FYI, A very good letter to the editor on the ONLINE Enquirer
To the Editor:
I have been a resident of the Villages for 15 years and have played the championship courses thee time a week since I have been here.
I am no way sticking up for the developer in the raising of the rates on the Championship Golf courses but people are looking at the rates going up to $33 – $47 for the winter. People have to realize for years they always had three rate structures – summer, fall and winter. The summer rates were always $15 less from the winter rates and $10 from the fall rates. The winter rates never had a discount for afternoon play in the winter. It was always one rate for all day in the winter. The Championship rates last year ranged between ranges between $30 and $42, Palmer being the highest @$45. With Golf Management Solutions gone and The Villages taking over, they decided to go to only two seasons instead of three. Summer and fall at one rate and Winter at the other rate. In essence the increase for the winter has gone up $2-$5 depending on the course from the winter rates of last year. As I stated they never had an afternoon rate in the winter. Come May 1 the rates will be rolled back as always. People also have to realize that the courses are going through major renovations with the new grass they are doing the greens over with (tift Eagle), Bunker renovations as well as re-designing many of the holes. Plus the fact that all the chemicals and fertilizers have gone up drastically over the last few years. I know the new people that have been here only a couple of years probably didn’t realize how the seasons were structured and looking at this increase are thinking this is gouging. I feel that the courses that have been renovated so far (Lopez-Tierra-Glenview) have really improved over what they were. I understand a couple of other courses are going to be done next Summer also. Over the course of the next five to seven years they are hoping to have all courses re-done with the new grass as well as re-doing the bunkers. As far as the other courses that were mentioned outside The Villages, the only courses worth playing are Stonecreek-Harbor Hills-Eagle Ridge-Mission Inn. The others in the area are cow pastures and as far as Orlando you are looking at about a 45 minute to an hour ride to get there, so it becomes an all-day event. I will continue to play in The Villages with my two groups which consists of 32-56 members three times a week.
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