James Baird State Park Golf Course, Pleasant Valley, NY

This Robert Trent Jones design is great fun to play. A couple of easy and straight forward par 3s and 4s mixed with one of the most challenging holes I have played, the 13th par 5.
The greens, though a little slow, were consistent and in good shape and the bunkers are the softest in the area.

Wide open terrain with some tough par 3's. Fairways were hard to distinguish from the short rough, although there were some. Plays in part like a link's course. Great place to bring your beginning golfer...no crowds and terrific prices.

When I went golfing a couple of months ago, the course was fine. When i went today, it was ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! Bare spots everywhere, everything was poorly kept, and the greens were the only parts of the course that was green. That would be good if there weren't spots everywhere, if they didn't fill indentations with sand (on the 17th green there was a strip of sand that made it impossible to make a put over 10 feet with the hole in the upper left location), and if they didn't keep hard objects on the green (pin high shot on the 11th green hit something and bounced 25 feet in the air and 20 yards past the green). So in April it was GREAT and now, it just plain TERRIBLE.

Course is in terrible shape. Poorly maintained rough, lots of bare spots, extremely slow play. Such a shame to let a Robert Trent Jones course fall apart. They said it's improved, but I can't imagine how bad it must have been other than the clubhouse.