LOCAL GOLF - Sunday Morning Golf Review

This week the Dewsweepers ran over to a very well kept secret in Seville at Deer Pass.

You have probably seen Deer Pass from I-71 many times. It is essentially at the intersection of I-71 and I-76, near the truck stops. You more than likely wondered what we always have. What's up with that course? It is relatively new, less than ten years, and is a place certainly on the way up. For courses to really be great, good people, time and of course money are always the determining factors on how great a course can be.

Well Deer Pass, has really great people in place, and this place has come a long way in a short time. As we talked with General Manager Chad Gibson, he was explaining all the improvements they have made in his short 20 months there on the job. And there are plenty. Impressive too was the posted list of what they have done for all to see. I liked that. You can see they have pride in their course and a forward motion there. It's a course on the rise, and not a course that is just laying there.

Deer Pass proved to be far more difficult than we were prepared for. Do not think that this is an easy track. Yes, it is not overly long, but there are plenty of very well designed nuances to this course that make it very challenging.

First off, the greens over all are small, and undulated with potentially tough pin placements. Many of them are a blind shot in, and there are more than a few that not only are blind in, small, but they also slope away from you. Many are very tough to hit. They also were loaded with break, especially around the cups. Tex found this out time and time again, as we all were aghast on how many of his putts broke late and didn't jar. Tex's normally knocks down many more putts. There was not really very much sand, and I think there was only one sand shot all day, think it was Joe Red, and it wasn't a problem as he saved par. He had a few nice par saves on the day.

The front 9 also has a thing called the 8 Acre Lake. This comes into play on a whole host of holes on the front, with two island greens where there is no margin for error. Just ask me as I dropped two in the drink on one par three, taking a terrible 7. A real round killer. That lake is really in play, or nearly in play a much of the front 9, and you will do well to keep the ball dry on all 9. We all took a scoring bath on the front, and for the most part we recovered on the back 9, which really has no water and overall far less trouble.

Deer Pass is a course that we would really like to go back and play again, and I think our approach would be very different. This is not a long course, and some long irons would be in better order on some of the par 4's than driver. Plus, it would behoove you to club down and land many approach shots short of the green and let them bounce on. And also to realize that many of these blind approach shots play shorter than the yardage in, because of the sloping away greens. I think a second round there under most circumstances would shave off a bunch of strokes for us and many others. And I mean a bunch! This is course that has to be learned. Sure, there were some bad shots, but there was a lot of different club choices and strategy that would certainly pay off.

Beef carded the only birdie of the day on the par 3 16th, a 7 iron about 3 foot away from the cup, led to a tap in. We all had our share of pars today, but next time there will be more of those, now that we know the course. I carded the only quad-bogey of the day as I told you earlier. But I recovered from a terrible front nine, (worst I've played all year), to a pretty good back 9. I Think Joe Red and I shot the best on the back. But not I, or anyone else shot the lights out. But we had fun as we always do, and that's the name of the game.

Deer Pass has a real nice staff that made us feel very welcome and comfortable on our first visit and that means a lot to us. We do put a very high value on that. Plus, a nice clubhouse, and a great selection of hot dogs, brats, and burgers for you at the turn or after the game. And...they are cooked on the grill outside - nice touch. We loved our experience, and look forward to going back with lower scores, and more conservative shots.

Scores

Joe Red - 86
Beef - 88
Wynn - 91
Tex - 100 +