Pryor Creek Golf Course - Johnny Walker

Welcome to Big Sky Country. This Arizona Golf Review is headed north! ifigolf.com had the opportunity to play an amazing golf course in the great state of Montana. It is very obvious how the state received their nickname "Big Sky Country." One simple glance into the sky and you get it. We had the opportunity to play Pryor Creek Golf Course in Huntley, Mt. The town of Huntley, Mt is about 14 miles from downtown Billings, Mt. For anyone that is unfamiliar with Billings Mt it has about 90,000 people in the city.  The state itself only has around 968,000. It gets down right cold in the winter, and the short summers are beautiful. Green grass, mature trees and peace and quite. There are many golf courses in the Billings area. In Montana, you aren't going to find to many manufactured courses. All of their courses stick with the lay of the land. They build their courses following the natural architecture and it is very nice. We played the Johnny Walker course and naturally, Pryor Creek has undulating fairways, bent grass greens, and no 2 holes will be remotely the same. It was a beautiful scene as you can see from the short vide. We began concentrating too much on fun and not as much on the video...as you will see, I am going to blame it on the course "policy." The fees at this course run about $35. They only get one season so you can expect the same year in and year out. The facility had two 18 hole championship courses, in which the second 18 had been around for about a year. The staff at Pryor Creek Golf Course were absolutely fantastic. The guys in the shop were extremely friendly and the lounge was awesome. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. A very important and amazing note here is the beer. We stopped at the snack shop around hole 9 for some beers and found out a very important "policy" and the conversation went sort of like this

US: "hi, I'll take a..uh..6 pack of bud light."
THEM: "would you like some Ice?"
US: "sure, how much do I owe you?"?
THEM: "that'll be $6"
US: "What?!"
THEM: "$6"
US: "Hmmm...Uhh well I guess I'll get a twelver actually"
THEM: "good idea, that'll be $12"

at this point, there is a $20 bill on the table and we are staring at it like its going to float, or maybe explode.  The nice lady in the shop takes the money and rings it up. Then I have to assume, she looked up in bewilderment as the door was slamming shut, and through the window she saw 2 fat guys sprinting in their golf shoes, towards the carts, with a 6 pack each in a bag full of ice,  yelling "GO GO GO!" as if we just made the biggest heist of all time. Little did we know those were actually the correct prices....Yep $1 beers on the golf course. This is already the greatest course ever created.

The course itself was fantastic. The grass was green and plush. The fairways were in great shape, hitting the ball on the fairway was finally an advantage. The greens, like I said, were true bent grass greens, and were a fantastic speed. The bent grass is a small obsession of mine. It feels like a mini trampoline when you walk on it...its just cool. Anyhow,  they were challenging but still readable. Where you can actually read a beak and it doesn't break 10 feet left because of one of those famous "muffins" those tricky strategic architects use these days. Unfortunately for their climate they do have to deal with some issues. The cart paths were terrible where existent. It had a mix of some cart path, and some not. I would have preferred it no cart path at all. The weather definitely took its toll on that. But honestly other than that, Pryor Creek really had their stuff together. This was a great break from Arizona Golf Course Reviews. The place was packed, and everyone was having a good time. I found myself in the bunkers a few times, and they were well maintained and in good shape. There were few houses around the course and it was okay. So lets break it down: we had amazing views, very nice mature trees, perfectly maintained fairways and greens, $1 beers, very friendly and happy staff and extremely affordable golf. The place wasn't stuffy, it was welcoming. This one is a no brainer. I would play there everyday if I could. With flights from Allegiant Air at $59 one way it is almost worth catching a flight up just to play it. I would recommend this to anyone who golf's, I would also recommend making a special trip that way just to go there. It was great and most of all fun!

Overall on the IFIGOLF scale of 1-10 Pryor Creek Golf Course is getting our first 10

I challenge all of the IFIGOLF fans to debate this on our discussion boards if you think I am wrong!

Course: Pryor Creek - Johnny Walker
View Larger Map
Course Rating: White:   68.4/118

Total Yds: 5928
Par: 71
Hardest Hole: Hole 15
Easiest Hole: Hole 14
Map: P.O. Box 365
Huntley, MT 59037
(480) 330-0928