December Course Review - TPC Stadium Course at PGA West

vthokies20

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In early December I had the opportunity to play the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West, one of six courses at PGA West. As most of you know, the Stadium Course hosts a PGA Tour Event. This year, the event will be named The Career Builder Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation. In recent years, the event was known as the Humana Challenge.



The property is shared by two of the six courses, TPC Stadium Course and the Nicklaus course, with the other four courses scattered throughout the area. Three of the six courses are available to the public, while the other 3 are private.

When you first arrive on the grounds, you are greeted by valet and directed into the clubhouse. The clubhouse is fairly large, with a fully stocked pro shop and a beautiful restaurant that offers outside seating. Once we checked in at the pro shop, we were directed to the back of the clubhouse to find our clubs and golf carts.



Practice Area - A

The Driving Range was enormous, and offered multiple stations to hit from with unlimited golf balls. There were also stations on the opposite end of the range about 400 yards away. Multiple greens with calculated distances to the pins were offered, which allowed you to use a handful of clubs for target practice. There was a practice putting green that had four holes that was extremely similar to the speed of the greens on the course. Also, they had an additional practice green for chipping/sand practice.



Course conditions – A+

The course was in spectacular shape. The tee boxes, fairways and greens were in pristine condition. The fairways had very few divots, and the greens were rolling at an above average speed. Being from Western Pennsylvania, the rough was completely foreign to us. We’re used to seeing green rough, not this brown stuff they called rough. A few of the other courses we played were still recovering from overseeding and were cart path only, but this course was in great shape and was not cart path only.



Layout – A

The course offers five different sets of tee boxes and is a Par 72: Tournament – 7,300 yards, Championship – 6,739 yards, Regular – 6,166 yards, Gold – 5,700 yards and Red – 5,092 yards. They also offered a combo set of tees between the Championship and Regular tees. This was a pretty standard Pete Dye course, with many tough bunkers and uncomfortable lies/stances. We played from the Championship tees, and found ourselves laughing at some of the Tournament tee box distances.



Pace of Play – A

We were lucky enough to be the second group out in the morning, and had a threesome of members in front of us. The only time we waited to play our shots was on the first tee box, and we never saw the group behind us. We saw two marshalls throughout our round, monitoring the pace on a few different holes. Our foursome finished the round in 4 hours, which was especially surprising based on how little time was spent in the fairways!



Price – N/A

I can’t speak too much on the price, as we booked this round as part of a golf package through Golf Zoo. Our price for the entire trip was pretty solid, but did not offer a price breakdown of each course. Doing a few minutes of research, I was able to find that the average rate for December was between $100 and $150, depending on the time of your round.



Amenities – B+

As you’ll see, this is my only "B" rating for my review. However, it could have easily been an "A". The clubhouse was fantastic, and the pro shop offered a variety of brand names. We ate lunch at Ernie’s Bar & Grill, the restaurant in the clubhouse. The food was pricey, but was absolutely delicious. The outside seating area was crowded for lunch and offered a really cool view of the Nicklaus course.

On the course, there were two drink/snack carts on the grounds, which we saw pretty frequently. There was a small shack at the turn that offered food, but were out of a few of the offerings that our group wanted. We expected to find a bigger snack shop with more offerings, so that is why this rating was lower than the others.

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Overall – A

We had a fantastic time at the Stadium Course, and we’re already talking about going back! The course was in great shape, and every employee seemed thrilled about their job. It’s pretty great when the only thing to complain about is the small snack shop at the turn. Everything else exceeded our expectations! Playing this course showed me why PGA West is a hot ticket for a lot of golfers.
 
awesome review, I really want to play this someday
 
great write up. Having played there a few times, I cringed a few times at the holes pictured just because of the horrible ways I played those specific holes. That 9th hole is brutual. Championship tees are way back there. How did you like the 230-240 yd par 3 over water? Insane right. Thank you for the pics and glad you enjoyed your time there.
 
Nice write up, Jake. Great course and I'm glad you enjoyed yourself.


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Great review, I love hearing THP reviews of courses I see on TV for tournaments, so cool to get a little more behind the scenes info and perspective.
 
great write up. Having played there a few times, I cringed a few times at the holes pictured just because of the horrible ways I played those specific holes. That 9th hole is brutual. Championship tees are way back there. How did you like the 230-240 yd par 3 over water? Insane right. Thank you for the pics and glad you enjoyed your time there.

I think all 4 of us bailed out on that one haha. I couldn't imagine playing that from the Tournament tees, which I think were 255 yards.
 
Forgot to add a picture of #17 "Alcatraz"...

 
Great write up and review! It's sad to see the rough look this way, but times and water usage are what they are.


Glad you had fun!
 
great review Jake, definitely on my list of places Id like to play someday
 
Great review! Looks like a really fun course.
 
Great review! Course looks spectacular.
 
Great review!! Looks like a beautiful course.
 
Great write up and review! It's sad to see the rough look this way, but times and water usage are what they are.


Glad you had fun!

Basically they just don't overseed for the winter and let the Bermuda go dormant. At least its still playable.

Great review vthokies20! Hope you enjoyed your visit!
 
I get to play PGA west next week @ a conference and board meeting. Not sure yet if we play the Nicklaus or Stadium.....
 
I get to play PGA west next week @ a conference and board meeting. Not sure yet if we play the Nicklaus or Stadium.....
Very cool. Either course should be great!
 
I get to play PGA west next week @ a conference and board meeting. Not sure yet if we play the Nicklaus or Stadium.....
Go a day early and play em both.
 
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