[poromo]

In past years, golf on the championship courses has been free on Christmas Day. Does anyone know if this policy will be continued this Christmas?

[kcrazorbackfan]

Free day will be available Christmas Day on all the Championship courses; but, remember this, there will probably be a lot of people (grandpa, grandma, son, daughter, grandkids) out there playing that plays very little, if at all, and it will probably be a zoo. There's no telling what kind of condition the greens will be in the next day. I love free and I love to play golf but will not subject myself to that torture.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by kcrazorbackfan

Free day will be available Christmas Day on all the Championship courses; but, remember this, there will probably be a lot of people (grandpa, grandma, son, daughter, grandkids) out there playing that plays very little, if at all, and it will probably be a zoo. There's no telling what kind of condition the greens will be in the next day. I love free and I love to play golf but will not subject myself to that torture.

Yea, you're right.
Tell your friends not to go. It's the worst. Last year I went to Belle Glade before the sun came up and the line was so ridiculous I turned around.

[Mleeja]

Originally Posted by kcrazorbackfan

Free day will be available Christmas Day on all the Championship courses; but, remember this, there will probably be a lot of people (grandpa, grandma, son, daughter, grandkids) out there playing that plays very little, if at all, and it will probably be a zoo. There's no telling what kind of condition the greens will be in the next day. I love free and I love to play golf but will not subject myself to that torture.

Since the online reservation system says the courses are closed, if you want to play do you just show up? Will there be starters, ambassadors, etc?

[rubicon]

Some of you posters must be new and do not understand what the word "free " means to some people in this town. A number of years back
Chick Fil A gave notice they were giving out "free chicken sandwiches" People showed up before sun rise according to the paper and the line was so long it left the parking lot and flowed onto 441...well that last part was hyberbole

I played Southern Star one year and hooked (an unintentional draw) a ball onto St Charles Street and a guy in a golf cart stopped and picked it up while it was still moving because ...it was "free". Well at least he had good taste it was a Pro V1

[kcrazorbackfan]

Originally Posted by Mleeja

Since the online reservation system says the courses are closed, if you want to play do you just show up? Will there be starters, ambassadors, etc?

Show up and get in line. Only starters; after that say a prayer and make the sign of the cross. And if you have an ounce of "no patience" in you, take my advice and don't go; you'll not enjoy any part of that "free golf".

[Bruiser1]

Originally Posted by rubicon

Some of you posters must be new and do not understand what the word "free " means to some people in this town. A number of years back
Chick Fil A gave notice they were giving out "free chicken sandwiches" People showed up before sun rise according to the paper and the line was so long it left the parking lot and flowed onto 441...well that last part was hyberbole

I played Southern Star one year and hooked (an unintentional draw) a ball onto St Charles Street and a guy in a golf cart stopped and picked it up while it was still moving because ...it was "free". Well at least he had good taste it was a Pro V1

I must agree with Rubicon.

2012 Christmas after church I decided to play a round of golf on Christmas.
after grinding through a painful s-l-o-w 9 holes I decided to do something more productive.

I rode 22 miles on my bike as I passed the Arnold Palmer Riley Grove starter shack.

There was 26 golf carts lined up to play FREE FREE FREE GOLF! Ok if you "assume" that 2 carts will allow themselves to be paired as a four some; And if you assume these golfers will play briskly at a 15 minute per hole pace; and there are no delays due to lost balls, duffed shots, thrown clubs,

Under those optimum conditions It would only be a two hour wait to tee off and another 4:30 hours to complete your round.

But keep in mind the villages has tripled in size since 2012 and thus it should have three times the pent up demand for golf access.

[John_W]

My first year I went to free golf was when Bonifay had just opened. I had not played it before, only Ft. Walton and Destin were open at the time, Pensacola was held back 9 months due to the big rain storm we had that summer of 2011. It was 5" of rain in 2 hours. I had played Sand Hill the next morning and only the tees and greens were above water. Just after we had finished that round, they closed the course for 3 days.

I arrived at Bonifay at 7am and counted 23 carts ahead of mine, I figured I would tee off about 10am, but after about 15 minutes of waiting I heard a starter yell out, "do we have any singles", I immediately raised my hand. I was off with a group at about 7:30. I rode with a fellow who smoked, I took it as a challenge since I had quit smoking in 2006. We played from the white tees and I shot an 80. Still one of my best scores at Bonifay, although we always play from the blue tees now.

One thing I made note of, was when I left about 1pm there were only a couple of players waiting to tee off. I noticed this also as I passed through Turtle Mound and Sand Hill executives. So, I'm not ever going early again, I'm going around my normal time which is about 1pm and hopefully they'll be very little waiting.