I have got something of a dilemma on my hands. The courses in my part of the state are just not that interesting, at least those that you can just join as opposed to the private clubs. The number one course in the state has got great facilities and I intend using them in the winter for practice but it just too far a drive to make it my home course. I want to be able to hop in the car and be at the first tee in 15 minutes if something is going to be my home course.
The number three course in the state is close enough to make the cut but is run by complete a-holes. Granted they bought the course from a group that was failing to maintain and they have done a pretty good job of bringing it back. However, they refuse to give people rain checks and when they bought the course they refused to honor gift certificates purchased while the course was under the previous ownership claiming that they could not afford to honor them. That is just utter bull on top of everything else. When you buy a business you buy the assets and the liabilities. I suspect if any of the folks that had gift certificates wanted to press the issue, the course would not have had a leg to stand on.
Worse than that, these folks are just dumb. Many of the people they turned off via the lack of rain checks and turned away via the gift certificates were people from North of Boston hunting for courses in Southern New Hampshire, a common practice since there are times when booking a round in Massachusetts can be a real challenge. “Yes sir we are booking rounds three months out at present. What year would you like to play?” Turning those people away is just bad business on top of everything else. To expect that a guy would drive an hour or more and have carted every possible piece of golf equipment so that he could be prepared for everything is not realistic. My God how can they make the case that giving a guy a rain check (you already have the guys money for crying out loud) is such a financial burden? The greens are not all that interesting but the course is very interesting from tee to green.
The problem is that many of the other courses around are just not that interesting. The other course that I have basically put as my number 1 for next year has very challenging greens which I like and a few challenging holes tee to green. These are people that are trying to do things the right way. They have made major improvements in their course as well and they are nice people to deal with. However while all of the greens are challenging, in just about every case you can just run the ball up to the hole which I hate. In fact I refuse to play the course that way. If I land in one of those areas fine I will just pitch the thing up to the hole but I will not try to play the course that way. Other than the course run by the aforementioned a-holes there is not another course within reasonable driving distance that is within the top twenty in the state. The course with the challenging greens is actually owned by a group that owns two courses so you do get privileges at both courses. The other is a good hour away at least but it is within the state top twenty.
I know running a course is not an easy business. However while I would love to join one of the top three courses in the state I just cannot bring myself to support those people. So the question is, do you guys think I am being too critical of the aforementioned a-holes and would you not think the kind of customer care I think makes no sense is just par for the course (pardon the pun)? Conversely, do you think their customer care perspective is for the birds and unworthy of support with my dollars?
While I know none of you can make a difinitive call one way or other, I am just looking for opinions.
The number three course in the state is close enough to make the cut but is run by complete a-holes. Granted they bought the course from a group that was failing to maintain and they have done a pretty good job of bringing it back. However, they refuse to give people rain checks and when they bought the course they refused to honor gift certificates purchased while the course was under the previous ownership claiming that they could not afford to honor them. That is just utter bull on top of everything else. When you buy a business you buy the assets and the liabilities. I suspect if any of the folks that had gift certificates wanted to press the issue, the course would not have had a leg to stand on.
Worse than that, these folks are just dumb. Many of the people they turned off via the lack of rain checks and turned away via the gift certificates were people from North of Boston hunting for courses in Southern New Hampshire, a common practice since there are times when booking a round in Massachusetts can be a real challenge. “Yes sir we are booking rounds three months out at present. What year would you like to play?” Turning those people away is just bad business on top of everything else. To expect that a guy would drive an hour or more and have carted every possible piece of golf equipment so that he could be prepared for everything is not realistic. My God how can they make the case that giving a guy a rain check (you already have the guys money for crying out loud) is such a financial burden? The greens are not all that interesting but the course is very interesting from tee to green.
The problem is that many of the other courses around are just not that interesting. The other course that I have basically put as my number 1 for next year has very challenging greens which I like and a few challenging holes tee to green. These are people that are trying to do things the right way. They have made major improvements in their course as well and they are nice people to deal with. However while all of the greens are challenging, in just about every case you can just run the ball up to the hole which I hate. In fact I refuse to play the course that way. If I land in one of those areas fine I will just pitch the thing up to the hole but I will not try to play the course that way. Other than the course run by the aforementioned a-holes there is not another course within reasonable driving distance that is within the top twenty in the state. The course with the challenging greens is actually owned by a group that owns two courses so you do get privileges at both courses. The other is a good hour away at least but it is within the state top twenty.
I know running a course is not an easy business. However while I would love to join one of the top three courses in the state I just cannot bring myself to support those people. So the question is, do you guys think I am being too critical of the aforementioned a-holes and would you not think the kind of customer care I think makes no sense is just par for the course (pardon the pun)? Conversely, do you think their customer care perspective is for the birds and unworthy of support with my dollars?
While I know none of you can make a difinitive call one way or other, I am just looking for opinions.