Purple Sage Golf Course Review
June 19, 2024
Our current summer travels have us in Caldwell, Idaho, attending the West Coast HDT (Heavy Duty Truck) Rally. Rallies are a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and chat about RVs, traveling, adventures, and best practices—all while enjoying great food and cold drinks. (At this rally there were a lot of cold drinks!)
During check-in at the rally, we met Deanna and Scott, and found out they enjoy playing golf. So we took advantage of this and booked a foursome at Purple Sage Municipal Golf Course.
Before I go any further, I feel I just have to mention that I grew up in a Minneapolis suburb, and from the first time Marc said the name of this course I started singing “Purple Rain” by Prince! Anyone else?
OK – back to the course review.
Purple Sage Municipal Golf Course is a Public 18-hole golf course located in Caldwell, Idaho. It opened for play in 1962 and was designed by Vernon Macan.
After checking in and getting all of our golf necessities into our carts, we headed to the first tee box.
Purple Sage has four sets of tee boxes, but does mix them up to create seven tees boxes, that depending on your handicap, can be played from. I chose to play from the Purple, which played to 4,247 yards. I normally try to play right around 5,000 +/- yards but didn’t mind the nice change in distance.
However, I did have a bit of a hard time locating the purple tee markers to begin with. Most golf courses use a moveable, above-the-ground tee maker to identify the location of the tee box. This was not the case at Purple Sage. The forward tees were flush with the ground, making them hard to see. I finally realized I just needed to look at the scorecard and drive the cart to the indicated yardage. (Duh!)
Most of Purple Sage has narrow fairways that require accurate tee shots. My usual slice would easily land me in trouble. But today I was hitting them “Old Lady Golf” style – straight up the middle.
Even at this altitude and a pretty view of the mountains in the distance, I found the course to be a pretty flat track. The fairways, tee boxes, and greens were all in great shape and very well maintained.
As I have mentioned in a couple of my previous articles/course reviews, at this altitude I feel like Superwoman when I hit my ball on my drive!
It just sores!
Nothing like when I play a round of golf at sea level in Florida – that’s all I’m sayin’.
I noticed that water hazards (ponds and water-filled ditches) came into play on about ten holes. And most of the greens are protected by deep greenside sand bunkers.
A very new thing I saw on the course was the “Grass-Zamboni” – a.k.a. The Echo brand Turf-Mower 2000s. Purple Sage has three of these contraptions. They are basically like giant Roombas, that move along the fairways, keeping them well-maintained.
Based on our scorecard, Purple Sage Golf Course is a Par.
Fairways and Greens – We are 18 Holes and Counting
Written By Kathy Festa
COURSE REVIEW SCORE CARD
Course: Purple Sage Golf Course
Type: Municipal
Date Played: 10 June 2024
| HOLE | PAR | SCORE | COMMENTS |
| 1 – Tee Time Availability | 4 | 4 | We had no problem getting the tee time we wanted. |
| 2 – Cost of Green Fees | 4 | 4 | Comparable to other courses in the area. |
| 3 – Condition of Tee Boxes | 4 | 4 | Good and well maintained. |
| 4 – Condition of Fairways | 5 | 5 | Some fairways are narrow. Good and well-maintained. |
| 5 – Condition of Greens | 4 | 4 | Good and well-maintained. |
| 6 – Length of Course | 5 | 5 | From the back tees the course plays to 6,747 yards. From the forward tees the course measures 5,343 yards. |
| 7 – Hazards | 4 | 4 | Water hazards (ponds and water-filled ditches) come into play on at least ten holes. |
| 8 – Starter/Marshal | 3 | 3 | Starter was located in the Pro-Shop. There was no Marshal on the course. |
| 9 – High Handicap Friendly | 3 | 3 | Forward tee placement makes for a much easier round for high-handicap players. |
| OUT | 36 | 36 | |
| 10 – Practice Area | 5 | 4 | Driving Range, Putting Green, Chipping Green, and Practice bunker. |
| 11 – Locker Rooms | 3 | 3 | Clean and spacious. |
| 12 – Pro Shop | 4 | 4 | Had everything needed to play a round of golf. |
| 13 – Location | 4 | 4 | Easy to find, just outside of Caldwell. |
| 14 – Rental Equipment | 4 | 5 | No clubs available to rent. |
| 15 – Restaurant/Food Cart | 4 | 5 | The snack bar was very busy and had only one person working – service was very slow, which placed us behind because a group jumped in front of us while we were waiting for our order of drinks. |
| 16 – Club House | 4 | 4 | Clean and spacious. |
| 17 – Parking | 3 | 3 | Plenty of parking. |
| 18 – Customer Service | 5 | 5 | Pleasant staff. |
| IN | 36 | 37 | |
| TOTAL | 72 | 73 | PLAYER: Kathy F. ATTESTED BY: Marc F. |
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