Golf course conditions
 

I thought it might be interesting, informative, and helpful, for people to comment, positively or negatively, about the course they played that day, to let other people know the conditions of greens, fairways, bunkers, etc. as far as playability goes. The reason being is, that for different people, different conditions are more important than others. For me, for example, my priority is nice greens, over good fairways. Now, of course, would prefer everything to be pristine, but as we know, isn't, and can't always be that way, due to weather conditions, disease, etc. If people could come, and make a comment about where they played, and how conditions were, might really be helpful when it comes to deciding where we'd like to play the next few days. Any comments concerning people's interest in starting a permanent thread for this, or not, and suggestions to how it could be done in the easiest manner, would be welcome.

In the last couple of weeks I have played Pelican and Truman and Hawkes Bay and Bogart. All of them had tremendous roll, the winds were always against me and you could use your putter from 20 feet off the green.

Briarwood is in great shape with great greens,
Hawkes Bay is in real good shape with great greens.
Saddlebrook is in good shape but the greens are not too great. Pitted and some kind of growth on the greens. Not smooth.
Belmont is in great shape and has great greens.
El Santiago is in really good shape with great greens.
De La Vista is in really good shape with fast greens.

Good idea RCT.
 

Like KathieI I do not golf but this information sounds like it will be useful.

Played Mallory on monday. The greens are starting to get better there, finally. Still bumpy and bare in a few spots, but better than they have been in at least a month. A couple bunkers still have too much sand in them, but I guess the answer to that may be to not hit it there!! Fairways were very hard and fast, as I am sure they are most places, due to the dry and cold conditions lately.

Course Conditions
 

Will be coming back to our home in Hadley in a few weeks. Plan on playing many of the courses and in the championship at Glenview. How are the conditions of the Championship courses. I am most concerned with the greens. Fast, slow, bumpy or great. I would appreciate your comments.

Don Miller
Hadley

Courses I played in last week:

Churchill Greens: Good shape - tees and greens
Amberwood: Great shape - tees and greens
Walnut Grove: Great shape - tees and greens
Belmont: Good shape - tees and greens
Heron: Tees is bad shape - greens are so-so
Pelican: Tees are so-so - greens are good shape
Roosevelt: Tees are so-so - greens and surrounding areas are hard as a rock
Bacall: Good Shape - tees and greens
Briarwood: Great shape - tees and greens
Hawkes Bay: Good shape - tees and greens

Played Mallory Hill yesterday, Caroline and Virginia Trace. Great shape, fast hard fairways, and greens were in good shape. Life is good.

What am I as a golfer to do with this information?

:undecided:

It may help in deciding which courses you want to play. In my case it really doesn't help much because I'm a beginner and all courses are difficult.:cus:

:pepper2::pepper2:

this time of year you don't decide....you take what you get.

Bogie - Even if you can't pick and choose the course it might still be nice to know the condition to let you pick HOW you play the course. Run off the tee, fly to the green, chip it in low, high etc. etc.

And don't you have some options on the CC courses? Or is that take it or leave it this time of year also?

Well, I actually haven't had much problem choosing a top three of where to play. Now, if you are picky about specific times, or want to only play with a particular foursome, then, I have heard, you have more difficulties. I play tuesday mens day a good bit, which makes it easy to choose your course, and format, seeing as the clubs rotate the format, and 5 or 6 clubs involved every week, so many choices there. I play one day a week, usually, with either 1,2,or 3 regulars. Now, the point system definitely comes into play there, depending on how much the other three have played. The other days, I just look and take what's available, as a single, over the next three days. I don't request a time when i am going to play alone, and there is almost always something available for a single.
Now, I had a thought about how to make this thread better, that is if enough people are interested in keeping it alive. I thought, if there was some way to have a template, that would have different categories, say greens, fairways, bunkers, etc., that would have some kind of rating system for each course, championship and executives. This way, could just come on here, and click what you played, and click on the ratings for the different categories, instead of having to type out everything every time. This is only an idea, of which I have no technical expertise of how it would, or could be incorporated, as I am not an expert on setting up stuff. I just know how to use the puter/internet. If anyone has any ideas, be my guest, or maybe we have to talk to admins, to see if something like this is possible.

Greens are pretty good, but the speed of course depends on how long it had been since they were cut and watered. I find the greens really challenging because they undulate. Not all that easy to read. (My stooping down isn't as good as it used to be. lol)

Course Conditions
 

Bogie:

Choose your courses wisely. Don't play the bad ones. If you don't care you can shoot 45 anywhere.

personally I am not having any trouble with the condition of the courses , I find that if its a windy day , I just aim a little up wind around the windmill and to the right of the clown's left shoe........and speaking of clowns , If the condition of the course isn't important to you then you might try pickleball..

won a free game .. Fumar .:beer3:

Played FDR today and the course was in great shape, as it usually is. The first par 4 could use some better fairway grass on the last 50-75 yds--- the next one is quite good all the way up. All the greens seemed pretty firm, hard to hold for a hacker like me. Most were quite vast. However, some pin placements were downright vicious. On one (#9), we had a 8-10 footer that broke about 3-4 inches. I barely touched the ball, it lipped the cup, almost stopped a foot past the hole, then took a sharp right turn and rolled off the front of the green. A birdie quickly became a bogey. But damn it was fun anyway.

Golf course conditions
 

Played Mallory Hill Thursday and found fairways to be very hard. Lots of roll.Greens were lightning fast. Hard to hold the greens on approach shots.
Play Glenview Friday(today) and found fairways to be hard but not extremely so. Greens were absolutely perfect. No bare spots and speed was perfect.

My experience has been that Glenview is about the best condition with the exception of Palmer - haven't played there yet this year. The courses south of 466 have really hard fairways, and if you get off the fairway or green, it is basically hardpan. The greens at Mallory had some sort of disease, and they were terrible for awhile, but I've heard they have gotten better. Haven't played there lately to check. The greens at Cane were decent last week. Havana was really hard and dry, so I've avoided that course as well, but their greens are usually pretty fast. I last played Glenview 2 weeks ago, and the greens were a little on the pokey side, but not bad. Of course, things change quickly around here, and they may be faster now.

Tierra del Sol condition
 

Played TDS today. Had some bare lies, in fairway as well as off, but I guess is to be expected, with the lack of rain we've had. Greens are pretty good, although today, front side was considerably slower than back, but was told by a friend that works on the course, that they double cut the back side greens this morning, which i liked alot. Overall, I say it's a go to play it right now. I personally love TDS course layout, anyway. when it's in good condition. Is among my top 3 in TV's. That doesn't mean I score the best on it, by any means. Is all you can handle from back tees, and a challenge from any tees, commensurate with your ability.

All of the courses would play much better and the fairway grass would be more dense if they were watered properly. The watering ban, if I understand correctly, extends throughout Florida, because of drought conditions. As we are only allowed to water once a week with our irrigation systems at our homes, I wonder how this is handled on golf courses. Anyone know?

Mallory
 

We played mallory Yesterday (Sat)... It was hard as a brick... zero rough... endless hardpan... very dry.

Don't mean to interrupt this thread but you guys (gals) are making me crazy. It's 60 degrees here this weekend but still ankle deep in snow!

Keep up the good discussion. I live vicariously through it:laugh:

Hard fairways south of 466
 

In case you missed it here is an explanation regarding the hard, fast conditions south of 466:

http://www.golfthevillages.com/turftalk.asp

We played Glenview yesterday - beautiful fairways and greens. The rough is still brown, but doesn't appear hard and dry like Mallory. They were obviously doing some watering.

Golf course conditions
 

I also played Glenview again yesterday and I concur with Taj44's description. Course is in very good shape. Greens are a tad slower than some of the other courses but perfect speed for me.

Thanx Russ. I'd never noticed that feature.

Did have to cut 'n paste, however, as the hot link didn't work.


Course report: Played Pelican and the fairways were dry as advertised. The weeds/natural grasses/snake pits seemed to be quite healthy and if anything have increased their magnetic attraction to errant tee shots. On a positive note, when I finally did hit a green, it took a nice ballpark and held well. Except for the mysterious stripe on #8 (or 7 or 6, whatever), all the greens were plush and putted well. --- What is that stripes. Guesses have ranged from vandalism to an escaped Burmese Python that died and rotted there.




`

The mysterious stripe you mentioned on Pelican #8 green was caused by an oil leak on a mower.

I agree - the greens were a tad on the slow side. On a brighter note, I played 9 holes yesterday at Mallory (Caroline, sigh) and the greens seem much improved over a few weeks ago. The rough is brown but not as dry and hard as it was. I assume they're watering too.

The stripe IS NOT an oil leak.....

It's a hydraulic leak from the greens mower......

The greens on Pelican have been sprayed with high amounts of Manganese and different nutrients, not to mention the amount of water on them....

They are a tad slow, but are getting thicker, which is good......

Golf course conditions
 

Played Cane Garden (Jacaranda&Allamanda) and both were in great shape. Greens, and fairways both very nice. Faiways fast but not real hard. Greens very nice; some had some "sandy" spots but all in all in great shape.

Played Palmer yesterday, in trmendous shape all around, greens are perfect. I know this is the most expensive course we play in TV's, and would, therefore, expect it to be in good shape, but really is exceptional right now. Well worth the 41 dollars for a priority member, and coming from south florida, is dirt cheap for a course of this quality. I made everything I looked at, greens so smooth. Shot 70, first time under par at Palmer for me.

Ok RCT - It's official - you're giving me 5 per side!

70? Nice!

Golf course conditions
 

Played Tierra Del Sol today and found the following as far as conditions go. Greens and "T" boxes in very good shape.Fairways not very good. More brown than green and very fast.

Mira Mesa executive
 

Just finished playing Mira Mesa executive, one of my favorite executive layouts. Fairways are marginal, greens have alot of grass on them, very very slow. I wish they were faster, but understand why they tend to keep exec greens slower, because alot of people playing them aren't exactly skilled golfers, so is a good thought to keeping them slower. All in all, worth playing, I guess, considering it Is part of our amenties!

Course Conditions
 

Played Glen View Thurs. great shape. played TDS yesterday even better. Greens were beautiful at TDS.( medium fast):coolsmiley:

Silver Lake executive
 

Played Silver Lake executive tonight from 7 til dark. Is a fun little course, although out of the way for alot of TV's. Greens have ALOT of grass on them, and very slow, but at least they have grass, unlike a few other execs around right now. The fairways were pretty bare and tight, though. But, is a nice chance to get to see where the whole idea started, in the pre-historic section.

Played Oakleigh yesterday. Greens are in terrible shape. Husband says it's time for the grass change. On the other hand, played Belmont Friday and it was gorgeous.