This was course #10 on my trip and I played an afternoon round here on 09/07/12. I had played in the morning and when I play 36 holes I try to find one top layout and then a cheaper place to play. Crystal Springs Quarry was the cheaper place for the day and I paid $24 to ride on a Friday afternoon. As evidenced by the name, the course was built in an old quarry so it was secluded and did not have an urban feel to it at all. The head pro was very accommodating and had our group start on #7 to avoid a league that went off a little before my tee time. The website shows this as a par 71, but the course was recently reworked and it plays as a par 70 with five par 3s and 3 par 5s. I played the black tees (72.2/127/6676) which proved to be a good challenge as there were some long holes and most of the course was very tight. Because it was built in a quarry, there was only a limited amount of land to design it on and therefore I thought the course felt a little cramped with many holes being close together and the cart paths crossing multiple times. It did not bother me too much and it would be a good walking course because of this and because it was pretty flat except for #11 which would have required a hike to the tee box. Trouble abounded here and a poor ball striking day could result in a very high score because of the many water hazards (water came into play on eleven or twelve holes), tall fescue, and some long par 4s (6 of the 10 par 4s were 420 yards or longer). The nice thing was that even though the course was tough, for the most part it was not tricky to play. Landing areas could be seen off the tees if hitting to the proper yardage and approaches were straightforward in their requirements. As suspected for $24 (and during a dry spell) there was some spotty maintenance with some bare patches in the fairways and rough. Most of the rough was deep and tough to hit from, but other patches were thin and dried out. The fairways and tee boxes were a little long and I think that might have been intentionally done to keep those from burning up. The greens, which had some big slopes, were a little long as well but putted fine considering the price. The 11th, a downhill par 4, and the 13th, a short dogleg par 4 with water in play, were my favorite holes and required some strategy. Overall I like the course and have paid more money at other places in my golfing life for worse conditions. I jumped around to play all 18 and just squeaked in before a big line of storms blew through so I did not get a chance to take too many pictures. I finished on hole #5 and actually caught one of the coolest pictures with the storm in the background of my shot of the green.
#4:
#5 approach:
#5 green:
#8:
#9:
#11:
#13:
#13 approach:
#14:
#15:
#15 green:
#16:
#16 approach:
#17 approach:
