Golfing The Meadows of East St. Paul

We played The Meadows yesterday, walked both rounds. Two of the guys in my foursome rode powercarts. Given how cold it was, walking actually warmed my partner and I up faster.

We started on the back nine, which is played poorly. I guess I wasn't quite warmed up. On the second nine, the front nine, I went down 14 strokes.

Overall, I went down 5 strokes on the second 18. It was colder and windier during the second round. When we finished for the day, close to 4 pm, there were only 12 cars in the parking lot, so very few people actually braved the cold that day. Fortunately, it didn't rain on us. I would love to play this course when the wind is lighter, though.

My sort of highlight for the day was on the 18th hole during the second round. It's 474 from the white tees. I hit a drive right to the 200 yard marker. I then hit a beautiful 3-wood shot to get on the green in two and leave myself a putt for eagle. Unfortunately, I proceeded to 4 putt and squander chances for eagle, birdie and par!

The Meadows is quite wide open. I joked that their rough is like their fairways. In fact, on several holes, you can save distance by going in a straight line to the green. There might be a fairway bunker or two in the way, but overall, it's a safe way to go. The grass was too short for my liking. There are some courses we play where the fairways are lush like carpet. The Meadows has never seemed to have enough grass for my liking. The greens were faster than I expected, but again, not in the best shape possible. It's early in the year, so I'm sure their greens will grow in nicer.

There is an addition to their clubhouse, a new seating area. There's a concession stand in this new section where they will make you sandwiches, hot dogs, etc. This new area is ideal for the tournaments they host. It's a welcome expansion, in my books.

In the proshop area, I noticed that they have a full Nike fitting system. While their proshop is an unlikely place to buy new clubs, given how small it is, I know they do sell sets, particularly Nike.

I played the new 5-piece TaylorMade Penta, the Bridgestone 330-RX, the Titleist Pro V1x and the discontinued Nike One Platiunum, all of which felt excellent. They all felt and sounded a tad different when hit with the driver, but none of them felt like "rocks."

Cost was $34 to for the first 18 and $20 for the second round.