Any word on when the next executive courses will open?

[NJblue]

Tee times are getting very difficult to obtain on executive courses during the snowbird season. My group was shut out for Friday even though we put in a 6 hour window and 16 different courses. Most had points in the 0-2 range. When you figure that they are adding approximately two thousand new golfers per year (assuming one golfer per household and 6 houses per day being sold) and no new courses added for some time, it is no wonder that tee times are becoming very scarce this time of year. They have opened 18 holes on Bonifay with 9 more to follow soon and then another 27-hole championship course is already under construction. Yet, to my knowledge, they haven't even announced plans to start any new executive courses.

I wonder if the fact that the new executive courses likely to be added next (in the Sarasota area) do not have any houses bordering them and hence can't be used as a means to sell premium priced lots has anything to do with them seeming to be a low priority.

[spk7951]

Last I had heard the construction of the next three Executive courses was supposed to start after the new Sarasota golf center opened, but nothing appears to be going on there as yet.

They do seem to be going all out on the next 27 hole Championship courses. Word I have heard on that is they are shooting for a late 2012 opening, which I tend to think might be a bit of a stretch.

[Mikeod]

The three new executive courses at the Sarasota range are scheduled to be ready late 2012 or early 2013. I think they are in the process of laying them out. One will start near the range and the cart path with the first green near where the old range shack stood. The second green will actually be the one they are using for short game practice now. Then the course will wind its way around the water used for the Sarasota range. The other nines will wind their way around the hill to the east of the new building for the range, shop and teaching stations.

[blueash]

I emailed Eric van Gorder who is the Director of Executive Golf maintenance asking what are the plans for new executive courses south of 466A. Here is his reply:

"I am usually not the one to find this information out from but looking over my notes from the Golf Administration Department there are an additional 6 executive courses planned south of 466A. Their names are as follows Sweet Gum, Mangrove, Palmetto, Sarasota, Volusia, and Escambia. I know there is one under construction now with the championship at Evans Prairie and you can see these along 466A. They are set to open I think one of the executive courses in the fall of 2012 (Palmetto) with the Evans Prairie Championship course but I cannot be 100% sure."

So if accurate while the number of residents is scheduled to increase by about 30%, the number of executive courses is only to increase by about 20%. And this relative deficiency of executive courses would be in the youngest area of the Villages where one might think there would be more need for them.

[spk7951]

Last week I talked to a couple of folks that work at Bonifay and they told me that the next executive courses will be affiliated with Evans Prairie Country Club and the ones near Sarasota will be built after that. Courses are already under construction and slated for late 2012 opening.

[NJblue]

They can't open soon enough for us. I am the coordinator for a group of guys who play together weekly and for the first time I have had the unenviable task of excluding people from the request if their point count gets to 3 or above. Before moving here I recall reading an article about how TV has the calculation for number of golf holes per resident down to a science. Based on our experience this winter, that science appears to be breaking down. With only 6 more executive courses planned, it appears that this will become a long-term problem. I can't wait for April to come and relieve some of the pressure.

[Bogie Shooter]

Just read in the Villages Voice that there were 2,546,611 rounds of golf played in 2011. 717,271 on championship courses and 1,829,340 on the executives.
Statistically, there were 5,810,493 golf balls lost in the Villages last year.......................no estimate of the number found.

[Ohiogirl]

What do you think? If you have been retired and living in The Villages for 10 or more years, do you play less (and not because of getting shut out) than you did when you first moved here?

Personally, I play less, and I've only been retired and living here for less than 2 years. I have just found so much else to also do that I find it hard to fit more than 2 9-hole rounds in every week.

Plus, now that I live in the Sunshine State, and can golf pretty much year-round, I find that I don't feel I have to get out there every day the sun is shining.

Maybe when TV is built-out, and there are no more lifestyle preview visitors and not as many new residents, demand will lesson. There will always be renters and seasonal residents who bump up demand in season, but I imagine that at least the seasonal residents will play less as they age and settle in. Not the really avid golfers, maybe, but perhaps the rest of us?

Just a theory . . .

[Bogie Shooter]

What do you think? If you have been retired and living in The Villages for 10 or more years, do you play less (and not because of getting shut out) than you did when you first moved here?

Personally, I play less, and I've only been retired and living here for less than 2 years. I have just found so much else to also do that I find it hard to fit more than 2 9-hole rounds in every week.

Plus, now that I live in the Sunshine State, and can golf pretty much year-round, I find that I don't feel I have to get out there every day the sun is shining.

Maybe when TV is built-out, and there are no more lifestyle preview visitors and not as many new residents, demand will lesson. There will always be renters and seasonal residents who bump up demand in season, but I imagine that at least the seasonal residents will play less as they age and settle in. Not the really avid golfers, maybe, but perhaps the rest of us?

Just a theory . . .

All good points.