Deer Run Country Club

The Country Club at Deer Run has had a grand reopening and is now the best kept secret in the Orlando Area.

  goinggoinggone - 4/26/10
My 1 through 5 Star Rating Key
5 Stars – Legendary. Double Eagle.
4 Stars – Impressive. Birdie.
3 Stars - Expected. Par.
2 Stars – Below Average. Double Bogey.
1 Star - Sickening. Triple Bogey.

For a few years in recent memory, the Deer Run maintenance crew did a fantastic job of nurturing and maintaining the greens at the Country Club at Deer Run in Casselberry, Florida. I remember hitting truly silky-smooth rolls on velvety green putting surfaces which seemed to reach speeds of 9 or 9.5 on the Stimpmeter on dry days. I was truly impressed with the greens there. In all fairness, I used to consider Deer Run a great value and would easily have given it a 4 Star rating considering the greens conditions at the price of only $35 including lunch. Times have obviously changed. After playing there last week, I am sad to report that those quality greens conditions are only a memory now. For me, the extremely poor current condition of the greens are ruining the golf experience at Deer Run.

When I consider the fact that about half of my strokes are played on or around the greens, it makes sense that a golf course Superintendent's number one priority should be to properly maintain these small lots of land that indisputably differentiate the crappy courses from the good ones. Under current conditions, I can only rate Deer Run as a 2 Star course.

Sure I expect flattish, quasi-level tee boxes. But I can live without perfection on the box. I'd give the tee boxes at Deer Run 3 Stars. For a public course, their tee boxes do the job. They're pretty level and they are clearly marked. Yes, I desire beautifully manicured fairways, with first-cut rough that is discernibly different from both the fairway and the deepest rough. Here, too, I am willing to compromise. The fairways at Deer Run resemble fairways, and for that, I rate them 3 Stars. Please note that on this subject I can easily be satisfied and am willing to forgive imperfections in fairway maintenance, as long as the majority of the fairways are covered in tightly mowed grass. At Deer Run, the fairways have green grass and are easy to hit from

Most importantly however, I believe that more players than not, want to putt on good greens. The greens at Deer Run currently deserve a rating of 1 Star.

Call me crazy, but I want to get to the green and see more grass than sand. At Deer Run, I see more sand. The grass should be green, not moldy or brown. At Deer Run, the greens are fifty-fifty green-brown with moldy problem areas on many of them, and taller sprouts of grass busting through brown sand. The grass should cover the entirety of the area which is intended to be the green, and only have one hole in which a ball will easily come to rest in. Sadly, this too is a failure at Deer Run. Further, I would love the green grass to be dense and trimmed closely to the terra firma below it. When I putt on its surface, I want the ball to glide over the green, like an air-hockey puck does over its table. I really didn't enjoy putting on partially barren, moldy, poorly cut, slow, freshly over-sanded greens – where my ball was more likely to jump and bounce its way to the hole than to smoothly roll to it.

For now, I am truly disappointed by ots greens conditions, but I am looking forward to the day that I can fairly rate Deer Run as a 4 Star course once again.

  joeyamin - 2/9/10

  jericho730 - 9/25/09

  onetrueathlete - 9/24/09

  sKyLiNeRaCeR01 - 8/4/09

  ckailjr - 4/29/09

  mjbsyb - 8/30/08

  ICEige - 8/17/08

  Bambino - 5/28/08

  nickdeloach - 5/26/08