Pocono Manor Resort & Spa, Pocono Manor, PA

Played West course today- most of the greens (except last 3 in back nine) are in really bad shape. Course layout fun for high handicappers. No bunkers or water; mainly a very flat course. Good thing booked teetime on-line at $25 (all incl.) as at course it was $40.

My buddies and I recently played this course 4 times on an extended golf weekend. The group consisted of both lower, mid-level and higher handicap players (with myself in the latter category). While Pocono Manor could be considered a good value, it is not an experience that I think anyone in our party of 10 is likely to repeat anytime soon. Going into the 4-day weekend, I had expected a challenge due to the length of this course from the White Tees (over 6700 yards). However, length is not the issue on this course. The rock hard fairways and greens will allow your ball to travel much farther than your normal club lengths. In fact, I ended up using 2 club lengths less than usual for approach shots due to the course conditions. Like other reviews here, maintenance was okay but definitely spotty. The men's tee boxes were bare in spots and packed so hard on others that getting a tee in the ground was a challenge. The Women's and some of the seniors tees were not even really a tee box but merely a marked off area near the fairways.

The fairways were okay. As mentioned above, the ground is hard packed, so expect a lot of roll on your shots. It also made it tough on 2nd or 3rd shots to get underneath the ball at times. The grass was green and although there were one or two bare spots, it was nothing to worry about. The rough was worse. Lots of bare spots and often hitting off dirt while trying to avoid the rocks that seem to crop up randomly everywhere. Although there are woods on either side of the fairways and plenty of fescue mounds to catch stray shots, my companions and I managed to lose very few balls over the course of the 4 rounds.

What really bothered everyone in the group was the greens. Harder than rocks, the greens fail to hold any shots whatsoever. Even approach and chip shots that land well in front of the greens will more likely than not release and roll off the back side easily. By way of example, of the 72 hols played, I only had to repair two divot marks on the greens. Everything else merely bounced high and far. Many of the greens are domed or otherwise heavily sloped, so putting was also an adventure. As one of my playing partners remarked, the greens simply make the course "unfair" as there are very few rewards for good shots and players are instead often punished on those otherwise good shots.

I do have to say that the staff was generally friendly although service overall at the resort was extremely slow. I used to think that service staff in the Florida Keys moved at a snail's pace. This staff would lose a foot race to them by a (Pocono) country mile.

If you do decide to go to Pocono Manor, I would recommend the East Course (a review of that course will be posted soon). If I do ever return, I will not be replaying the West course.