Friday was another travel day at the end of our family vacation. We drove from Jackson, WY to Salt Lake City, UT and got into SLC around 2pm. As I had done earlier on this trip I dropped my family off at the hotel – we stayed close to the airport – and headed to the golf course.

I wasn’t sure what traffic would look like on the six hour drive, so my main reason for picking Stonebridge Golf Club was its convenient location. The course is only about 10 minutes from the airport, so it was nice to golf right around the corner from where we were going to be that night.

While I’ve played a handful of courses in Southern Utah, Stonebridge was my first taste of golf in the northern part of the state. From what I found after looking at the map there appear to be many quality, affordable courses in the area. I certainly look forward to spending more time out here in the future, exploring the area’s golf scene.

As I hoped, I found a lot to like at Stonebridge. For the price ($36 to ride), the course didn’t disappoint. Stonebridge won’t end up on any top public lists and because this part of the valley is so flat, it was tough to photograph the course. I won’t argue either of those points. However, Stonebridge is a solid design, a good value, and has many visually-appealing golf holes.

That visual appeal turned out to be my favorite thing about the course. The scenery in Salt Lake City is pretty awesome. Almost every direction you turn has a mountain view, including the mighty Wasatch Range to the East. The Oquirrh Mountains (I think) also line the west edge of the valley. Besides the cool mountain backdrop, the colors popped at Stonebridge as well. The course has a wetlands look to it and the green color of the wetlands plus the green grass contrasted well with the waste areas and dried out salt flats.

Stonebridge is a Johnny Miller design that is named for the course’s red rock bridges, which separate golf carts from the car traffic on the main roads. It also looks like Gene Bates and Steve Wolfard get credit for the design. There are 27 holes here and overall, the course gives off a couple different vibes. At times there is a rustic, desert vibe and then other areas of the course feel modern and clean, thanks to newly built office buildings nearby.

I played the Sunrise and Sagebrush nines from the championship tees which are 73.1/140/7095. I didn’t notice many differences between Sunrise and Sagebrush, both are links style without many trees. Sunrise starts off with some shorter holes before closing with a 441 yard par-4, 467 yard par-4 and 580 yard par-5 (the 7th through the 9th holes). I chopped it around on that stretch and it hurt on the scorecard, so be mindful of those difficult holes.

I preferred Sagebrush because it is on the outskirts of the property and I thought it had a better collection of holes. The 3rd is a massive 617 yard par-5 and then the 4th, at 308 yards, is a driveable par-4 without much trouble. There are all sorts of options for lines and distances on Sagebrush to make it fun.

The conditions at Stonebridge were acceptable for the green fee – think municipal conditions. Everything was playable, just not as upscale as the course’s website made things look. The fairways were mostly nice with some thin/bare spots. The greens were soft and a medium pace, but rolled well. Unfortunately, the course has a lot of bunkers and those don’t appear to be a high priority to maintain. The worn bunkers are really my only criticism.

Stonebridge is a fine course and I enjoyed the afternoon. For a course in the desert, there are some great colors here this time of year and the value is good. However, Stonebridge shouldn’t be very high on an out-of-towner’s list of SLC courses to play, unless proximity to the airport is important.

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