I played Bayside on Saturday, October 31, 2020.  The course is a Jack Nicklaus design located in Selbyville, Delaware that has been open since 2005 and is the signature piece of the broader upscale Bayside living community.  The course is located four miles west of Fenwick Island, DE and is convenient to players coming from either of the Delaware or Maryland beaches.  Troon Golf manages the course and players familiar with other Troon facilities will notice a consistent look and feel.  My experience at Bayside was a mixed bag.

Par 3, 3rd hole playing 175 yards.

I had called for a tee time three weeks prior and booked 1:24 pm.  During the call, I was asked if I was a member or a visitor because different times and fees are available depending on the classification.  I booked as a visitor and learned that times prior to 12:00 noon were reserved for members.  However, since the course wasn’t expected to be busy, I was offered an earlier time at a rate of $117.  I was looking for something less expensive and settled for $79 at 1:24 pm.

I had visited the course on Friday to familiarize myself with the offerings and observed the fabulous practice facilities.

Short game practice area at Bayside

Licking my chops to try out the range and short game area before my round, I showed up at noon yesterday to get in a good warm-up and was promptly told that there was no record of my booking.  Ack!  However, they had a couple slots in the 1:24 tee time, so I booked and while displeased, considered it a wash.  As I was settling up, a cart attendant came into the shop and indicated I could go now if I wanted to as a single, because there was an opening.  I thought if I waited until 1:24 pm and the round went long, I might not finish in the light, so I accepted his offer.  In retrospect, this was a mistake because I rushed a 10-ball range warm-up and went out unprepared.  I quickly found myself in the awkward position of playing cold and managing on a wet course playing cart path only.  I struggled with where to hit it on an unfamiliar layout, taking pictures for this review, and being sandwiched between two foursomes.  Whew!

The range at Bayside

On the first tee, the starter set me up with a yardage guide, helped me decide which tees to play, and gave me a few pointers on how to play the first hole.  I selected the members tees at 6,418 yards and 71.4/139 and promptly piped a drive and ended up with a routine par on #1.  That turned out to be the end of my routine day at Bayside.

Most Nicklaus courses have a familiar theme of well-placed fairway bunkers on your tee shots and Bayside was no different.  What was difficult was the fairway landing spots narrowed past the bunkers on several holes, which offered less reward for clearing these obstacles.  I was left to wonder where the correct landing point should be after arriving at several tee shots.  I drove it well, but it was so wet out that most of my tee shots were landing even with the bunkers and didn’t roll out.  What I liked was that the holes had an abundance of clear targets that fit my eye well.

The fairways were wet but in great shape with the surfaces were mowed tight and smooth all the way up to the approaches.  The routing on the par-4s and 5s often had forced carries and lateral penalty areas to deal with.  You need to strike your irons great to score out here, and unfortunately, I didn’t.  I was left with more than a few greenside pitches off tight lies that required height – which turned out to be a tough shot.  Some practice of these lies in the short game area would have been beneficial.

The putting surfaces were smooth and running medium fast despite the moisture but were not tricked up.  Pete Dye loved green trickery but it’s not Nicklaus’ style, and Bayside was no exception.  I liked these greens and putted with confidence.  In short, I drove it well, rolled it good, but couldn’t do anything in between.

#7 at Bayside

Value (2.0 out of 5.0)

As I was struggling with playing cart path only (not the club’s fault because of the wet conditions), I thought it would have been beneficial for the carts to be equipped with GPS.  Would have been a huge time saver while figuring out where to hit it, and determining club selection.  For the prices charged in late October, this is not a great value.  I believe it’s even more expensive in season.  They can probably charge what they are getting because of high demand and to keep that exclusivity feeling for the members, but I’d like to see them adjust prices downward.  Eagles Landing, in Ocean City, is more scenic and is a much better value, albeit without the driving range.

Facilities (4.0 out of 5.0)

Bayside has a great full-service club house, complete with locker rooms and restaurant.  The cart barn, bag room, and indoor portion of the driving range (Overhang) are laid out well and make staging and starting a breeze.  There’s a learning school known as The Hammer Academy, which I got a kick out of.  And of course, the short game area has ample room to practice your chipping, pitching, and bunker play.  Conditions were pristine.  There is a putting green by the club house and another next to the first tee.  Nicklaus clearly knows what the upscale public player likes and has delivered.  Small ding because of the loud music being piped into the driving range area, but I spent about two minutes warming up, so it didn’t really matter for me.  If I were seriously working on my game, I’d prefer to do without.

After my round, I chatted with some ladies sitting around the grill’s outdoor fireplace and they were thrilled to have their picture taken for a review of their course!  It seemed like the facility was a good gathering spot and enhanced the sense of community.

Customer Experience (3.0 out of 5.0)

Obviously, the failure to record my tee time was a major problem for the pro shop.  I would have preferred a simple apology, but they made excuses, like I might have mistakenly called Baywood Greens instead.  No fellas, I knew who I was talking to.  Good customer service is simply owning a mistake and moving on.  Elsewhere, the cart attendants were great, as was the starter, and the on-course beverage cart visited me four or five times, which was appreciated.

I made a mistake going before my scheduled tee time.  Should have used the ample practice facilities and warmed up properly, so that is on me.

Homes along the course

As I was meandering through the round, I noticed the abundance of houses and new construction on most of the holes.  The par-3, 13^th was out on its own with great views of the bay, which I found refreshing.  But I do prefer a layout without the development.

The par-3, 13th hole. This was my favorite.

I noticed that the only COVID restrictions were on wearing masks in the clubhouse.  All ball washers and bunker rakes were available, and there were regular cups and pins to be pulled.  It felt safe and was great to be playing real golf again.

Picked up this little spectator on the 14th tee. He kept his distance

Overall Rating (3.0 out of 5.0)

Pro shop

Bayside is a challenging well-conditioned layout in a good location.  Bring your best ball striking game or you will be in for a long day.  I’d like to try it again, now that know where to hit it and hopefully wouldn’t be playing cart path only.  I wouldn’t advise in season play here because of the high greens fees and medium level value.  Go for an afternoon round in the Fall or Winter and enjoy.

The tough par-4, 17th hole. Yes I rinsed one on my second shot!

Playing Old School

Works For Ricky!

Charles Mingus once said, “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”  Last weekend that was the theory of the case I set out to prove on my 54-hole eastern shore jaunt.  The plan was to play the first 18 holes with the assist from a GPS and a laser range finder, but to dispense with both devices in round two.  Round three would be played with the preferred method taken from the prior two days.

First, it was awesome to finally golf on consecutive days for the first time since early June.  The experiment was admittedly a small sample size, so much of the feedback was based on gut feel rather than hard metrics.  My day-to-day performance showed continual improvement, which was encouraging (84-78-76) and the reps were invaluable and served as a quasi practice for the following day’s game.

Round one at Heritage Shores (Bridgeville, DE) was characterized by a hot start, a mid-round ball striking implosion, and a strong finish.  Using both devices didn’t feel any different even though I was conscious of trying to match exact yardage to swing.  I putted poorly all day but stumbled into a swing key that allowed me to play the last five holes in even par, and to hit four of the five greens.  Despite the poor score, I left the course encouraged about the swing band-aid I had found, and for the experiment I was going to try the next day.

Saturday, we played Eagles Landing (Ocean City, MD).  The carts were equipped with GPS and I basically ignored it unless I couldn’t find ground yardage.  There is no driving range at Eagles Landing and we were limited to some light chipping and putting before we went off.  I promptly pull hooked my drive on #1 and made double, and followed that with a big push on #2 for a bogey.  Yardage was playing no part in this mess.  So I decided to keep the driver in the bag until my body loosened up and I managed to stabilize using 3WD.  On number 8, I found another swing key and managed to strike it solid and played the rest of the way around in 2-over.  Here I noticed some gains by pacing off yardages on the short wedge shots from the fairway.  Without precise yardage, I relied on my stock practice range shots to carry distances I was comfortable with, and this was key!  I am not a professional and cannot dedicate tons of range time perfecting partial wedge shots to specific distances.  Just give me 50-75-100 yard shots and I proved that hitting to those yardages was more effective than snapping an exact number on the laser and trying to modify my swing to match.

Sunday at Baywood Greens (Long Neck, DE) was a completely different story.  We got to the course 1.5 hours ahead of our tee time and got ample range time in plus putting green and short game warm ups.  In addition, I had a game plan from the previous two days and felt very prepared and it showed.  The good work with the short irons continued despite not having exact yardages and I felt completely in control.  I also noticed the impact of imprecise yardages diminished the farther you were from the flag stick.

At the end of our short experiment, I’d have to conclude that the back to back to back rounds were probably more beneficial to my game than how I measured my yardages.  I liked not having as much to do and think about between shots, but honestly felt that I could do a better job planning my shots even with exact yardage.  In short, it really didn’t matter how it was calculated, but I’m going to try without the range finder for my next few rounds.

Do you have a preference for course navigation?  Please share if you do.

Thanks and play well!

Bear Trap Dunes – Course Review

Summary

The Den at Bear Trap Dunes

Our group played Bear Trap Dunes in Ocean View, DE on Tuesday, November 11, 2014.  This 27-hole facility is three miles west of Bethany Beach, and I’ve practiced here on many occasions while vacationing at the beach, but have never played the course until now.  The operation is first class and the practice facilities top notch.  Of the three nines, we played Kodiak and Black Bear and will reserve judgement on Grizzly for another time.  The course is operated by Troon Golf and is semi-private.  Rick Jacobsen (architect) used to be on the Jack Nicklaus course design team, and the course has that familiar Nicklaus look and feel off the tee.  Many of the holes are framed by groups of three and four bunker configurations located at different distances on opposite sides of the fairway.

I found the layout pleasing to my eye and relaxed into a good ball striking day off the tee but my luck ended there.  To score well, you need local knowledge off the tee and accurate iron play; I had neither.  Missing in the deep and expansive greenside bunkers left awfully tough up-and-down opportunities, and once you hit the greens, we found them large, fast, fairly flat, and fair.  Twice on the Kodiak nine, I hit perfect drives into fairway bunkers that I had no idea I could reach.  If you are playing #6 and #9 with a tailwind, 3WD is plenty of club off the tee.  Otherwise, I came away from a bad iron day thinking you could score better and put less pressure on yourself playing for the middle of most greens instead of flag hunting to precise yardages, as I attempted.  A few of the holes like #5 on Kodiak are beautiful and play into a nice U-shaped backdrop of woods, but most of the holes were nondescript despite the very good course conditioning.  One of my playing partners remarked that the Bear Trap experience reminded him of the time we Played Pinehurst #2.  Very good golf course, but very few of the holes stood out; I have to agree.

Par-4, 5th hole on Kodiak. Bear Trap Dunes

Value (3.0 out of 5.0)

We played on an off season rate of $39 which included cart and range balls.  For the course conditioning, service, and quality of facilities, this was an awesome value.  I’d rate this as a $70-80 golf experience so why the average rating?  They advertise their in-season rates at $100 – 135 for a weekend round which is exorbitant.  If I’m paying that kind of money, I want memorable holes and a tremendous experience.  Bear Trap was a very nice afternoon of golf on very good conditions with a quasi-country club feel, but not $135 worth.

Facilities (4.0 out of 5.0)

The clubhouse hosts the pro shop, locker rooms, full service grill (The Den), offices, and banquet space.  It is a beautiful building.  Conveniently located across the parking lot is the top notch practice facility.  The range is divided into halves for members and guests and boasts excellent grass hitting surfaces (mats were out for the late fall, but they were in excellent condition, as were the range balls).  They have a large and well maintained short game area and separate putting green with green speeds that were identical to the course.  As mentioned earlier, I practice at Bear Trap regularly and could spend all day using the facilities.  The rating would go even higher except most holes were in very close proximity to the local housing community.  Nice homes but I prefer a little more solitude.

Cary playing his 2nd shot on the par-5, 6th on Black Bear

Customer Experience (3.5 out of 5.0)

Booking a tee time was easy and was done over the phone.  Being November, they had anything I wanted.  We did not utilize the bag drop and found out later that you couldn’t ride your clubs to your car upon completion of the round.  Some courses are funny in that regard and are weary of liability issues with golfers driving in the parking lots.  I found it more of a minor hindrance.  The pro in the shop was very friendly and attentive and we had a very nice day on an uncrowded and well conditioned golf course.   For this round I shot a 86 from the blue tees that measured 6,377 yards and played to a course rating of 69.3/127.  Bear Trap Dunes is a nice golf course and the off-season rates made it a great play.  If you’re down during the summer, I wouldn’t recommend playing here at full price, but go seek a lower cost high quality alternative like Eagles Landing in Ocean City, MD.

Overall Rating (3.5 out of 5.0)

Difficult par-3, 7th on Black Bear

Baywood Greens – Course Review

Summary

Clubhouse at Baywood Greens

We played Baywood Greens in Long Neck, DE on Saturday, November 2, 2013.  What strikes you about this course is the aesthetics and attention to detail with regard to the landscaping.  Baywood is known for its floral arrangements and during the growing season, they purport to have over 200,000 of the most beautiful flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees adorning the course.  With everything dormant in early November, you could see where the pots and boxes were, but could only imagine playing in a floral paradise.  Around the clubhouse and pro shop, the various appointments and touches were very nice and exuded class.  What I found a little awkward were several gazebos positioned at various points on the golf course.  In these structures were couches and big comfy chairs and I was left to wonder if a group is supposed to pause in route between holes and rest in one of these structures.  Wouldn’t that slow play down?

The course is a distinctly different play from front nine to back.  The outward half has more of a parkland feel with tighter tee shots framed by tall trees and on the back, lots of water comes into play.  I found the back more scenic with many of the shots fitting my eye nicely.  I was able to relax and strike the ball well off the tee and the course is not long so a good ball striking day can lead to ample short iron approaches and opportunities to score.

Conditions were very good but not perfect.  The bentgrass greens were running smooth and medium-fast but a couple of the tee boxes were a bit chewed up with divots (see the photo of me on the 18th tee) and probably could stand to be rotated more frequently.  Otherwise the course was a delight to play and I only suspect heavy play throughout the summer and fall took it’s toll on the tee boxes.

18th tee at Baywood Greens

Playing Tips (from the white tees):

• We were fortunate enough to be paired with a very friendly club professional (Tony) and he had lots of good information on where to position your tee shots which was great.  Without that local knowledge, us first timers would have had a tough day. Thanks Tony!
• It took me nine holes to figure out that pin-hunting was ill advised and some of these greens have a lot of slope.  I started aiming for the fat parts of the greens and kept it below the hole on the back nine which helped take pressure off my putting.
• #1 is a short par 4 but you don’t want any part of the fairway bunkers framing the hole.  Take a 3WD off the tee and you’ll avoid the trouble and have a short to medium iron in.
• The par-5 5th hole is very tight in the landing area for a driver.  I didn’t know this until I watched Tony tee off with a 3WD or utility club.  It’s a three shot par-5 so just get it in play.
• The par-4  fourteenth hole has an island fairway that plays straight out and a chicken fairway that veers right and offers a much longer shot in.  Again, I took 3WD and nailed it deep into the island and left myself with a 110 yard shot in.  Driver could carry through the landing area so leave it in the bag.
• #16 is a risk-reward short par 5 that plays 452 yards from the white tees.  If you bust your tee shot and want to go for it, you better make it on the fly because water sneaks in from the left and protects the green almost all the way across the fairway.  If you’re going to lay up, lay it back on the face of the hill at about 100-125 yards out.  You cannot see the water on the second shot.
• On the par-4 18th, aim farther left then you think.  The left bunker or the cart bridge in the distance is an excellent target.  Otherwise, water creeps up fast on the right!

Value (3.0 out of 5.0)

High season prime time greens fees will set you back $129 if you want to golf on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  It drops to $109 in mid summer and only eases up after October 27th when the weekend rate drops to $59.  If you want to play in the summer, best to take advantage of the after 1:00 p.m. rate of $79.  Your greens fee includes complimentary range balls, use of the practice facilities, and GPS on carts.

Facilities (4.0 out of 5.0)

Baywood Greens has a large pro shop and an extraordinary sized clubhouse/restaurant where parties and weddings are a regular occurrence.  The white pillared driving range was a beautiful building that had many indoor – outdoor stalls.  We were hitting from mats but there were ample stations to hit from grass, when the tee was open.  There were two putting greens of adequate size and a smallish pitching green with adjacent practice bunker.  While we warmed up, I observed that only two players could comfortably use the pitching green without getting in each other’s way.

On the course, #1 and 2 were playing cart path only, which precipitated a slower than desired start and I wasn’t sure why these holes were roped off.  Elsewhere, there were very few areas to enter the fairways off the cart paths which felt a little awkward but wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.  The “no cart” signs extended way back from most greens, so if you were within 75-125 yards, you needed to grab a stack of clubs and head out on foot.

Finally, we observed that nine holes were being constructed across the street.  The goal is to make Baywood a 27 hole facility, but apparently the construction has been going way longer than expected, and while the appearance of readiness from the road looks close, there is no imminent date to open these extra holes.

The range at Baywood Greens

 

Customer Experience (4.0 out of 5.0)

When we arrived at Baywood Greens, there was a small traffic jam at the bag drop and the attendant didn’t proactively take action to move things along but we eventually dropped after a five minute wait.  When we completed play, the gentleman taking in carts was friendly and cleaned our clubs promptly.  As I mentioned earlier, we played with Tony the pro and he was very hospitable and made our afternoon enjoyable.

The process of teeing off is a little different at Baywood Greens, with the starter coming to get you at the driving range, and you following him in his cart to the first tee.  I suppose that controls traffic and keeps groups from backing up at the tee.  Golf carts are equipped with coolers and fresh ice, which was nice.  The GPS measures your position to the center of the green, but not the flag stick.  The GPS did have helpful playing hints on every hole, but I needed my laser rangefinder to get exact distance to the flags.

I would like to come back and play this course in the spring or summer and fully enjoy the landscaping in all it’s glory.  It was an enjoyable day and having Tony as a playing partner made it extra special.  For the record, we played from the white tees that measured 6,088 yards and I shot a 6-over par 78.

Overall Rating (3.75 out of 5.0)

View of the 12th green at Baywood Greens from the 13th tee.

Heritage Shores – Course Review

Summary

Clubhouse at Heritage Shores

I played Heritage Shores on Sunday, November 4, 2012.  The course is part of a new +55 residential community in Bridgeville, DE and is conveniently located on Rt 13, one mile south of the intersection of Rt 404 (main thoroughfare to the Delaware beaches.)  This Arthur Hills design presents a classic open style links play with significant green-side mounding and very little protection from the wind.  The day I visited it was windy and while the layout isn’t particularly difficult, the wind made scoring a challenge.  Most of the par four and five holes are fairly open but are bordered by a considerable amount of water, usually running parallel or diagonal to the tee shot.  The view from the tees fit my eye well and I didn’t find it too difficult to avoid the hazards but you get the feeling on several holes of a repeat look.

The front nine is the more pleasurable of the two as the course winds its way out into open areas and you feel more secluded.  The back is crammed into “house world” with the new single-family homes all looking the same.  I don’t mind playing courses tightly woven into housing communities, such as Oyster Bay in Sunset Beach, NC, where the properties are very different and present some variety, but that’s not the case at Heritage Shores.

Conditions were good through the green with the putting surfaces rolling medium fast and holding iron shots reasonably well, despite the heavy wind.  The bunkers were in terrible shape, with nearly every one loaded with casual water and leaves.  In all fairness, Hurricane Sandy had deposited about 10 inches of rain a few days earlier but the rest of the course had drained well so I was unsure if the greens crew had ignored the bunkers or these were just poorly designed.  I only had the bunkers at Queenstown Harbor, which I had played two days earlier, to compare to and they were in pristine condition.

18th green at Heritage Shores

Value (2.5 out of 5.0)

Greens fees were $59 which included a cart.  I believe the in-season rates are the same which would make it a better play in the summer, but I wouldn’t go any higher to visit a course of this caliber.  A small bag of range balls was $6 and they should really be included in the greens fee to improve value.

Facilities (2.5 out of 5.0)

Heritage shores has a giant clubhouse that serves the entire community with two restaurants and houses the cart barn along with other non-golf related offices.  The smallish pro shop is combined in an adjacent building with a fitness and aquatic center.  A small snack bar sits next to the golf shop entrance but was closed when I played.  A small number of soft drinks were available for sale in the pro shop but I was surprised not to find the snack bar open for weekend play.

The driving range is a short cart ride across the street and boasts about 15 hitting stations.  We were hitting from mats and there appeared to be an ample grass area that was not open.  One thing missing was some type of bag rack or device to hold clubs and towels next to the hitting stations.  There was nothing, as you can see in the picture below, which required you to lay your clubs on the ground.

There were two very small putting greens adjacent to the golf shop entrance and I saw a sign indicating the short game practice area was closed.  I never observed the area and will reserve comment.

Customer Experience (3.5 out of 5.0)

I booked a tee time over the phone and my impression of the golf shop staff was courteous and professional.  The starter drove out to the range to notify me when it was my turn to play which I appreciated.

The GPS units on the golf carts were touch screen, but only showed distance to the center of the greens, not the flag stick.  You had to drag the flagstick icon to a particular part of the screen where you thought the flag was and the GPS would recalculate the yardage.  I found this kludge and was glad I brought my Bushnell rangefinder to snap accurate yardages to the pins.  I could also do without the constant stream of adds on the GPS which required you to touch the screen to “return to golf”.

Overall I viewed Heritage Shores as a decent retirement community golf course but not a facility dedicated to the serious player.  For the record, I played the green tees at 6,477 yards and carded a 12-over par 84.

GPS unit

Overall Rating (2.75 out of 5.0)

Driving Range at Heritage Shores