- Staff
- #1
Tournament Club of Iowa played host to the Des Moines area THP Tour Van event and I thought I'd post a quick review of the course, as well as some pictures. This is the only Arnold Palmer design in the state of Iowa and offers daily fee play for around $55 with a cart during peak season.
The piece of land that the course was built on is heavily wooded with old growth hardwoods, rolling hills, creeks, and lakes. The course features a number of different tee boxes and stretch from 5,000 to over 7,000 yards. Tees, fairways, and greens were all bent grass that was in excellent shape. Elevation change and wind are factors on many holes, though it never seemed to blow exclusively from one direction. Some greens were definitely huge, which brought three-putts in the equation if you were on the wrong side or level. The greens weren't extremely fast, but they were receptive to shots, rolled very nicely and were in very well maintained.
The fairways on many holes were quite generous and were then followed up with difficult approach shots that often required some long forced carries.There were a number of holes that favored a right-left ball flight for the best angle to the green, but there was still room for a miss to the right. I was able to keep the ball in play pretty successfully, but if I put a ball to the right off the tee, I was looking at some very long shots to the green. Quite a bit of very well kept sand bunkers, many of which were humongous and placed so that lay-ups and approaches needed to be accurate. I believe water comes into play on 13 of the 18 holes. Many of the holes were deceptive off the tee in that they left you thinking you had less room than you really did. It certainly was easier to play the second time, but the on-cart GPS helped quite a bit.
The par 3's were very nice and really made you use a different club each time. The last two weren't that difficult by themselves, but the wind really confused us. It seemed to circle quite a bit and I chose the wrong club a few times, which caused some water issues.
Customer services was fantastic. We were treated extremely well by the Head Pro, Tony, Josh the GM, and the rest of the staff. Tony actually came to the course on Sunday, his day off, and greeted a number of our groups to see if we were enjoying our time at TCI. The only real complaint I could find was that the cart girls were somewhat scarce at times.
I don't have photos of every hole, but here are some for you to check out.
First hole is a mid-length par 5 from an elevated tee box that drops down into the valley. There is an ample landing area, but you have to be in the left-center portion if you want to try to hit the green in two shots. It was a pretty friendly opening hole.
Hole 2 was a mid-length par 4 that played easier than it looked from the tee box. The elevated green runs pretty hard from back to front.
The first par 3 was both an easy hole, and a hard hole. If you hit your tee shot well you had a good chance at birdie or par, but a miss too far right or anywhere left brought bogey or double into play.
Hole 4 was a 550 yard par 5 from the 'white' tees, but the length was tempered a bit by the elevation drop off the tee. Finding your tee shot in the giant bunker made the second shot difficult because you had the next bunker to contend with if you hit the ball poorly.
Hole 5 is a mid-length par 3 with a substantial elevation drop. It's the signature hole for the course and really is just breathtaking from the tee box. The large green left some people (including myself) with some extremely long putts.
Hole 13 is a short par 5 that gives almost everybody a chance at getting home in two, though missing that second shot was pretty penal. The giant tree is in play off the tee and is featured on the TCI logo. I really liked this hole.
Hole 14 is a driveable par 4, though the wind was quite strong into the tee box. This is the hole that Jake put his tee shot to 15 feet for eagle. Very pretty hole.
17 was a beast of a par 5 at 560 from the 'whites'. Most people were left with a longer club than normal into the green. Not a ton of trouble in terms of trees, but the water to the left did eat some golf balls. I got a some sweet cart-path help on this hole.
This is the 18th green, looking up to the clubhouse. As you can see, the 17th and 18th hole are sort of in a stadium setting and you can watch people come in from the the clubhouse or putting green.
The piece of land that the course was built on is heavily wooded with old growth hardwoods, rolling hills, creeks, and lakes. The course features a number of different tee boxes and stretch from 5,000 to over 7,000 yards. Tees, fairways, and greens were all bent grass that was in excellent shape. Elevation change and wind are factors on many holes, though it never seemed to blow exclusively from one direction. Some greens were definitely huge, which brought three-putts in the equation if you were on the wrong side or level. The greens weren't extremely fast, but they were receptive to shots, rolled very nicely and were in very well maintained.
The fairways on many holes were quite generous and were then followed up with difficult approach shots that often required some long forced carries.There were a number of holes that favored a right-left ball flight for the best angle to the green, but there was still room for a miss to the right. I was able to keep the ball in play pretty successfully, but if I put a ball to the right off the tee, I was looking at some very long shots to the green. Quite a bit of very well kept sand bunkers, many of which were humongous and placed so that lay-ups and approaches needed to be accurate. I believe water comes into play on 13 of the 18 holes. Many of the holes were deceptive off the tee in that they left you thinking you had less room than you really did. It certainly was easier to play the second time, but the on-cart GPS helped quite a bit.
The par 3's were very nice and really made you use a different club each time. The last two weren't that difficult by themselves, but the wind really confused us. It seemed to circle quite a bit and I chose the wrong club a few times, which caused some water issues.
Customer services was fantastic. We were treated extremely well by the Head Pro, Tony, Josh the GM, and the rest of the staff. Tony actually came to the course on Sunday, his day off, and greeted a number of our groups to see if we were enjoying our time at TCI. The only real complaint I could find was that the cart girls were somewhat scarce at times.
I don't have photos of every hole, but here are some for you to check out.
First hole is a mid-length par 5 from an elevated tee box that drops down into the valley. There is an ample landing area, but you have to be in the left-center portion if you want to try to hit the green in two shots. It was a pretty friendly opening hole.
Hole 2 was a mid-length par 4 that played easier than it looked from the tee box. The elevated green runs pretty hard from back to front.
The first par 3 was both an easy hole, and a hard hole. If you hit your tee shot well you had a good chance at birdie or par, but a miss too far right or anywhere left brought bogey or double into play.
Hole 4 was a 550 yard par 5 from the 'white' tees, but the length was tempered a bit by the elevation drop off the tee. Finding your tee shot in the giant bunker made the second shot difficult because you had the next bunker to contend with if you hit the ball poorly.
Hole 5 is a mid-length par 3 with a substantial elevation drop. It's the signature hole for the course and really is just breathtaking from the tee box. The large green left some people (including myself) with some extremely long putts.
Hole 13 is a short par 5 that gives almost everybody a chance at getting home in two, though missing that second shot was pretty penal. The giant tree is in play off the tee and is featured on the TCI logo. I really liked this hole.
Hole 14 is a driveable par 4, though the wind was quite strong into the tee box. This is the hole that Jake put his tee shot to 15 feet for eagle. Very pretty hole.
17 was a beast of a par 5 at 560 from the 'whites'. Most people were left with a longer club than normal into the green. Not a ton of trouble in terms of trees, but the water to the left did eat some golf balls. I got a some sweet cart-path help on this hole.
This is the 18th green, looking up to the clubhouse. As you can see, the 17th and 18th hole are sort of in a stadium setting and you can watch people come in from the the clubhouse or putting green.
