Golf Course Review: Covington Country Club

After the recent blog post, Ranking The Walkability of Every New Orleans Golf Course, I decided to go and walk Covington Country Club during this review. I tried to track my steps and the miles walked during the round but for some reason, my tracking app cut off several holes as if I quit on hole 14 and walked straight in.

It's been over a year since the last Golf Nola review of Covington Country Club. Unfortunately, it is a golf course that many of us forget about. As the only public golf course between Slidell and Hammond, it's actually a golf course we should consider more often. The course also is very different from front to back. Although both nines have plenty of trees, the front side has more narrow holes with more doglegs while the back nine is more open with some straighter holes.

As an older golf course, Covington has no driving range. However, if you want to stretch and hit a few balls there is a hitting net with a few mats. The golf course and clubhouse are separately owned and as a result of clubhouse renovations, there is currently no practice putting green. It is a strange situation and whomever owns the clubhouse could care less about golf. That is evident by the tiny area the golf course was given for a pro shop.

That said the staff here can not be any nicer. Very friendly and welcoming. They were nice enough that I was offered the chance to practice putts on hole 9 but by the time I got over there, groups were playing the hole. Even with the limited pro shop, there are all the essentials you need, tees, gloves, and balls, as well as a cooler full of drinks. They truly make the best of it and treat you as if they had everything.

The golf course during the last review was in bad shape. I was not expecting too much but for a green fee of $25 to walk you can't ask for too much. If a golfer chooses to ride it's a $25 cart fee. If you didn't want to pay that full rate I did learn they have an all-you-can-play rate in the afternoons. Basically, a twilight rate that starts at 1 pm this time of year and at 3 pm after daylight savings time.

As for the golf course itself I will admit it was better than last time. The large areas that lost grass on the front nine greens were almost fully grown back in on a majority of the holes. For example, some greens only had one 10-foot radius where they could put a hole location. The staff does a great job making sure those hole locations are in the best areas of the greens and this time they had more area to select from.

Overall: 2.5 out of 5

Tee Boxes: 2 out of 5

The tee boxes really just need some water and warm weather for the most part. Some that get more sun had grass on them while others that don't were nearly all dirt. The back nine tee boxes were more consistent with more dormant grass on them. The tee boxes were not level but this was mostly due to build-up over time where sand or topdressing and bee repeatedly laid down or due to a minor depression in the ground. Even then it was minor.

Fairways: 3 out of 5

The fairways were decent for the majority of the golf course. Most of them had a good amount of grass on them and just needs some warmer weather to grow in better. I do not recall any bare areas on any parts of the fairways. The grass was thinner in some areas but not so thin you could see dirt. If there were any bare areas I just missed them. The back nine had fuller fairways but it gets more sun due to fewer trees.

Greens: 2.5 out of 5

If I had to break this score down per nine, I would give the front a 2 while giving the back a 3. The front nine greens, although better than the last review still had some pitting areas on them. One in particular looked like someone was trying to dig a trench. The good areas around the hole locations were decent. They had a decent consistent speed to them but could be very bumpy at times. The back nine greens were in better condition overall. They had the same speed as the front but they were slightly smoother overall. They definitely had more overall grass on them and were more consistent from hole to hole. Putts still wobbled (like the putt made in the video below around the 1:45 mark) but they were more like a dormant golf course waiting for the summer grasses to thrive again.

GOLF NOLA APPAREL

Covington Country Club is a fun golf course. It could use our support so they can improve the playing conditions and maybe add a small putting green but it's a good layout with a good staff. I personally really enjoy the old-school layout of the front nine as you have to work the ball off the tee, there is some good risk-reward, and the smallish undulating greens. The back nine is fun as well and to be honest, has a really good finishing hole. One that takes hitting the ball down the right side just to have a view of the green but hit too much club and pull it slightly left you could end up in a penalty area.

We will be back out there again in a few months and look forward to what some warmer spring temperatures can do.