Riverbend Golf Complex

Fun, straight forward course. Weather conditions can always make it challenging at times. Staff is always friendly and accommodating! One of my favorite courses in the area!

I really enjoy playing the Riverbend golf course. I'm a little older now and still enjoy walking the course, so no hills work for me. I've always had excellent interactions with the staff. Riverbend is my go-to course.

Riverbend isn't for everybody, but it suits my wife and myself perfectly. We're "Super Seniors" and my wife loves the Purple "Super" forward tee at 4435 yds. I play the Red at 5514 yd. Water in play on a few holes, but generally a pretty forgiving course. The challenge for longer hitters is keeping it in the fairways or you could have tree problems. Very walkable. Can play slow as it's a very popular course. Staff is always courteous. Course is usually in very good condition. Can't comment on playing from back tees.

This past month I started to take lessons here from the PGA pro Mr. Marti O'Neill. If anyone reading this review wants to take lessons I would highly highly recommend Marti. He is an amazing instructor who is friendly, knowledgeable and overall very positive. He has been an instructor for many years and after 2 - 30 minute sessions he has fixed my swing. I used to shoot 110-120, always depressed and never fulfilled after leaving the golf course. Now I am shooting in the mid 90s, have a lot of confidence in my swing, no longer depressed and I now know what exactly I am doing wrong when I shank the ball.

Also I love this golf course and the staff working here. I have never had a problem with booking tee times and the staff have always been considerate and friendly. They have a chipping area, putting green and a driving range which has just been updated.

For the most part this course is in ok shape but some wet areas on the fairways were present , not unusual of course for April, some greens however with standing water was really a disappointment especially paying 50 $ for a round. Bunkers are in poor shape with little sand but a lot of weeds. Of note, you can't buy one beer to go, the Half Lion brew pub only sells 6pack to go.

Riverbend is a nice course, but the marshall is rude, insulting and obnoxious. Usually small violations of golf etiquette are handled with humor, professionalism and courtesy. This has been my experience at every other golf course, except Riverbend.
It will be a long time before I and my friends return.

Over the years I have spent a lot of money at the Riverbend golf complex. Today I made a mistake and booked myself as a single online instead of a foursome. I have done this before at other courses but never have I been treated in a way that caused me the maximum amount of embarrassment the maximum amount of humiliation and the maximum amount of frustration. There was zero effort by the young man at the front desk nothing but "too bad we are booked for the day". I will be spending my money at Foster or Auburn in the future - the customer service is horrible at Riverbend!

- Virgil Jones

Called and booked a round for 2/5 for 2 at 2:06 riding. Show up and am told cannot rent cart after 1:30 in the middle of the day which is ridiculous, keep in mind beginning of February wet and cold, pace of play was insanely slow, 2 hours 24 mins and waiting on hole 7 still, finally just left. Not worth the $100 spent and won't be back. The kid up front seemed to just want to go home. I've played here hundreds of times and it keeps getting worse.

Played today and was pretty disappointed. I learned to play at Riverbend almost 30 years ago, playing over 100 rounds there over the years. It was always my favorite golf course to play and have fun at. I hadn't played there in quite some time because I moved to Olympia, but today I popped on to play 9 holes in the evening. I started out with smiles and great memories from rounds past , but after I got going, I discovered it isn't what is used to be, not even close.

First the good: Staff was great. Fairways are firm and in pretty good shape. Layout is still really fun and has great potential for all levels.

Now the bad and really, really bad"
Greens were still healing from being punched. It is mid May, why so late? Every other golf course I've played in the last month has recovered their greens from the spring punching, these seemed like they just punched them a week ago (or if longer, they are taking way too long to heal). They were exceedingly slow and bumpy.
Tee boxes were terrible on several holes, especially the two par 3s on the back. They had more dirt than grass. I'm not exaggerating, no grass in the hitting area with very uneven round and holes everywhere. Honestly it is embarrassing how much they have let it get away from them.

The "sand" in the bunkers is literally non-existent. I hit out of a greenside bunker on 15 and it it was 100% packed dirt! It is so frustrating to hit a shot over the green because there is no sand in the bunker. You have no chance of saving par without a very unconventional chip shot that no one ever practices because we expect sand to be in a sand trap.

With all the money they made selling the par 3 across the street and with golf being exceeding popular right now, you would think they would have the $ to do the simplest things like grow grass, and put sand in a bunker.

How are they going to expect to host the Riverbend amateur and other big events with the course in this condition? I was going to sign up but not this year.

Course is in good shape, it's a nice little munie. That said it's overcrowded even on weekdays mid day. I applaud them for maintaining a healthy operation but would recommend spacing people out more.