[Emkay56]

Guests already pay $15 so they should be able to keep them in better shape already. Why have I heard that the ones around Lopez up north are in great shape? Must be the person/persons that do maintenance on those courses!

[tuccillo]

Approximately half of the amenities fee goes to pay off the purchase of the amenities from the Developer. All of that money is not available for maintenance.

Originally Posted by Steve

To answer your two questions: "NO" and "NO". The folks who run the execs collect amenities fees from 138,000 people (~70,000 homes) every month.

My fee is $175.31/month. That's over $11,011,700/month ($132,140,400/year) taken in by the amenities authority. If they can't budget sufficient funds to maintain the courses, the primary draw for The Villages, than somebody needs to be booted out and a better manager installed.

[fdpaq0580]

Originally Posted by tuccillo

Approximately half of the amenities fee goes to pay off the purchase of the amenities from the Developer. All of that money is not available for maintenance.

Still a lot of money left in the pot. That isn't the problem.

As miraculous as it may seem, some regular and experienced golfers do report good conditions at some of the courses. Why only at some? Conditions should be all good if mgmt/supervision have their finger on the pulse of maintenance. Less than good at any course should be the result of a plague of locusts. An individual case, not the general condition for all or most courses.
Mgmt has failed! Maintenance has failed. Time sweep out the office.

[tuccillo]

I was not commenting on the condition of the courses. I was not commenting on whether there is sufficient money available to maintain the courses. I have no experience in golf course management. I can only remember one poster on this forum who has such experience. My comment was in response to a post about how much of the amenities money is available for maintenance. Dissatisfaction with the conditions of the courses would be best expressed to the CDD management instead of this forum.

Originally Posted by fdpaq0580

Still a lot of money left in the pot. That isn't the problem.

As miraculous as it may seem, some regular and experienced golfers do report good conditions at some of the courses. Why only at some? Conditions should be all good if mgmt/supervision have their finger on the pulse of maintenance. Less than good at any course should be the result of a plague of locusts. An individual case, not the general condition for all or most courses.
Mgmt has failed! Maintenance has failed. Time sweep out the office.

[conman5652@aol.com]

Let it go.

[justjim]

Just a “bad” idea…

[Andyhope]

No way! No way!

[eastmand411]

I would propose since many of us enjoy the Executive Golf Courses, we take a different approach to supporting the greens keepers. Instead of raising rates, no one wants that, why don't we ask The Villages to place some Greens Divot Repair tools on the green and we can help, after all, the reason the greens are in bad shape is because many of us are not repairing the ball mark on greens, I may be guilty as well on occasion. Perhaps if TV buys enough for 4 courses and distributes them to different courses, we all can pitch in and fix the issue. As it is, these courses are over played and until we find a way to help resolve the issue, no additional fee or separation of tee times is going to fix the issue. I think it is better to take a Root Cause analysis approach to the issue and we, the ones that see the issue fix the issue. Open to suggestion, but before I get a snarky response, let's remember, the people that are causing the issue are not the ones who are going to fix the issue, it's the old 80/20 rule, 80% cause the problem and 20% fix the problem. Lastly, I agree with some of the comments about the Ambassador, but they should be enforcing speed of play and other issues and we all should be good patrons and fix the greens.

[Lottoguy]

The courses up north of 466 are in great shape. Perhaps the problem is some people (Greenskeeper) at some locations do NOT know how to do their job?

[fdpaq0580]

Originally Posted by Lottoguy

The courses up north of 466 are in great shape. Perhaps the problem is some people (Greenskeeper) at some locations do NOT know how to do their job?

More than likely.

[DavidK]

Originally Posted by Nacoma

I’m not sure what or why most of our executive courses are in such bad shape? It’s my understanding that courses in certain counties aren’t allowed to water as often as needed?? Maybe maintenance people would like to do better but aren’t allowed to water as often as they’d like?? Often when you ask the standard excuse for conditions is because the amount of play. To that I say, have you ever played Baseline in Ocala? That course sees an enormous amount of play but is always in wonderful shape compared to our executive courses?? So what gives? Why can’t we do better here? I don’t know everything that needs to happen behind the scenes but it does make me wonder why??

Playing on Executive courses for "free" draws many who have poor golf skills. Paid public courses tend to draw golfers with a better understanding of the rules of play, including repairing divots and ball marks.
The Spring season here is dry and the number of players is at its max.

[HORNET]

The Villages have been at it well over 50years. Now some come- lately thinks that they have a solution!!!!!!!

[goodoldan]

What this suggestion is, if you want GREAT executive conditions, let the free market decide, let the user pay.

Or in this case, let the user pay TWICE...

[M2inOR]

Players: fix your divots and ball marks. Only drive your carts where permitted.
Course Management: train your staff AND make sure your maintenance staff are doing a good job.

District Management: let your contracted maintenance staff know whether they're doing a good job or a bad one. Renew contracts only for doing a good job.

Everyone: be thankful our low amenity fees bring a lot of great options for activities, including golf.

The Championship courses should be in better shape as more $$$ are coming in from the players