Bullitt5339
New member
I have been a member at a local course for about 6 years now. When I first joined, they had just redone the greens to TIFF Bermuda and it was known to have the best greens in the area. It's not a difficult course, but it is walker friendly and there was a good group of walkers that met every weekend and we had a lot of fun.
Fast forward a few years, and while the greens are still in decent shape, the rest of the course has went way downhill. It was never a ritzy country club type course, but it was in good shape. Because the course is walker friendly, there are very few cart paths, they are typically around the greens and tee boxes and that is about it. For the past 2 years, they have not overseeded the fairways in the winter, and we get a lot of rain in the winter. There is no control over where the carts go on the course, so there are no fairways left on many holes because of it. Last year, they lost their large water pump, so they could not water the fairways enough and pretty much only watered the greens to protect them. There are a few spots where drainage has become a problem and again, with no control over where the carts go, it's turned into a muddy, rutted mess. One green has become overrun with another type of grass, and seems to get worse every time I play there. We have instituted a 2 putt rule on that green because there is no way to putt on it.
I am good friends with one of the ladies that works there, and I asked her what the deal was, and she said that the owner was caught up in a lawsuit due to some bad land deals, which is affecting the amount of money that can be put into the course. They have cut their staff down to one full-time greenskeeper and one teenager that helps out a little part time. I don't care how hard he works, there's no way that one guy can take care of over 7000 yards of golf course appropriately. I've noticed that our large group that used to walk every weekend has dwindled away, to where most of the time it's just me and another guy, and he's talking about leaving as well if they don't start putting some work into getting some fairways back.
So now I'm stuck. I like the location of this course and the guys that I play golf with out there, it's about 2 miles from the house, but I can't justify paying money to a course that's consistently getting worse. I could actually pay less money to join the military courses right across the street from my work, and while they used to be really crappy courses, they've put a lot of time and money into them to the point that they're actually better than my home course. The one right across the street from my work is around $700 a year and it's a Donald Ross design.
Fast forward a few years, and while the greens are still in decent shape, the rest of the course has went way downhill. It was never a ritzy country club type course, but it was in good shape. Because the course is walker friendly, there are very few cart paths, they are typically around the greens and tee boxes and that is about it. For the past 2 years, they have not overseeded the fairways in the winter, and we get a lot of rain in the winter. There is no control over where the carts go on the course, so there are no fairways left on many holes because of it. Last year, they lost their large water pump, so they could not water the fairways enough and pretty much only watered the greens to protect them. There are a few spots where drainage has become a problem and again, with no control over where the carts go, it's turned into a muddy, rutted mess. One green has become overrun with another type of grass, and seems to get worse every time I play there. We have instituted a 2 putt rule on that green because there is no way to putt on it.
I am good friends with one of the ladies that works there, and I asked her what the deal was, and she said that the owner was caught up in a lawsuit due to some bad land deals, which is affecting the amount of money that can be put into the course. They have cut their staff down to one full-time greenskeeper and one teenager that helps out a little part time. I don't care how hard he works, there's no way that one guy can take care of over 7000 yards of golf course appropriately. I've noticed that our large group that used to walk every weekend has dwindled away, to where most of the time it's just me and another guy, and he's talking about leaving as well if they don't start putting some work into getting some fairways back.
So now I'm stuck. I like the location of this course and the guys that I play golf with out there, it's about 2 miles from the house, but I can't justify paying money to a course that's consistently getting worse. I could actually pay less money to join the military courses right across the street from my work, and while they used to be really crappy courses, they've put a lot of time and money into them to the point that they're actually better than my home course. The one right across the street from my work is around $700 a year and it's a Donald Ross design.
