North Park Golf Course

Do not come here unless you are a pro golfer who can finish 18 holes in 30 seconds. Staff will consistently harass you to hurry up, even to the point of following you on the golf carts. We were constantly told we were holding everyone up, even though there was no group behind us at any given point. We were always 1-2 holes ahead. We were harassed so many times (at least 5 STARTING FROM HOLE 1), that we decided to just leave. The only positives were 1- the views, (but dont be distracted because with the amount of deer scat, you'd more than likely step in it since it was everywhere); And 2- the manager (Drew?). He was so polite to us and was horrified that the other staff treated us so badly. He even gave us a full refund. Too bad the rest of the staff weren't as kind.

I want to break this review down into a couple parts to make it easier to read. Booking tee times and dealing with staff- Every single person I dealt with at North park has been wonderful, anytime I call there’s a very nice girl answering, anytime I loose a club there’s a nice bearded gentleman assuring me someone turned it in and asking for details to figure it out, bearded fellas is always a pleasure and the person I deal with the most. Also I was lucky enough to meet a groundskeeper at a restaurant I worked at last year, saw him the next round I played and he drove me back n forth from the range! Everyone I’ve met working there has been extremely hospitable and a pleasure to deal with. Tee times are a bit harder to come by but it makes sense. It’s nice they are hip to the times and include themselves on ChronoGolf and other platforms. Course layout and maintenance- No other muni-course besides South Park that I know of is this reasonably priced and so well maintained, the ONLY issues I ever run into is bunkers get hard but I shouldn’t be there anyway! Also greens need maintained better by players, the workers can’t do it all. Lastly if it mad more bunkers, it would be a tour level course. It has damn near everything else. Pace of play- Obviously on a Saturday at noon it will be busy, as it should be. But there are so many other opportunities to take advantage of. I LOVE hitting the twilight 9 holes. Hard to beat $12 to walk that place on a cool afternoon watching the sunset. EDIT- I went for an early round in mid September, something I’d like everyone to keep in mind is they’ve been dealing with watering issues (it’s no one’s fault who works there, issues with pumping up from the lake) and even with that going on they continue to take great care of the course. I ran into a greenskeeper on the back 9, thanked him for what they did and how well they kept it. He returned the favor with a complimentary round that I can use anytime this year, I cannot say enough about how great everyone is up there and I’ve truly never had a bad interaction with a staff member (I think his name was Dan) Thanks Dan! In conclusion this is my favorite course right now, I do live close and appreciate the convenience but I’ve played everything public in western PA and NP has earned that spot. it’s difficult for me to recommend people anywhere else. (I was asked to write a review by a staff member who helped me get my wedge back.) Even though I was asked by him very politely, I refuse to lie to the people and I couldn’t be happier that this course has been saved over the past 3 years and want to appreciate all the people who made it happen.

Went golfing this morning with my wife who has just picked up the sport and two other experienced golfers. We started off the back 9 without anyone in front of us however 5 holes in we were scolded by the ranger for having a “slow” pace. He said the regular morning group playing 18 was catching up to us however they never once had to wait for us before they could hit their shot. In fact we had already teed off before they teed off the previous par 3. I don’t think this really would have been a problem however when I told the ranger we would try to speed up he was very rude. This was such a discouraging experience that some of our group members didn’t want to play in fear of slowing down the pace. I have been golfing for 15 years and never once been told I have been playing too slow and to speed it up. This course doesn’t quite align with the PGA’s goal to encourage new players to get into the sport. In fact it’s quite the opposite. Maybe the pace enforcer was having a bad morning or wanted to execute his powers? Anyways, we finished our 9 holes in just under 2 hours which by definition seems like a pretty average pace. We never at any point held up the group behind us who we later found out play 18 holes in 3 hours and come every weekend. Overall, the course is nice but doesn’t seem the staff wants anyone less than scratch golfers playing here. Luckily there are so many courses in the area we can go to rather than this one.