After some morning errands I booked an afternoon tee time on the Lakes Course at Firewheel Golf Park. I was here about a year ago and played the Old Course, which is usually ranked as the least impressive of the three courses at Firewheel. The Lakes Course seems to fall as the middle course while the Bridges Course (which I haven’t played) is the nicest.

Besides a few wonky tee shots I thought the Old Course was decent. The Old Course wasn’t very offensive, however the Lakes Course is much more challenging, thanks to its target-golf feel. I recall the proshop last year saying that the Lakes Course is the toughest course at Firewheel and I wouldn’t argue with that statement! More on the toughness in a moment though.

The Lakes Course was in super shape! There were a couple greens with sanded/bare edges but other than that all the grass was full and lush, especially for July. We’ve had some rain recently so the course had great color to it. Clouds blew through early in the round but later on the course really popped in the sunlight.

The fairways were softer, cut down and provided quality lies. The greens rolled true and at a medium pace, just slower than they looked. The rough was thick and gnarly. For $30 the conditioning was impressive.

Now, back to the course’s difficulty. I played the blue tees which are 72.7/129/6680. The Lakes is tight and penal, there isn’t much else to say in that regards. As you can imagine with a name like “The Lakes” you’ll find a lot of water in play. I counted water on thirteen holes and hazards on some of the others. If you are out of position but not in a hazard then you’ll have to deal with the tree-lined fairways.

Holes dogleg at odd angles and a creek cuts through the course. That creek pinches driving areas and forces you to lay up short of the creek/carry it multiple times. The 10th is a perfect example. It is a 400 yard par-4 where the normal driving area is occupied by the creek. You are either forced to hit a baby draw and fly it 250ish yards over the creek or hit your 210 club to stay short of it.

My favorite hole was the 390 yard par-4 7th. It doglegs left around a hazard so you’ll need to eliminate the left side. The fairway is generous (room to miss right) and the green is tougher than it looks, with the left quarter falling away.

I normally try to temper my reviews but the hit the fairway or drop requirement of the Lakes Course drove me crazy! Dick Phelps designed the course and I don’t see much else that he could have done with the place given the limits of the land. Unfortunately, the course is in a flood plain so it occupies low-quality land.

The staff at Firewheel is friendly, the course was in good shape and it does have some good looking golf holes. It has a Midwest parkland feel to it, which presented well. Firewheel offers affordable golf and that is something I like, but the Lakes Course had too much trouble for this hack. Still, you may enjoy it so I’d encourage you to check it out if you live within a half hour.

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