The Ranches Golf Club — Local services in Eagle Mountain

I love this place. The conditions and playability of the track itself it 5-stars, but there are some improvements that need to be made to the business as a whole. Here are a few things new golfers should be aware of...

As far as what the course can control: They send people off the back who show up without tee times in front of groups making the turn, especially in the evenings. I understand wanting to get people on the course, but more attention needs to be paid as to when/how to filter people out so as to not hold up play for those that DID make a tee time.

There's no starter and a lot of groups of less than 4 refuse to join up and play as four as instructed. This is something that could easily be fixed by having one of their many cart kids sit down there with a clip board. This along with marshals are two things we they've been telling us will be implemented for the past couple years but haven't been.

They finally cracked down on 5-somes! This has been a huge win for them, and Kelly deserves all the credit in the world for this. It was always the same handful of groups that would do it, and he really came down hard on it, and it's greatly improved pace of play.

AS far as what they can't... The 11th hole; some jackass moved his business CLOSER to the course and then tried suing the course when he got hit with more golf balls. Because of this, they're reprofiling the tee boxes and fairways that totally kills the soul of the hole. I'm hoping the fairway can go back to something closer to normal eventually, but as of right now, it makes it nearly impossible to get to the green in 2.

The houses. Even if you're a good golfer, you're bound to hit a house. Almost all of them were built AFTER the course, so despite what signage tells you, you are NOT responsible for any damage you may UNITENTIONALLY cause. There are several precedents that have been set for this. This isn't legal advice--do your own research, but DON'T BE PRESSURED TO SHELL OUT ANY CASH FOR A...

Really a 3.5 star rating.

I would have rated my round in 2016 a 4.5 stars but the course is not as well maintained now in August 2018.

The good: The course is a very fun course, a little more like a links style course than most courses in the area. The tee boxes and fairways were well maintained. Most of my about 75% of my fairway shots were actually from the fairway (the rest in the rough) and I don't remember hitting any from dirt or dead surfaces.

The bad: 14 of the greens were in good condition, but 4 were poor. They still looked fine, but they were dry and fast. These were the 4 holes that play uphill and end on a table above the fairway. They don't hold anything and the putts roll forever, very different than the condition of the rest of the greens. The 18th tee box looked terrible, like all the grass had died around it and there was only dirt left.

We had a bad experience with a very slow group in front of us (one time issue that doesn't change my rating but is worth mentioning). There was no course martial to speak with them and that's why it's noteworthy. This group started 25 minutes before us and we caught up to them after 2 holes. They appeared to be a family that lived close by. I'm guessing this because they stopped to talk to some neighbors on hole 8 for 5-10 minutes even though they were holding at least 3 groups up behind them. The pace of play once they left was 1:45 for 9 holes (back nine) and it took 2:20 to play 7 holes (front 9 less first 2 holes)...

I want to clarify that this review comes 1 week after my tee time, just so that I can give it an honest review... which is: This course is not the best.

Horrible greens, horrible tee boxes, horrible carts, literally everything was horrible. The tee boxes are in terrible condition, with divots everywhere, dead patches everywhere. The greens had divots in them, did not roll pure at all. The cart that I was in was extremely sub par. The cart kept squeaking everywhere, it seemed like there were loose bolts on the frame, and there was also no tread on any of the tires for some reason. ???

The clubhouse was ??? It was dim, and dark on the inside, with a musty smell?? Not really sure why?

The final kicker is the price. For $34.53 for 9 holes, I expected better, which I think is more than a reasonable ask. I cannot imagine spending, $69.06 on 18 holes for a course in this condition. I truthfully, would rather not golf at all than golf here.

The only reason why it's two stars is because they give free tees and free divot fixers.

It really sucks to rate a course like this, I drove by this course last year and really wanted to try it out because it looked so pure, but didn't get to until this year. Hopefully management can figure this course out because the layout is super challenging and fun, but the conditions...