The Georgia Trail at Sugarloaf is easily the worst golf course I've step foot on and it's not even…read moreclose. I thought I'd seen bad until I played here. It was hysterically horrible. It was like playing on an abandoned course. Actually, it already has been abandoned (kind of).
The course opened in 2009 and plans to officially close its doors for good at the end of this year, December 31, 2017. Driving in, you can see a big "For Sale" sign showing the 43.7-acre property has been zoned for multifamily housing and approved for 290 units. The way the course and facilities look, it's evident ownership has stopped putting money into this place.
We played our round in late July 2017 and it appeared just about everything was left for dead, starting with the street sign out on Satellite Boulevard. The entire property was well thought out and I could see where it once could have been (or was) a thriving golf facility. There's a 9-hole, par-32, 2,313-yard course, a driving range with about 12 grass hitting stations, a practice putting green, and an 18-hole, par-42, "to-scale replica of a 7,410-yard championship golf course."
The multi-story clubhouse is spacious and once had a bar and restaurant with spacious covered patios. I asked an employee if the bar was open and he said, "No, sir. It closed two years ago." I explored the bar area and it was desolate and deserted, like a ghost town. At least the TV in the lounge was working with an active subscription to Golf Channel. There's a conference room and what remains of an outdoor cabana area with fire pits. If it was fully operational, The Georgia Trail's clubhouse would actually be nicer than a lot of other public golf clubhouses in metro Atlanta.
There are references to great, prestigious, and historic courses:
1. The name The Georgia Trail makes you think of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama.
2. The official name of this course, The Georgia Trail at Sugarloaf, makes you think of another course nearby: TPC Sugarloaf. The two courses, however, could not be more diametrically opposed.
3. The Georgia Trail was once home to "chef-managed" Augusta's Restaurant, an obvious reference to Augusta and Augusta National Golf Club.
4. The logo for the Georgia Trail is similar to the Masters logo except instead of a flagstick with a red flag stuck into a yellow shape of the US, it's stuck into a yellow shape of Georgia.
The course has five sets of tees and is great for all skill levels, especially beginners. We played from the blue tees which are in the middle. The course measures 1,858 yards from the blue tees. There's one par-5, three par-4s, and five par-3s. The course has a very simple, compact, and straightforward layout. There's not much to the design or creativity of the holes. Aside from minor bends or an odd angle here or there, every hole is pretty much straight. The course is relatively flat and in fact, sits on a floodplain. Therefore, the course gets flooded easily when it rains. Not good.
As far as conditions, they were awful. The colors on the tee markers have come off so it was hard to tell which color tees were which. The grass in the tee boxes was so high, it was difficult to tee the ball above the grass (and at that point, the ball was teed too high). One of my friends actually "teed" his ball in a divot, just so he could see and make decent contact with his ball. The fairway grass was more like rough grass and the rough grass was pretty much a hazard or unplayable. We would hit our drives straight down the middle of the "fairway" and still have trouble finding our balls because the grass was so tall and thick. Like the rough at a real course, we practically had to be standing directly over our ball in the fairway to see it.
The greens weren't even greens. We ended up calling them the "browns" because that's just what they were, large brown patches of dirt. They could in no way, shape, or form be considered greens worthy of putting on as not only did they consist of lots of dirt, but also various plants, weeds, anthills, and even a mushroom! I saw only two "bunkers" on the course and it looked like they were last maintained years ago. There was hardly any sand in them, just dirt, grass, and weeds. There were multiple bodies of water on the course, some of which were dirty and smelled disgusting. Bring your insect repellent.
At least the golf carts were decent (except I noticed at least one of the tires on my friends' cart had zero tread - not safe) and every hole marker had a color layout and ball washer (didn't try them though).
The best part was the staff. JR and the rest of the folks I interacted with were polite and friendly.
We paid the regular rate of $16.60 per person for 9 holes with cart (tax included).
Note: I played my round with Robin S. You can consider my review and Robin's review as companion pieces since they are based on the same round of golf.
Rest in peace, The Georgia Trail at Sugarloaf. What could have been.