(June 13^th) Day 8 – Panora, IA drove 204 miles

A short drive west from Des Moines and I was at Panorama Lake, the home of Panorama National Resort. It’s not a large lake, but there are boats and skiing, tennis courts, a big playground for kids, a beautiful 18 hole golf course and plenty of ostentatious houses that surround the lake.

This is a good golf course, well maintained with lots of trees, some water and VERY reasonably priced at $51 with cart (on a Sunday!). A lot of the approach shots are uphill so it plays a little longer than the yardage. Some of the par fours are just a bit too long for me, but I would recommend this course to anyone. The tees range from 7024 to 5265. I played the 6296 yard tees with a slope of 122 and course rating of 69.5. The next tee down was 5636 yards (senior tees, yellow markers) and this is a course that could use a combo set of white/yellow, in my opinion, to get a yardage in between the current 650 plus gap.

I played this alone except for the last three holes on the front nine. I joined a fellow named Mike Keenan and his standard bred poodle Ralston. Ralston sits in the golf cart on his haunches, next to Mike and is VERY well behaved. He also likes his ears scratched and was a joy to be around. He’s a mix of poodle and something (I can’t remember) and poodles are very intelligent dogs. I enjoyed their company before Mike headed home, not far as he lives on the golf course. Panorama National does NOT have a lot of website pictures, but I included a VERY short video of Ralston!

Not much else to say about this course, except I played OK, but two strokes more than the bogie golf I aim for.  I drove up to northern Iowa and checked in to my motel in Milford. I asked at the desk about places to eat and was advised to try a bar on the waterfront at Lake Okojobi, just up the road. The place was packed, the food WAS good, but the local band was a bit clunky and listening to a clunky band (old guys) sing Neil Diamond songs made me go for the quick exit and get some sleep. The next day would be a long one, I just didn’t know it at this point.

          Randy’s golf course             ratings           play again               could recommend                Price

Wine Valley (Walla Walla, WA)          5                   YES                              YES                            $$$

Raccoon Creek (Littleton, CO)         4.5                  YES                               YES                             $$     

Awarii Dunes (Kearney, NE)              4                    YES                               YES                             $$ 

Lake Panorama National (Panora, IA) 4               ?*                                 YES                             $$ 

Rivers Edge (Burley, ID)                   3.5                   YES                               YES                             $

Birch Creek (Smithfield,UT)             3.5                    no                          good golfers only!            $

Buffalo Golf Club (Buffalo, WY)       3                      no                                 no                              $$

Pryor Creek (Huntley, MT)                 3                      no                                 no                              $        Johnny Walker Course (there’s also a Country Club course, but you need to play with a member!)

?* Would play if a different yardage (combo tees) was available, great course!