Captain’s Club At Woodfield Golf Course Review
The Captain’s Club at Woodfield
Grade: B
Teacher’s Comments: A nice housing development course.
Located in Grand Blanc, Michigan, The Captain’s Club was designed by Raymond Floyd. The name is a play on Floyd’s role as Ryder Cup Captain in 1989. The Captain’s Club opened in 1993.
There is a lot of water and marsh at The Captain’s Club. It is as though Ray Floyd thought he was a riverboat captain and not the Ryder Cup Captain. There are potential watery graves for a golfer’s ball on fourteen of the holes. Combined with some fairly close growing tree lines, this makes The Captain’s Club a course that puts a premium on accuracy.
Prior course knowledge is helpful at Captain’s Club. On about half the holes, water or marsh interrupt the fairway at inconvenient distances. For example, it is possible that your second shot on the par 5 third could run out of fairway, as a sizable neck of pond surrounds the green. The 335 yard par 4 fifth is neatly split by a hazard, necessitating a layup off the tee. The seventh also is split by water. The ninth has a hazard you will need to negotiate as you approach the green.
And on it goes.
The holes at the Captain’s Club also all seem to bend one way or another. Other than the par threes, not a single one is straightforward. A smart golfer will take a long look at the scorecards and GPS to plan ahead on shot locations. The back nine has some minor elevation changes (although the tenth and eleventh have pretty serious drops from the tee).
Captain’s Club is a residential course, so the holes meander to provide the maximum possible house frontage. The homes are for the most part, out of the line of fire. There are, however, several points where they are dangerously close. And in the end, whether near or far, the homes are ever-present. I’m not generally a fan of development courses because the homes intrude into my thinking and break the spell of the course.
From the back tees, The Captain’s Club stretches to 6, 765 yards and plays to a 73.3/133. The blue tees are at 6, 121 yards and play to 71/126. Moving up, the white tees are 5,501 and 68.3/121.
My favorite hole at Captain’s Club was the number-one handicap par five third. The fairway is bounded by water left, and mounds right. Water interrupts the fairway about fifty yards from the green. This hole requires three precise shots for a chance at par.
Conditions on the day I played The Captain’s Club were good for mid April in Michigan. The course was still largely brown, but fairways and rough were trimmed, greens were in good shape and bunkers were cared for. As things green up for the summer, I am confident that The Captain’s Club offers a well conditioned course.
I’d love to get some feedback on course conditions from people who have played it during the regular season. Leave comments below.
Prices for The Captain’s Club are very reasonable. Peak weekend is $39. During the week you can play for $29.
More photos of The Captain’s Club follow:
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If you don’t mind long rounds of golf, then this course is right up your alley. I’ve played this course many times over the years, but the last few years have been a drag due to slow play and no golf etiquette anymore. Rarely do you see a ranger on this course and if you do they don’t do anything to get the course moving. I really love to play golf, but am really getting tired of the 51/2 to 6 hr rounds you experience her in southern Michigan. I work with some guys that quite playing golf for that reason. The only time they’ll play is if someone plans a northern trip. If more golfers took that same stance or stopped playing at the courses that do nothing to speed up golf. Then when they feel it in the profits, maybe they’d start doing something. With your Drive time and the round of golf, you should never experience a 6 1/2 to 8 hr day to play golf. Fed up in Michigan!!