Municipal Golfers

[AUWU11]

All public here. We have some in the area that are some really nice public courses (and some not so nice), so I get a decent mix of conditions, layout, etc.

 

[Daddio]

Started golfing after I joined the USAF so almost all my golf the first few years was either on the military courses in San Antonio (there were a lot of them) or the local SA munis. IMO conditions and layouts were really good at both sets back then. Those munis had a rich history hosting Tour events won by HOFers (even hosted a major) and most of those base courses had renown designers.

Continued to play mostly military courses with some public sprinkled in for many more years until I eventually took a long hiatus from golf in mid 90s.

Came back about 7 years ago and since play about 35-40% of my golf at a pair of munis on my plan, 25% at lower cost public courses, 25% on private courses, 10% high end public/resort and usually a few military tracks sprinkled in there too each season.

 

[billyh]

No true muni's that I know of east of Raleigh but a ton are public. The public courses are hit and miss with how good they are and can be, but are all playable. Like a bunch here, I've never played a private course, but I've worked on some equipment owned by them. I tried to get a round of golf out of the deal, and they all scoffed at the heavy equipment tech rubbing shoulders with their members. Kinda put a bad taste in my mouth about the private course scene, so I'll slum it up with my public folks.

 

[Lou W]

Summer I join a semi private course. Winter I play muni/public courses

 

[Jaymo37]

My membership is at a municipal course, and it’s the best deal in town. Conditions are always great, and it’s nice that the town puts the money back into the course vs using it as an income property for the town.

 

[Jman]

My two home courses aren’t true Muni’s, but they’re public. I enjoy it, but I won’t lie, I’d love to have the practice facilities the private tracks offer.

 

[JW Smoove]

My two home courses aren’t true Muni’s, but they’re public. I enjoy it, but I won’t lie, I’d love to have the practice facilities the private tracks offer.

One of our muni's is a daily fee/membership course. It plays like and has the feel (to some extent) of a private course - they have used this course for the women's amateur - so it's not a pushover track. This place has a GREAT practice area - and I would take my daughter there to use it while she was playing for her HS. Stupid me, I don't there myself for the same use/availability. Big chipping green with 2 sand areas, good size multitiered practice green, and good size range (though I have never seen it with the grass teeing area actually open or in use).

I think I need to visit that course more often, and it's pretty close to home too - ugh, since I don't play that course too often (it's quite pricy) I forget about the practice area.

 

[chpar4]

I am a member at a municipal course and have played it almost exclusively for the past 19 years. Since it is owned by the city it has a limited budget but the superintendent somehow keeps it in really good shape. It can get very crowded, especially on the weekends. We have a member group that plays weekdays so there is always a game available.

Same here where I am. One perk we get as members is we get the first hour of tee times on the weekend. Our Super keeps the course in fantastic shape. We play in under 4 hours always and have a fairly large group of regulars and a golf association (with 130 plus members )that has tournaments every other Sunday from April to November. Season long Match play singles and 2 man team. Great place.

 

[fuffle master]

Purely public here, but that was a mistake in my opinion.

If I could go back in time, I would tell myself that rather then spending 50k on an in ground pool, use that money to join a nice private club with pool facilities.

 

[Elbow Jobertski]

There used to be some lower-rent private clubs around here. The kind of place with school teachers and steelworkers that took the game moderately seriously and wanted a no-frills sort of place free of some of the more irritating randoms that you get on a purely public course. The kind of place where in the afternoon you play against a guy still wearing his auto mechanic clothes who plays to a legit 3.

I've belonged to some of those, but the demographic is disappearing and they've closed down. So I've been pure public since then. I couldn't hack hanging out at the more monied clubs on a regular basis. I'd wind up slowly losing it in a socioeconomic political sense until I'd be carrying a red bag with a hammer and sickle on the side w/ puppet headcovers of Castro and Lenin. Nobody wants that, including me.

 

[Browns7213]

Played on munis the first 25-years of my golf life, now play semi-private.

 

[JW Smoove]

Where I live, we have daily fee (where you can be a member) - but they are not convenient or I can't play enough to enjoy them (they are golf only). Private, that are convenient but too pricey and I don't want to divert money from the rest of the non-golfing family. and Public/muni - no string attached but get so much play that they tend to be not well kept. I wish there were muni perks such as some have noted, or that I had some semi-privates nearby.

Hoping this changes as retirement looms!

 

[DonaldHTX]

All 7 of my rounds have been on Houston’s Hermann Park course. I’m recently retired and can walk there in 10 minutes and play for $15 on weekdays. Good enough for me.

 

[JW Smoove]

All 7 of my rounds have been on Houston’s Hermann Park course. I’m recently retired and can walk there in 10 minutes and play for $15 on weekdays. Good enough for me.

Welcome, $15 ought to good for just about anyone.

 

[*Range Rat]

All 7 of my rounds have been on Houston’s Hermann Park course.

I have great memories of Hermann Park GC, played it once with my brother about 25 years ago, i shot 73 which is easily one of my top 5 rounds ever. It's a short course but has water on half the holes and big trees all around for defense.

 

[DonaldHTX]

I have great memories of Hermann Park GC, played it once with my brother about 25 years ago, i shot 73 which is easily one of my top 5 rounds ever. It's a short course but has water on half the holes and big trees all around for defense.

LOL the narrow fairways and the trees. Gave me hell on my very first golf game. I was totally unprepared for hitting a low stinger off hard dirt which is what you find under the trees. So back home that day I researched two YouTube topics. Bare Lies and Hitting Under Trees. And practiced that at the range until I mastered them.
All the water is another story. On three of the water holes I just hit across it. On the other one the best option for me is the go around through the trees which I can now deal with.