Okay, (big breath) here goes... if you haven't played it, then place it on your bucket list only because of the cost involved and because of that cost... and just saying, you may only play it once, lol!
Back in '94. my brother wanted to take me here for my birthday as a treat, but because of the cost of a green fee, he found that we could both play Blue Sprigs for the cost of one. In all honesty, he did actually book it but the day was rained out and he made new arrangements to go to Blue Springs at half the price a couple of days later. No biggy, I got to play golf with my brother and it was my birthday, so who cares. But ever since that day, I've placed it on my bucket list.
Move to 20 years later, working at a friends place to do some construction work and finishing detail work and he flips his phone open and says, "Do you want to play Devil's Pulpit" and the first thing that comes out of my mouth is "Are the Kennedy's gun shy?.... Is the Pope Catholic?" Well yeah, I'm in if you can make it happen. Within minutes he informs me that we're booked a week from this point because he has a buddy that can make it happen.
To keep costs down, I inform him to tell his buddy that I have a Pro Card and that if this is mentioned, I may get a complimentary round (I hate to use this) and so I am informed to call the Pro Shop (out of a courtesy) and let them now that I'm coming and they say "No problem, just present you card and you're taken care of... Now, I expected to pay ... "something" but they took care of the whole thing, well over a couple hundred bones.
The course is something akin to what the tour pros play on, in all honesty, it's not fair because the fairways are pool tables.
The greens are... well go stand on the hood of a Cadillac and try and stop the ball at the hood's ornament, Good Luck with that by the way.
Absolutely groomed to perfection, and the facilities are very impressive, especially if you visit ALL of them and utilize them to your betterment. They are splayed out throughout the facility though, again good luck here.
The hospitality shown by the staff is second to none.... As is the range, wow! All Titleist balls
The food is first class as is the service and the inside atmosphere of the lounge.
The Game: I wanted to take a pic of "Where has your TT Bag Tag Been" but we were met by a Concierge at the front gate and couldn't do this... moving forward....
To the Parking Lot and Shuttle Service automatically appeared to take me wherever I wanted to go... "To the Pro Shop please (so that I could thank them for the complimentary round) and then on to the driving range.
From there, carts were provided to go to the first tee where we were welcomed by the starter and cleared to go.
Walked up to the first tee, inhaled the ambiance of the layout, hit the drive and said "Thanks God" for such a beautiful venue
Had a few Cart Girl Beers and a sandwich and a few more beers and fun with the guys through out and enjoyed the atmosphere of the day.
We played from the blues, I shot a 75 and was happy with that having never seen the course before. Trust me, it's very tough and I got lucky by getting on with my pitching and chipping on a few holes but mostly laying up on puts so as to just to get a par. At 7100 yards, it's a tough test from the Blues for a 59 year old.
You will enjoy this track, it's definitely a bucket list thing!