Diamond Springs Golf Course — Local services in Monterey Township

It pains me to write this review as I've always held this course in a high regard. Played yesterday and it was in the worst condition I've seen it and worst of any course I've played in a few years. My best guess is they had a pump failure or something that hasn't allowed them to water enough (Kind of reminded me of Island Hills when they had a pump failure that set them back a few years with regards to conditions). The ground was arid and therefore the fairways were mostly uncut. The lack of geo-fencing on the carts and the design of the course are such that carts drive extremely close to the greens and even onto some tee boxes...when combined with the extremely dry conditions it is a perfect storm (no pun intended) of poor conditions around the greens. The cups looked like they hadn't been cut in weeks as a 1/2" of grass around each hole was totally dead. Teeboxes were mostly uncut (likely because of dry conditions) but also had tons of weeds throughout. The only place on the whole property that had sprinklers running was the very back tee box on the 12th hole (which wasn't in use), and those 2 sprinklers were mostly watering the native heathergrass areas for some silly reason. GPS on carts was mostly accurate except for a few holes where pin placements were incorrect.

I'm not really sure where the glowingly positive reviews are coming from. I've played courses all over West Michigan this season and last, and nothing came close to these conditions. I understand it's been quite hot out, but that region has seen more rain than most of West michigan this year and it's evident they aren't watering or mowing as much as they should be.

With literally nothing else to draw people to the area of Hamilton, MI I was hoping for much better. Unfortunately I can't in good conscience recommend this course right now. Would have rather driven to Lynx or further away to Beeches,...

Course layout 9/10: excellent! Some absolutely S-tier level holes (a couple boring “easy” holes too), especially the last 5 holes on the back 9. #15 is the greatest risk/reward/strategy par 4 I’ve ever played, just a brilliant hole with spectacular use of the terrain down the stretch.

Greens 8/10: on the slower side but consistent, some good slopes on some, others rather flat, well cared for.

Green complexes/bunkering: 8/10 several well thought out good designs that offer challenge and versatility of pin placement (1,2,5,8,13,15,18) a few bland an unimaginative (4,12)

Par 3’s: 10/10 varied distances, 140-160-180-200yds. 1 easy, 2 medium, 1 difficult. 3 forced carries, 2 over deep ravines. Great!

Fairways 7/10: maybe being generous here, but I personally wasn’t bothered… a bit to much on the furry side, borderline “second-cut”-ish, very few to no bare spots.

Tee-boxes 2/10: This is the ONLY glaring weakness of the course. Some tees seem to be lacking irrigation. Other the grass is sparse at best. Where there is grass, it is unreasonably long for a tee box (tips of the grass will be touching your ball as it sits up on a driver-tee). Previously mentioned hole 15, the tee-box from the blue isn’t much more than a small hill with barely any grass left. Brutal for a course that you are otherwise proud to play.

Clubhouse, range, staff, amenities 9/10. Convenient practice setup, self serve included range balls, friendly staff. No complaints!

Overall 9/10. We paid $65 I think. What you get for the price is a deal! If the price were $20 higher I would expect more and this would be an 7.5 or 8/10

Tip: Play the Blues(6700yds)! At only 6000yds the whites do not do some holes justice. If you are a whites player, play a blue/white combo. If you are a Sr,...

Diamond Springs has the potential to be an exceptional, tournament quality layout, but it is a budget course at best. It's a very interesting design with a couple blind tee-shots, nice sweeping dog-legs, tee-box "shoots" from the tips, and nice greens. The very disappointing thing about this course is that it is a single cut from tee to green. There is no difference in grass length until you get on the green. I believe this is where they are able to reduce costs considerably and offer budget prices for a very nice layout. I believe the course was designed by the same person that did Pilgrims Run (which I love and highly recommend). The course can also get extremely dry if they don't water it enough. There are some challenging features which include the giant ravine that borders 4 or 5 holes. If you hit a ball down there, it's a goner unless you want to hurt yourself trying to find it.

The clubhouse is beautiful, the range is very dry. What would make me come back again would be if they actually started mowing to multiple cuts from tees to greens and watered it more to bring out the consistency and softness expected in a fairway, teebox, and rough. It is certainly walkable, but you might enjoy a cart to move quickly in the summer time because shade can be quite sparse. I also enjoyed the back nine more than the front due to the natural features of the course winding...