The Captains Club at Woodfield

I somewhat surprised myself by liking this course; it is short, not a hitters course at all and not at all open. That being said it is a damn nice course that rewards you for thinking, penalizes you if you don’t, and has enough features and challenges per hole to keep you vigilant. Was it the ideal place to return to golf after 3 years off, major ankle reconstruction and less than two dozen balls? No, but it was humbling, well laid out with good separation between the holes, significant dog legs and decent variation in water features and placement. My one complaint would be the bunkers, not that there weren’t enough and they didn’t do their job of discouraging you from risk taking, but the sand was packed and substandard. Took away from an otherwise well maintained course. Also liked the true differences in hole layout and strategy afforded by the different tee boxes. Maybe it’s just that I’m glad to be back on the course, maybe it’s because I was out with the boy, or maybe it’s the way the course reminded to slow down and enjoy it, but I really liked this place. It ain’t cheap by local standards, but it’s worth it.

This place is incredible! The course layout is long and challenging! The greens and fairways and extremely well maintained!
Staff is excellent, pace of play is average. Value of the course is perfect!
Slouch a great place to grab 18!

Captain’s Club is a Raymond Floyd design, cut through a sub division, although that doesn’t come into play very much. I’m generally not a fan of holes cut through subs, but for the most part, you don’t really notice it here.
They have a terrific range with very good fairway-​like grass, and the hitting area is huge enough where they can move the box around so the grass recovers. We had near pristine conditions. They also have a gorgeous clubhouse that overlooks the range.
Captain’s is a mixed bag for me. Condition wise, it’s much better than it used to be. The greens used to be very «thin», meaning not much grass on them, but today (August 25, 2013) they were in very good shape. I’d say 7 out of 10. For the most part, the problem is people not fixing ball marks or raking traps.
The layout of the course is decent. A couple of forced layups off the tee, but very fair. Both layups are on short holes… the worst is when you’re forced to layup on a long par 4 and you have a longer 2^nd shot than your first, but not here. The design of #8 is pretty stupid though, as there’s a «local rule» which says you must play the par 5 as a 3 shot hole.
The green complexes are goofy. FAR too many plateaus and ridges. It’s almost like putting at a putt putt course on some holes. A couple of bad pin locations as well today, which I’ve experienced a number of times at this course. Unfortunately, on some holes they have just a couple of reasonable spots they could put the pins, such as on #18, and you can see the wear pattern because of it. They would do well to have a yardage book type thing on their golf carts to show the greens depths and slopes.
Maintenance wise, like far too many courses in Michigan, Captain’s really over-​waters. We played at 9:30, and there was still standing water on some holes because of the over watering during the night/​morning, and it hasn’t rained in days! Really unacceptable, especially with the USGA push to conserve water.
What this also meant is that the consistency of the fairways and greens was nonexistent. On some holes the ball would take huge bounces, other holes the ball would nearly plug in the fairway.
On a side note, they need to spend some cash and fix their cart paths. They are absolutely brutal. It’s as if MDOT is building these paths, pot hole after pot hole, all filled with water, of course, since they over water! Everyone in our foursomes were complaining about it.
I would also suggest to management that they should have a «hybrid» type tee box, which would include some black and some blue tees. Blues really is too short (about 6100 yards). Only one par 5 over 500 yards (#18) and I don’t believe there are any par 4s over 400. However, from the black, the course plays 6740. I nice mix would be good at about 6400 – 6500 yards, and would only cost the course a new GAM rating and a chance of scorecard.
They also need to do some tree trimming and marsh cutting. They should watch the USGA videos on slow play and take note of course setup. There’s not many things that slows play down as blind landing areas with long grass in the area. Two of the par 3s have trees which are essentially in the way with the tee boxes they had set up today, and many holes had long marsh land and overgrown areas which block your view. On 18 we had to drive up to see the landing area because we’re not familiar enough with the course. This is ridiculous to me for a public course.
Ok, it sounds like I’m completely b! tching and moaning about the course, but there are some really simple things they can do to improve the course, and a few of them would save them money (like curbing the water use). Also note that not over watering the greens would leave them in BETTER condition because people wouldn’t leave such big ball marks.
They had ample drinking water on the course, and the cart girl was around 4 or 5 times during the day, which is great.

Captains Club at Woodfield is my go to course in Genesee County. I play league here once a week, and still choose to play there during the week. I like the layout of the course, and the range is great — all grass.
They also have the great food, and the bar and patio are laid out great. My only complaint is the greens occasionally. By late summer they can get pretty rough, but I think that is the fault of careless golfers not repairing marks.
Great place overall.

I think I had played here about 30+ rounds and the course always in such good condition, My god-​father who live here told me Raymond Floyd once said «If the course doesn’t maintain the way it suppose to be I’ll take my name off…» whether that was truth or not… Raymond Floyd’s name still on the plague.