Lakewood Golf Club Review

Texas Outside Rating: 8.7

Golf - Public Course · 18 Holes · Par 72
New Orleans, LA
Website · Book A Tee Time
Online Specials

Dsc_0460 Dsc_0464 Dsc_0469

Lakewood Golf Club Review

Review and Rating of Lakewood Golf Club - New Orleans

Lakewood Golf Club opened in 1961 and was home to 26 New Orleans Open tournaments with some of the winners including: Arnold Palmer, Lanny Watkins, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, and several other golf legends.  In 2005 Hurricane Katrina ravaged Lakewood destroying over 2500 trees and doing significant damage to the course.  The New Orleans Firefighters Pension Fund purchased the course and made a commitment to bring life back to Lakewood.  Ron Garl was hired to renovate the historic grounds and to build a modern layout that gave golfers a challenging yet user friendly design.  And in 2009 the "Rebirth of a Legend" reopened for play.  

Lakewood Golf Club was a joy to play and from our perspective some of what makes this a great course and a must play include:

  • it is a layout that is not going to beat you up but is going to offer you a fun, relaxing, and enjoyable round of golf - the fairways are wide, the greens are huge, and there are several bail out areas
  • the conditions from tee to pin are very good and the course is well maintained and manicured and landscaped with a variety of colorful plants
  • thanks to some huge, steep and deep, and multi-fingered bunkers plus water on 14 holes and a thick rough, Lakewood Golf Club can be demanding
  • you'll encounter a lot that makes this course fun (and challenging) like demanding greens, forced carries, a couple excellent risk reward opportunities, dog legs, and strategically placed bunkers
  • the wood carvings on trees damaged by Katrina are beautiful (see this page to view some of them) and the shape of some of the bunkers are very interesting

In addition to all of the above, Lakewood Golf Club is home to some great holes like:

  • #7 is a fun 411 yard par 4 with a huge waste bunker on the right in front of the tee box, a fairway that turns a little to the right, and a green guarded by a multi-fingered bunker and a lake on the left
  • #12 requires an accurate shot off the tee to avoid the lake on the right and not overrun the fairway that goes right plus you'll need a good approach shot over a natural brush area and lake that cross the fairway about 100 yards in front of the green
  • #14 is a 385 yard dog leg right that offers a great risk reward shot to shorten the hole if you think you can carry some very tall trees and avoid two bunkers on the other side of them
  • #17 is a short 160 yard carry over a pond that surrounds three quarters of what is close to an island green

When we played in October, the fairways were in very good condition and the rough was also in great shape and thick - making for a tough recovery shot.  The fairways are flat and cut thin giving you some great roll and off the tee they are wide and forgiving.  Most have some trees that you might land under if you spray the ball (if you really spray it you'll be in another fairway) but you'll usually have an easy recovery shot to get back to the fairway.  Some nice homes line one side of three holes.

The greens at Lakewood Golf Club are huge, slightly raised, and have some combination of slope, contour, ridges, swales, or tiers.  They were fast at 10 to 11, ran true, and held the ball well.  Most are guarded by some combination of water or bunkers. 

The bunkers are treacherous - they range from steep and deep pot bunkers to long and wide waste bunkers, to multi-fingered monsters.  In fact, several of the bunkers are designed in the shape of flames with long skinny flames spreading out from the body of the bunker - these flame bunkers are a tribute to the New Orleans firefighters.  Land in one of the long skinny fingers and you'll get burned bad - very difficult to get out of!

Dsc_0482 Dsc_0472 Dsc_0484

Course Slope & Ratings

Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope
Black 7,002
Blue 5,913 71.1 130
White 5,495 68.6 124
Gold 6,434 74.1 139
Red 5,386 71.5 127

Course Information

Course Architect:
Ron Garl
Greens Type:
Bermuda
Greens Condition
9.2
Greens Difficulty
8.8
Fairway Condition
9.0
Bunker Condition
9.0
GPS:
No
Walkable:
yes
Scorecard
Course Map
Beware of water on 14 holes and the 38 sand traps.

Texas Outside Rating

Overall Rating:
8.7 out of 10
Beauty:
8.8
Difficulty:
8.8
Variety:
8.5
Fun to Play:
9.0
Value:
8.8
Condition:
9.0
Front Nine Rating:
8.5
Back Nine Rating:
8.8
Dsc_0485

FEES & AMENITIES

Approximate Weekend
Rates: $135.00 to $70.00

Service is good and friendly, the pace of play was good when we played, the pro shop has the basics, and the grill has breakfast and lunch items. The practice facilities are excellent.

Dsc_0488

 

Here's How Texas Outside Determines the Scorecard Rating

The Texas Outside rating scale ranges from 1 to 10 – a perfect 10 course would be something like this:  links along a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean and bordered by tall trees; lush fairways on rolling hills with lots of natural hazards; water (which is crystal clear) on most of the holes; immaculate greens (but they are undulating and tough); lots of variety and character (each hole is completely different and includes blind shots, elevation changes, doglegs, and significant challenges); perfectly manicured traps with the whitest and prettiest sand you’ve ever seen; a nice club house with great food and a 19th hole; a GPS; plenty of beverage carts or your own cooler and ice; and it only costs $40 bucks! What this means is that you probably won’t find any 10s in Texas – try Cabo San Lucas, Pebble Beach, or some of the Hawaii courses! 
Texas Outside rates courses on the following:

  • Beauty – tall trees, rolling hills, beautiful houses, waterfalls, and similar stuff would score high; a 1 would be flat, bushes or cactus instead of trees, and some grass but mostly weeds
  • Difficulty – a straight, 300 yard par 4 with no traps or hazards, no out of bounds or water would probably get a 1; if it is a 460 yard par 4 over two ravines, with water along one side, natural hazards on the other, strategically placed traps or that dreaded tree right in the middle of the fairway, we are talking a 10. 
  • Variety – what would you give a course where all the holes looked and played exactly the same (“I thought we just played that hole!”); were side-by-side, which is good for finding or dodging other people’s balls, but not much fun; and you can see the flag from every tee box?  That’s right, it gets a 1.
  • Fun Scale – a 10 is where you walk off the course and say “now that was fun” and you can’t wait to get back, or you immediately turn around and play another 18 holes
  • Value – a 5 is $50 to $60, a 10 is $20 to $30, and 1 is $200 or so – of course all of this is dependent upon how you liked the course.  For example, if a run down, boring municipal course, with six players on each hole was only $10; it would still get a value rating of 1.
  • Condition – this one’s pretty easy – what condition are the fairways. A 10 commands very lush perfectly manicured fairways, compared to a 1, which has fire ants, weeds, and more dirt than grass!
  • Condition of Greens and Difficulty – very hard to read greens with lots of undulation and tough pin placement, rate very high on the difficulty scale.  Condition is self-explanatory.  

All of the above determines the overall score for the golf course.  In other words, we like courses that are pretty, fun, very challenging with a lot of variety, and fairways and greens in excellent condition – all for $40.  We also tend to play the courses that are affordable for the masses, which means in the $30 to $80 range. We rate hard and we haven’t found a 10 in Texas yet – don’t worry we haven’t given up and we’re still looking.