After a few tiring days of travel and golf I decided to stay close to my family’s house on Tuesday. Plus, a sketchy forecast (rain and thunderstorms) didn’t have me too excited about paying a bunch of money to play a super nice course. So, insert Water Oak Country Club, which is about 15 minutes away from my family’s house.

I got to the course early and chatted with the proshop before my round. They shared that the course experienced some severe flooding last year and was closed for six months. I guess it re-opened two months ago (too early in my opinion) and is still recovering. I joined another single and we played in 3.5 hours on a busy morning. Apparently Water Oak is quite popular with the locals!

Unfortunately, the course conditions left a lot to be desired. And by that I mean you’ll probably want to skip a round here until things improve. It was evident that many fairways were under water and much of the course was muddy, with very little grass. If your ball found a grassy lie, you got lucky.

The non-flooded holes were better, but I still had plenty of bare lies on those holes too. The greens were mostly full and rolled okay, albeit slowly. No doubt I played Water Oak at the wrong time, but for the $30 to $40 green fee you can do a lot better, even during peak season.

Water Oak is a “short course”, maxing out at 5,944 yards from the blue tees. The rating is 68.3 and the slope is 119 from the blues. It is a par-72 with five par-3’s, five par-5’s and eight par-4’s. Most of the holes are shorter, except the 220 yard par-3 6th!

I thought the nicest thing about the design was the rolling terrain. The elevation change showed some of the course’s charm. Overall, the layout was a bit cramped – think tight and quirky. In fact, you drive into play (from other holes) a couple times. I think that more par-3’s and fewer par-4’s and par-5’s would have eased the congestion.

Like most short courses Water Oak will test your short game. The greens here are super small and were tough to hit, even with a wedge. Many greens look like small upside down saucers and repelled full shots. I found them quite clever to play to!

The staff was great at Water Oak and the weather turned out better than expected. So, I enjoyed my round as I always enjoy golfing at a new course. However, even without the flooding issue, I wouldn’t go very far out of your way for a round here.

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