[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by John_W

Last Friday I played Palmer (Laurel to Riley) and it's the plushest I've seen a golf course here since I came in 2011. Especially after you play Evans Prairie or Bonifay where the fairways and even the rough is cut to the bone. All the other couses should take note of how Arnold Palmer is kept.

I had found Cane Garden and Havana to be in fairly good shape considering the heat of the summer, just not as green and plush as Palmer. I'm playing Mallory (Caroline to Virginia) this Friday. Of the three newest courses, it seems Belle Glade is usually the best, the fairways there are at the level that it took Bonifay five years to reach, and in some cases still haven't reached. Plus on Bonifay Pensacola the Par 5 ninth hole is a temporary par 4 until they reopen the green, which was scheduled for August 1st.

I think if Doc played a rotation of Havana, Mallory, Palmer and Cane Garden he would find overall better conditions. That's where we mainly play plus the three newest, which we know going in are a little skimpy on the grass.

I played Palmer last week and was very disappointed. For the most part, the fairways were OK. I hit it into the fairway on the second hole of Cherry Hill however and was on hard dirt. The greens were atrocious but they had been aerified and topdressed recently. Many had large bare patches which are going to take a long time to come back. I'll try those other three courses and let you know what I think.

What I notice on a lot of our golf courses is that the greens don't have much of a root system. It's almost impossible to properly fix a ball mark because the turf just comes right out of the ground when you try to pull it toward the depression.