Pros:
Perhaps because we arrived before daylight; after driving all night; had breakfast in a diner; and then played this at first light....Shore Acres had a wonderful feel too it. Somewhat reminded me of an ocean side course with the sand and the dew on the grass; bird's chirping, etc.
Long, concrete tees all holes. (On many holes; rubber mat tees were still evident; so, concrete fairly new).
Brooms to sweep sand, on many tees.
Lots of what I considered to be quality shots through tight lanes.
Water hole across pond on #14.
Nice balance of shots required; with some quality anny shots (for rhbh).
Roll away greens in many spots. This is one of the outstanding features here; and is quite present at many courses in western Michigan.
I thought we both played roll aways well. I also made a couple quality putts; and yet, we both finished over par. (With that said,I only had two birds, so, didn't shoot that great).
Some of the wooded approaches; if kicked off the fairway, had pretty severe hill side fall off; into schule.
Trash receptacles.
Homey seating areas.
Abandoned building at beginning of course, somehow added to interesting feeling of course.
We enjoyed playing here quite a bit, and debated playing a second round; even though we had courses planned for the entire day. This ended up being better than anything we played in Grand Rapids. (Though, Riverside is a nice course).
Cons:
There were no scorecards or maps at the start. We simply went to first tee and began to play. We did find our way around 18 holes without too much trouble; but, for instance; number 10 bucket labeled as #6....#11 tee sign also had #9 written on the post for sign, etc. We played #10 twice; due to a walk back situation; and I'm still not sure it was the correct play of the hole; as there was another bucket deeper right; and the length of the hole we played seemed out of place with the rest of the course lengths (too short). I did deuce it both times though! Also, many of the footage numbers on the signs seemed short to us...
Sand influenced run ups on most upshots. (Just the nature of the course to me; but some may find this a con). Definitely was a factor in play....
Other Thoughts:
Our enjoyment level here was a 4. Navigation issues need to be worked on a bit. I understand that when course upgrades are in progress, it is impossible to get everything done at once; so, I'm not complaining, just pointing out, that right now, this one's a bit tough to navigate.
Seems to be getting better all the time.
We finished around 8:30 a.m., and there were six cars in the lot already; on a Friday! So, evidently, we are not the only ones appreciating improvement efforts here....