After a late morning round at Anchorage Golf Course, my friend and I went for an evening round at another course. There are two courses at Moose Run Golf Course – the Creek and the Hill – and I booked us a round on the Creek. From what I read, the Creek looked to be the better of the two courses.

The courses at Moose Run are military courses – associated with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson – although they are open to civilian play. I didn’t have to register or show my ID to gain access. Just make a tee time, exit the highway, and pull into the parking lot. Easy.

The Creek course is the newer of the two courses at Moose Run – opening in 2000 – and was designed by Robin Nelson. Sometimes I’ve found that a military course can be a bit plain from a design standpoint, but that isn’t the case at the Creek course. The Creek course is a legit layout and showcases the beauty of Alaska. It was my favorite course we played on the trip.

The Creek course gets its name from Ship Creek which flows through the property. The opening and closing holes play closer to the creek and the middle group of holes have some elevation change. While the creek should only come into play on three holes – it certainly is the course’s defining characteristic. The 3rd hole is a 165 yard par-3 across the creek and the 9th hole is a risk/reward par-5 with another shot across the creek.

There are a number of interesting design features found on the Creek course. For example, the 2nd is a 510 yard par-5 with a generous fairway. If laying up you’ll want to play out to the right. If trying to get home in two then you’ll need to avoid a row of trees in the middle of the fairway. The 5th is a par-4 with two fairways. Each fairway looked like an entirely separate hole!

The par-3 6th is likely the Creek’s signature hole. It is 195 yards from the blue tees and 222 yards from the black tees. It plays slightly downhill to a green that is wide, but not very deep. The hole offers a closeup view of the nearby mountains.

We played the blue tees which are 73.3/139/6781 and the Creek course is quite challenging. Many greens are elevated, probably to help prevent flood damage. So, iron shots close to the edges get some hard bounces away from where you want to go. There is some target golf, especially in the middle section of holes. There are a number of long holes.

The green fee was about $70 and the Creek course continued the theme of just average conditions. However, from what some locals shared with us – the course conditioning is much better now than in past years. The tees and fairways had a mix of nice spots and GUR spots. The greens look fine in the pictures, but they were pretty bumpy and inconsistent. Oh well.

If you plan to play just one round of golf in Alaska, then the Creek course gets my recommendation. The layout is challenging without being overly difficult. The scenery is amazing. The price and conditions seem fine for Alaska.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):