Quote:
Originally Posted by The Mountaineer
I know I'm an outsider, but I plan to play golf in The Villages for three months when Paula and I rent a home on Rainbow Drive (off Silver Lake's No. 5 green) for three months in January-March 2015, so maybe I qualify to comment.
When I played the greens in December 2014 during our two-week test drive of The Villages, my ball bounced more than any green that I play in Ohio -- or West Virginia, for that matter.
Greens should be smooth so that the line is true. If the golfer putts accurately the ball should go in or be close to the hole, and not be bounced off track to the right or left, or even toward the sky.
The Villages' greens that I experienced need a lot of improvement. I don't expect country club greens, but certainly greens that match the public courses in Ohio. But I do think The Villages' management should take enough pride in what is a fabulous collection of villages to make the greens smooth enough to roll true. I don't know what the problem is, and that's the greenkeeper's job to figure out whether it's the way the grass grows, or doesn't, or how the greens are rolled when they are mowed, to keep everything as flat as possible
But there's one truism in golf. A putt should NOT be kicked off course by the way the green is kept up, or not kept up, any more than a putt should be detoured by an inconsiderate golfer not fixing his ball-landing pockmarks. We'll all in this to enjoy the golf, and each other's company.
The folks who are worth $2.5 billion running The Villages should pay attention to this problem. It's the ONLY area I found wanting during my admittedly short visit. Everything else is first class in The Villages. So why can't the greens be first classs? Excuses don't fix greens. Time, money and expertise do.
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Good post. There are so many comments from a wide variety of posters, people who rarely if ever post, regarding the poor conditions of the greens and the courses themselves. Whether or not someone is a 3 handicap or a 33 handicap is irrelevant. The Villages markets itself as a golfing community and we bought with the understanding that we'd have decent golfing conditions. As others have said, why is this occurring? The Villages manages to get most everything right, with a few exceptions, so you'd think golf, which is a priority for a lot of residents, would be great too. But its far from it.