Bear Slide Golf Club — Local services in Noblesville

Where do I begin. The price is absurd for what you get. I have no issue paying over $100 to play 18. However, for the amount being charged, the following are unacceptable: 1) the bathrooms were in worse condition than your average dive bar, 2) carts are dated, 3) clubhouse is dated, 4) the starter was great and friendly, but the man working the clubhouse was less than friendly, 5) there are multiple tee boxes that require walking up/down steep grass slopes or wooden "steps" that weren't safe, 6) the website is old, and finally, 7) the ranger hovered over our group all day. We played in under 4 hours in rainy conditions with cart path only rules in effect. Yet, inexplicably, the ranger was present on over half of our holes. We were playing serious golf on the final 18 of a 108 hole friends golf trip. We weren't drinking. We weren't causing issues, and we were following the rules. The guy hovering around us honestly deflated the mood of our finale.

The golf course itself is a tale of two nines. The front nine is really great. It's links style and offers great views and fair conditions. The back nine is bizarre. It's chopped up, gimmicky, and not well marked. Multiple holes without clearly defined landing areas, blind shots with no guidance from signage, etc. Perhaps playing the course a second time and knowing where to lay up and how far to hit certain shots I could change my view a bit, but I genuinely despised this back nine. Over 100 courses under my belt and this nine was up there with the worst of them.

The 2 stars came from course conditions, which were great even though the course had a lot of rain move through overnight, and because it appeared that they were trying to make some upgrades. There were multiple new bridges and some areas where it appeared the course was trying to make improvements. The bunkers looked well-maintained, but I managed to avoid them all day, and the heather grass, which I didn't avoid, was long and tough, but not penalizing. You can generally find your ball and hit from it...just don't look for more than a minute or you'll have the ranger breathing down your neck to "not waste time looking for balls"...

The course itself is always in good shape and it’s a very good challenge. However, the start of our round began with an annoying starter. Gave us a lecture on keeping pace and that we have to play in 4 hours or they get “bad reviews”. He then proceeded to stand amongst us on the tee box and comment on each shot.

I’m all for quick golf, but this is a challenging course with long heather and lengthy walks to a few tee boxes. We finished the front 9 in 2 hours and 6 minutes and were told at the turn by the starter that we need “to pick up the pace and tuck up to the group in front of us”. We waited on every tee box for the group in front of us and never saw a group behind us…

If you’re charging $100 for a round of golf, tell the grumpy starters to relax and don’t hound people. And when it’s 90+ on a weekend, I think putting some water out on the course is the least...

I hadn't played this course since I was a junior golfer about 20 years ago. I am very impressed at how nice the course is kept. I can tell the grounds crew takes pride in keeping the course up. There's lots of signage to make sure people don't go driving off into areas that they shouldn't. I appreciate this because it does make a difference. The greens were smooth and quick. The traps were raked and generally had a good depth of sand. Fairways and approaches were mowed nicely. Distances were marked well on the sprinkler heads and cart paths. It's a fairly tough track if you aren't familiar with it. Several holes require you to place the ball in the right location off the tee. I really enjoyed playing here and hope to come back again soon. If they continue to keep up the course as well as they do and maintain their fair pricing, I certainly...