St. Andrews Golf & Country Club in Winston, Georgia straddles the three-four star line for me. From a value perspective, this is one of the best values for 18 holes you're going to find within roughly an hour of Atlanta. It's a hike, but the rates are cheap. We paid the regular weekend morning rate of $42 per golfer for a course that could easily charge $60, or perhaps more, if it was closer to Atlanta. Overall, I found the course to be in fair to good condition, particularly the greens, which were outstanding. Service in the pro shop (Brian) was great. However, the clubhouse and starter's hut appear to be neglected, amenities were lacking, and we experienced pace of play issues. Purely from a golf perspective, if you can tolerate slow play, I think this is a solid and fun track that's worth the drive. I know I'd play here more often if it was closer to where I live.
St. Andrews originally opened as a nine-hole course in 1972. A second nine was added in 2004 (I believe that's what Brian told me). They say that playing the two nines is like playing two completely different courses, but it didn't feel that way to me, maybe because I had so much fun playing both nines that I didn't notice. In this regard, St. Andrews is similar to Creekside Golf & Country Club in Hiram, another club with two nines that were built at separate times. However, I think the two nines at St. Andrews flow together much better than at Creekside. I especially liked St. Andrew's back nine which is the easier of the two nines.
I think this is a great place to introduce someone to the game of golf. This club offers more than adequate practice facilities including a spacious driving range with both grass and mat hitting stations, a big practice putting green, and a nice short game area to practice chipping and bunker shots. The practice bunker is large and among the biggest I've seen at a public course in Georgia. Range balls are served up in baskets (large or small size) inside the pro shop. The quality of the range balls is average at best and we found lots of old, worn non-practice balls mixed in too. The practice facilities were in good condition during our visit. The practice putting green looked immaculate. I was impressed with it and the greens on the course.
The greens are bentgrass and the fairways and tee boxes are bermuda grass. The sand isn't white or tan, soft, and fluffy sand, but more of a reddish brown, harder, thicker, denser sand. This type of sand isn't uncommon among Georgia courses. It's not my favorite type of sand, but at least the bunkers were raked and properly maintained unlike other courses where you might find rocks, weeds, and standing water. It hadn't rained for while when we played, so the course was particularly dry. In general, all over the course, the ground was hard and the lies were thin. In some instances, the ground was so hard that it was hard to stick our tees into the ground. The conditions of the tee boxes ranged from poor to fair. The tee boxes on holes 3, 8, 11, 12, and 17 consisted of more dirt than grass. Granted, save for hole 11, the others are par-3s, but still, some grass on those tee boxes would've been nice.
The course - at least the front nine - was designed by Ward Northrup who also designed the nine-hole course at Ansley Golf Club in Midtown. From the tips (black tees), the course measures 6,629 yards with a rating/slope of 71.7/135. There are five sets of tees. However, when we played, the black, blue, and white tees were all lumped together so I'm not sure which yardage and rating/slope we played. I normally play from the white (typically middle) tees. At this course, the whites measure 5,936 or 5,911 yards, depending on where the white tees for 16 are set for the day, with a rating/slope of 69.0/128. I would say this course is at average or just above average in difficulty.
Like most Georgia courses, St. Andrews is hilly, but, relatively speaking, it's one of the least hilly courses I've played in the state. The course has a nice mix of holes which keeps it interesting from start to finish. My favorite holes are usually those that have water. On this course, those are holes 4 and 11, both par 4s, and the par-3 12th. The second shot on the 4th hole (398 yards from the tips, 386 blues, 374 whites) requires a forced carry over a pond. The lake that borders the 11th and 12th holes is more for scenery unless you pull or hook your shots. Large homes, boat docks, and finely manicured lawns across the lake make for idyllic backdrops on these greens.
The pro shop has limited inventory. They have club logo golf shirts and a surprising number of grips. There are fridges with bottled and canned drinks (including beer), coffee, snacks like potato chips and candy bars, and hot dogs in foil bags. There was a food and beverage cart running during our round, but the selection on the cart was limited.
Annual memberships are only $179 and you pay just the $17 cart fee to play. Holy schnikes! read more
