Our afternoon round was on the Valley Course, which is on the other side of the clubhouse. We tried to push back our tee time for some lunch, but that would have delayed us an hour. So, we headed to the 1st tee with a few snacks.

As you can imagine, it was crowded out there and we crept around in 4.5 hours. The trail courses have an assembly line feeling, at least on the weekends!

Overall, I ended up enjoying the Valley Course. I loved how every hole looked and played! The course has a little bit of scenery for everyone and is as fair a course as you’ll find on the trail. Plus, there are great views of a ridgeline on first and last holes.

Except for the 1st and 18th, the course stays true to its name with most of the holes having just minor elevation changes. Creeks meander through the course and holes are routed through some wetlands.

I’ll admit there are lots of mid-length par-4’s and all the par-3’s are about the same yardage (165 to 177 yards), but I don’t think there is a bad hole on the Valley Course. There is plenty of space to play your game and still keep it out of the trees!

The greens here seemed easier to putt as they had some flatter spots. We played the orange tees which are 71.3/127/6588. The rating and slope felt consistent with the course’s difficulty.

Except for the 1st hole, the Valley Course won’t “wow” you like the Ridge Course does. That’s probably why most golfers like the Ridge Course better, according to the proshop. If you are coming from a flatter area (like Florida) then I suspect you’ll end up preferring the Ridge Course.

Speaking of the 1st hole, at 415 yards, it is one of the longer par-4’s on the course. However, it plays significantly downhill and I hit just a 3 wood and 9 iron (which normally go ~360 yards for me). You can even try to carry all the fairway bunkers on the drive if you wish!

The maintenance on the Valley Course was good. The biggest adjustment for our group was trying get the speed right on the greens! Out of all the trail courses that we played on the trip, these greens were the slowest. They looked like they were going to be faster, though. Oddly, these greens are bermuda so I would have thought they would be rolling quicker. The tees here were nicer than the Ridge Course. Everything else was consistent with the trail experience, no complaints.

I really enjoyed the design of the Valley Course. There are some birdie holes and it is the type of place where you can keep a good round together. I’d highly recommend the Valley Course!

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