[ernpertuc]

The real issue is that the curses do not get any rest at all. In Oregon, where our second house is, and locations further north, the courses lie dormant for months while it is cold and snowy. This allows the courses to rest. It also allows times for supers to perform maintenance. When the weather permits the good courses aerate prior to opening and water liberally to get the grass back into shape before cutting.

While closing all the courses in The villages would cause a riot there should be a plan to allow some of the courses to be closed for up to 3 months while they are allowed to recover and whomever to perform maintenance.

Another issue is that this season has been unusually dry so there is not enough time to put enough water on the courses and keep them open. It does not matter who takes care of them.

A large issue is the expectations of owners v.s. a finite resource. Number of players has increased much faster than courses have been created. There is little or nothing that can be done about this as the Developer has determined that golf courses are a loss leader and they have enough folks buying that they no longer need to entice folks with the local "protected courses". I would not be surprised if there was not a push by outside courses to move Villagers to them.

I love being able to get in my cart and drive to a course and play. I think it will be harder in the future to get on to a course that is worth playing. All things come to an end. Unless the powers that be take a hard look at what they have it will be gone in a few years.