Given that over three and a half million rounds of golf are played per year now in The Villages, mostly on Executive courses and given that everybody complains loudly whenever any course is shut down for maintenance, much less for a total makeover (as three courses currently are, at a cost of nearly three million dollars), I'd have to say that the Executive courses are maintained at as high a level as can be reasonably expected. If they opened up another 10 or 20 courses, people would still complain when they closed any of them for work. If they closed current ones down more often and did serious maintenance on them, people would complain A) that they are closed down and B) that they are "wasting" money trying to make these courses look so nice. It's like every dollar spent on new facilities or fixing up existing facilities comes out of the pockets of just those who complain. As I understand it, building new facilities comes out of our bonds (which are really not that much) or out of the monthly HOA-type fees (which are dirt cheap compared to almost every other retirement community I've ever researched).
I sometimes play outside of The Bubble at, for example, Pennbrooke Fairways. They have two 9-hole Executive courses and one 9-hole Championship course and they are always in great shape. But then, the locals in the retirement community containing these courses just don't seem to play golf. My buddies and I seem to be able to get tee times whenever we want. And when I play, I find myself thinking, "I can't believe I'm paying this much to play here instead of for free at The Villages, just because the grass is a little nicer." Yep, I'm a Villager, all right.
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