Yahara Hills (East) Golf Course | Madison, WI | Par 72

Yahara Hills (East) is a straightforward layout with wide fairways and big greens. Most everything is right in front of you on the traditional layout that has two par-3s and two par-5s per side. There’s not a whole lot of elevation change throughout the course, and the holes feel very uniform throughout. The teeing areas are large and the setups give a good variety to the player when deciding how far to play from.

There is a dichotomy when breaking down the condition of Yahara Hills (East). The greens are consistently some of the best greens I play in the Madison area. They’re quick and roll nicely. They’re also big – nice for a confidence boost when you’re checking out your GIR stats – which means caring for them is no small task. They are easily the best feature of the course. The rest of the course is not so impressive. Fairways are wide, but normally past when they should have been mowed. You will run into areas that are pretty beat up, too. The rough is also allowed to get pretty thick and deep, which is fine, but dandelions become a pretty big issue when trying to locate your ball. If the greens are the “good”, and the fairways and rough are the “bad”, the bunkers are most definitely the ugly. I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime in the last handful of years, Yahara Hills has basically given up on the bunkers. 90% of them are complete eye sores and basically unplayable.

The best feature of the Yahara Hills practice area is the large putting/chipping green. Depending on the crowds, it allows you to practice longer pitches and chips without interfering with others. The green is pretty flat, but that mimics the greens on the course, minus the regular pitch you’ll find. The range is a little farther back from the green, and isn’t the nicest one you’ll find, but it gets the job done. The balls have seen their fair share of use, but if you’re looking for a place to warm up, you’ve got it.

The clubhouse is a bit of a time capsule. There’s not a lot of merchandise available, but the whole area offers a nice place to relax after a round. There’s a grill and bar right there and a large TV viewing area.

The carts are solid with a big center console for your stuff. There’s nothing extra, though, as they don’t have GPS, club cleaner or cooler, so these are what I refer to as ‘Point A to Point B’ carts. They get the job done and run well.

One of the nice features about Yahara Hills is the starter located near the practice green. After paying in the clubhouse, you check in with the starter, and he keeps things organized and flowing on the first tee. One of the negatives is the lack of coverage, or presence at all, of a beverage cart. There are some vending machine on the course, but best to be safe and purchase drinks in the clubhouse if you think you’ll want one. About half the time, the person running the register in the pro shop is also covering the food/drink area, so there could be a bit of a back-up if it gets busy.

Yahara has fallen victim to what every other course in the Madison area has to, with prices going up and up. It will now cost over $60 for a peak round of 18 with a cart, but that’s one of the lower prices in the city. The course is clearly struggling financially and letting some areas slip, but it’s a good value. If you can avoid peak times, or take part in the loyalty program, you can keep your greens fees even lower.

There’s not a lot to the layout that screams challenging. The fairways are generous and the greens are large. It has several tee options, so you’re not forced to play longer than you want. If you can keep the ball relatively straight, there shouldn’t be any major issues preventing you from posting a solid score. The rough is the biggest defense, as it can get pretty long and dense, making finding the ball a tough proposition before having to actually hit it. The challenge takes another hit because many of the bunkers are ground under repair with free relief, so you don’t have to worry about playing from them.

Yahara is a fun course despite its obvious flaws. It’s wide open, and the greens are consistently very good. It’s a very playable course that takes you out of the city and into more of a Northwoods feel.

Hole #6 is an appealing hole to me visually, as I can aim at the fairway bunker on the dogleg right par-4, and just swing away. Ideally, I’ll be able to draw it back into the fairway and leave myself with a pretty short club in. If I hit it straight or even push it, there’s room to the right that will usually leave you with a shot. There is a large tree to the right, which is really all you have to avoid. From there, another of Yahara’s patented large, slanted greens provides a big target and a quality surface.

#16 is always one of the most difficult holes at Yahara, and if I have a good round going, I know it’s one I have to contend with down the stretch. It’s one of the longer par-4s on the course, measuring well over 400 yards. Off the tee, there’s a large pond along the first half of the hole, and if you go left but stay short of the water, you’re left with an uneven lie in what is bound to be pretty thick rough. To the right, trees pop-up pretty quickly, which will range from you punching out, to losing your ball. The green is tricky, too, as everything falls off the back, which makes it tough to hold with a mid- to long-iron approach shot.

I don’t feel like there are any glaringly poor holes on the courses, so I’ll take a jab at the laziness of the design. Hole #17 is a par-3 that feels like a carbon copy of the 8th hole. A downhill 160- to 180-yard shot to a large round green that has similar greenside bunkers placed in the same spots. It’s a very redundant golf hole.

It had been a while since I had played Yahara, so I made some last-minute plans on a Saturday afternoon. We had had some rain recently, so that always worries me when playing Yahara Hills. However, the course itself was in pretty good share. Of course, there are the many superficial scars that you can’t help but notice around the tee boxes and greens, but in terms of the playing area, it wasn’t bad at all. The rough was very lush, making it tough to find a ball that’s even just a few feet off the fairways. The greens looked and rolled fine, but were atypically rather slow. Say what you will about the condition of the course, but the greens are usually solid and sneaky quick. That wasn’t the case here, and it took me a long time to adjust. The pace of play was also a negative, as we were stuck behind a very slow foursome that didn’t seem to understand how to move from shot to shot.