[P A Paul]

Can’t believe it’s been open four days and no thread. Course is in fabulous shape. Designers wanted a challenging venue and delivered! Longer than many courses and often elevated, fast greens makes shotmaking important. It will separate the casual golfer from golf balls quickly.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by P A Paul

Designers wanted a challenging venue and delivered! Longer than many courses and often elevated, fast greens makes shotmaking important. It will separate the casual golfer from golf balls quickly.

Only Hacienda Hills has a lower Slope Rating than The Woodlands (by "1"). All the other Championship Courses have a higher Slope Rating from the Blue Tees.

Slope is an attempt to quantify a course's difficulty, for Bogey (or worse) golfer. Which makes The Woodlands, the 2nd easiest course on campus for a Bogey Golfer playing the Blue Tees.

Southern Oaks, Shallow Creek and The Woodlands, are all rated among the 6 easiest courses in The Villages from the White Tees. Bonifay, Hacienda Hills and Havana are at a similar level.

[P A Paul]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

Only Hacienda Hills has a lower Slope Rating than The Woodlands (by "1"). All the other Championship Courses have a higher Slope Rating from the Blue Tees.

Slope is an attempt to quantify a course's difficulty, for Bogey (or worse) golfer. Which makes The Woodlands, the 2nd easiest course on campus for a Bogey Golfer playing the Blue Tees.

Southern Oaks, Shallow Creek and The Woodlands, are all rated among the 6 easiest courses in The Villages from the White Tees. Bonifay, Hacienda Hills and Havana are at a similar level.

There’s numbers, then there’s the eye test, then there’s the actual playing. Report back after your round.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by P A Paul

There’s numbers, then there’s the eye test, then there’s the actual playing. Report back after your round.

The Rating and Slope comes from professional course raters. A "standard difficultly" golf course is Rated at 113. The Woodlands comes in 108 from the White Tees. Raters use mostly objective criteria. The Rating is an absolute.

[thevillages2013]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

The Rating and Slope comes from professional course raters. A "standard difficultly" golf course is Rated at 113. The Woodlands comes in 108 from the White Tees. Raters use mostly objective criteria. The Rating is an absolute.

He’s just trying to scare people away so he can keep getting his preferred tee time!😄

[P A Paul]

Round 191 for the year will be Friday. Took a three-hour tee time window to get one.
I’m sure the second round there will seem much easier than the first; local knowledge and all.
Stay tuned.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by thevillages2013

He’s just trying to scare people away so he can keep getting his preferred tee time!😄

They could be handing out $100 bills on the 1st Tee and I still wouldn't be interested.

Same as Southern Oaks and Shallow Creek.

[SHIBUMI]

They are done by Joe blow, Harvey hacker, and Sammy slicer. They are given a rating book to go by, each one fills out the book hole by hole and then afterwards they concur on each hole to come up with a hole by hole rating. That rating is submitted to the state golf association who either concur hole by hole or change it hole by hole as they see fit. It is not an absolute.

sorry to say, the state golf association can change the rating as it sees fit, sorry to say in Massachusetts, which I will assume is not unlike others, they will lower your course rating if it gets too close to the ultra private clubs, just for that reason.

I wish it were an absolute, then you could have more faith in the system. That being said,
the Villages courses are built for lower scores. Fairways where you can land an airplane, fairway bunkers that are rarely hit, low rough, and accessible and slower greens. An absolute perfect layout for the Villagers.A true Field of Dreams. Go back up north or even to Golden Ocala or Black Diamond and your score will double. These are the courses where you won't get close to their rating, by design.

Had a course rated by raters at 74, in Mass. When the rating came back from the state golf association, it had been lowered to 70. Too high compared to the Boston ultra privates. There are no absolutes when systems are open to human interpretation. It's always political. Don't see that much in the Villages as most ratings belong in the mid 60's. No threat to the big boys.

They played the Mass Mid Amateur Championship on that 70 rated golf course. Out of 100 payers with an 8 handicap or less, 10 broke 80. DAH! On perfect weather days.

P.S. 80-85% of rating are for distance........the rest are intangibles.........

Originally Posted by BrianL99

The Rating and Slope comes from professional course raters. A "standard difficultly" golf course is Rated at 113. The Woodlands comes in 108 from the White Tees. Raters use mostly objective criteria. The Rating is an absolute.

[BostonBama]

[initial slope and rating seems off as I thought it was a great challenge from both the blues and even the whites… the signature hole # 7 will be one the toughest pars 3’s around… great addition to TV!!

QUOTE=BrianL99;2474058]Only Hacienda Hills has a lower Slope Rating than The Woodlands (by "1"). All the other Championship Courses have a higher Slope Rating from the Blue Tees.

Slope is an attempt to quantify a course's difficulty, for Bogey (or worse) golfer. Which makes The Woodlands, the 2nd easiest course on campus for a Bogey Golfer playing the Blue Tees.

Southern Oaks, Shallow Creek and The Woodlands, are all rated among the 6 easiest courses in The Villages from the White Tees. Bonifay, Hacienda Hills and Havana are at a similar level.[/QUOTE]

[tophcfa]

Just checked the golf rates on golfthevillages and Woodlands wasn’t listed. Is it safe to assume their greens fees fall in the premium golf rate category along with Palmer (the only premium course that deserves to be there), Southern Oaks, and Shallow Creek?

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Just checked the golf rates on golfthevillages and Woodlands wasn’t listed. Is it safe to assume their greens fees fall in the premium golf rate category along with Palmer (the only premium course that deserves to be there), Southern Oaks, and Shallow Creek?

Probably. I'm just hoping I get to play it in the next 35 days, before the annual Christmas Carnage Day

[P A Paul]

BTW, looks like current tees in use are several hundred yards shorter than the designer may have intended. And it will noisy for a few months as the houses are completed along the course; only about a quarter of them are finished. Shallow Creek was the same way. Extremely quiet now. Think Woodlands will be fun, challenging and is very pleasing to the eye.

Don’t think there’s an elevation change greater than 10 feet (lol) from the turnpike south through Middleton. Not much for golf designers to work with. The 27-hole Meadows currently under construction will be more of the same, with fewer trees.

All in all golf here is convenient and rewarding for the “Aging of America” population.

If you want high end stuff with better golf and more, Pinehurst is calling your name.

[waynet]

Are there any trees?

[P A Paul]

Fewer palms, more leaves

[Teed_Off]

Heard from someone who played the course and he said that it was even more boring than Shallow Creek.