Cane is in horrible condition, and has been bad all winter, along with Hacienda and Mallory. Mallory has gotten really bad the past couple weeks. Todd Basso, head of golf operations said there was a pump out of order for 2 weeks so they couldn't water properly at Mallory. They have problems at Amelia on Mallory as well, but he's not sure what is causing that. He mentioned that the turf base conditions at some of the courses are not the same as at Palmer for example, which affects how much water is needed. Sounds like Palmer had better turf base preparation when it was constructed which is why it is in such good shape, as opposed to Mallory or Cane. If that is the case, I suspect those 2 courses will never amount to much. If you have a lot of sand that just drains away everytime they water, it would take a lot of watering to keep the grass green. I would hope they learned their lesson and take the steps and money to properly prepare the new Bonifay course. If you want nice conditions on the "championship courses", and I use that term loosely becasue IMHO the Villages courses just aren't "championship" quality, the only decent courses right now are OB, Lopez, Palmer, and Havana is not too bad. The others just aren't worth the money to play. The Villages has a lot of nice things going for it, but for me the championship golf is a disappointment as far as course conditions. Its a sad state of affairs when only about 1/3 of the courses are playable.
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