Golf course discussion for week of April 2021
 

Played Havana about 2 months ago, green, fairway, and tees were in very bad shape. We took them out of our rotation. Put them back in an played there today, 4/26/2021. Not a whole lot of improvement progress. Many of the greens still had places that were burnt out or just sand. All of the greens had many many weeds. Tees were in better shape, but a lot of the fairways still had very bare and thin on grass.

Hard to believe as much money has the golf courses net, they can't put and keep a course in top notch shape. We are paying premium dollars for muni course condition, just sad.

Thanks for the update. Havana is the only champ course I haven't played yet this year and was wondering if it was time to give it a shot. Apparently not yet.

Until The Villages gets hurt bad enough in the pocket book don’t expect much improvement. I have been here for 15 years and these poor conditions aren’t unusual, except the deteriorating conditions seem to be more wide spread. Green fees continually on the rise. There past excuses were: not enough water & too much water. I played many times in the winter at Havana when the maintenance crew was cutting the non-existant grass in the rough kicking up nothing but dust. A friend of mine worked there and he told me they needed to keep the crew busy so they gave “the bald guy a haircut”. Courses were built cheaply, especially greens (from a reliable source) not to USGA specifications. They say that all the cart traffic (4 per group) has stressed the fairways. To an extent I’ll give in on that a bit, but unless players are driving on the greens and tees what happened there. On a positive note the grass at the Polo Field is in great shape, thick and lush. Priorities?

Many of the executive courses maintained by Havana are also in bad shape as well. Truman and Roosevelt come to mind.

This is nothing new at Havana. For as long as I can remember, Havana gets bad each winter, and tends to recover in the summer, but not really. It's a course that needs a complete re-work. Odd, isn't it, how Lopez, Glenview, and Tierra del Sol can be in such perfectly great shape and Havana in such poor shape?

Played Bonita Pass last night- Conditions so bad that it does not even qualify as a "Golf Course" . Better described as a "Cow Pasture"
No grass on tees and little on greens. Here ten years and never have seen this level of poor conditions on exec courses. Too many people for the number of courses. Need to return to limiting single passenger carts.

I will not pay $64 ($47 priority) to play in May when the norm is to reduce prices. Every year bids are placed to do the maintenance on the courses. My guess is low bid wins. Remember when they used to overseed the fairways and tees? Now that the developer has taken over the management....more money for them

Muni implications, no sir!
 

I take exception to your statement that implies a muni course has bad conditions. There are many muni courses that are in very good condition, some in better condition than some of your elitist and private CC courses.

Not likely when there aren't any Championship courses south of 44.

You are correct!
 

There are many Muni's better then the villages CC. Sorry for them. However, those muni's are often very expensive to play.

Kenya (part of Havana) has been closed since around the middle of March.

I played DW Field (a muni) in Brocton MA yesterday for $27, walking. It is in fantastic shape, with fast greens. It's in better shape than the club I belong to.

[QUOTE=Challenger;1935972]Played Bonita Pass last night- Conditions so bad that it does not even qualify as a "Golf Course" . Better described as a "Cow Pasture"
No grass on tees and little on greens. Here ten years and never have seen this level of poor conditions on exec courses. Too many people for the number of courses. Need to return to limiting single passenger carts.[/QUOTE]



Im trying to understand your solution to return to limiting passenger carts. BP has no par 4s so what would this do to help the condition of the tees and greens as you mention are in poor shape

Bonifay was in great shape this week.

Belle Glade was in great shape this week.

Kenya
 

We drove past Kenya yesterday and noticed that the fairways (#1 and #9 were all we could see) were aerated as the cores were all over the fairways. A step in the right direction hopefully.

Golf
 

Its really unbelievable that we pay 164 dollars a month and have to pay winter rates.now they extend the winter rates another month.$$$$$$ .if the courses were worth the money ok.some really suck.people that LIVE here should pay same rate year round. Notice: you want revenue? In give people!e who live here to play here! Duh!!!!

Also play championship courses and the cited comment was meant for cart use on all areas where carts travel. I agreed with the origional single person cart decision, however , it is taking a high toll on grass .

I saw them strip all the grass off Kenya #9 and put new grass down. We'll see if that makes a difference.
:pray::pray:

If you're talking about the amenity fee, that has nothing to do with champ courses

I used to work at Havana several years back, when Chris Debusk was the head pro there. Every morning, before the maintenance crew arrived, Chris would ride the course and make certain it was in immaculate condition. After his ride, he met with the crew chief and gave him a list of areas that needed attention. Havana, under Chris, was one of the best kept courses in TV. It'd be nice to have Chris back.

Too many houses; not enough golf courses.
 

As someone in the process of moving to TV, EVERY golfer who I have been set up with has complained that TV continues to add more and more and more houses (ie revenue), but NOT nearly enough golf courses -- particularly exec courses (ie expense).
How many more hundreds of millions of dollars does TV need?
We need more executive courses and other infrastructure to keep up with the hundreds of new houses that TV roll out every month.

What good is "free golf for life" is you can't get on a course?

Bonifey
 

I played Bonifey on Saturday and the greens and fairways were NOT in good shape. Bumpy, bare spots and not a lot of grass. Not worth the $47. Glenview yesterday was is excellent shape, tee thru greens. Something ain't right.

I/we play outside the bubble every week, as I refuse to pay the fees here, for the terrible conditions(concrete fairways). Many of the ones we've played at, were in much better conditions, and for less than half the cost.

Conditions on Bonita Pass
 

[QUOTE=Shbullet;1936383]I agree with the above poster, BP has no par 4's, hence, carts should not be on the fairways. Number of carts has no bearing on the conditions of the greens nor the tee boxes. This is another example of listening to media hype and not paying attention to the facts.

There is no excuse for such bad conditions especially on executive courses.If there was a desire to keep them up they would be like the ones outside the Villages. For a place that promotes itself as a golfing paradise you would expect better and you deserve better.

Think they are bad now just wait they are cutting back on course ambassador’s they fill the holes on the tee boxes fix ball marks on the greens pick up broken tees.
Also help direct first responders to medical issues on the golf course.

That's not written in stone......................yet

Posters are amazing.

[QUOTE=drcar41@aol.com;1936610]What about the millions of foot steps/traffic on the greens and tees EVERYDAY? Much harder on the turf then a cart driving over certain areas.

Haven't played that course in years, used to have a friend who lived right next door to it. We're heading back up north next week, I may have to hit it up again for old time sake.

Let’s see......in process of moving to Tv and complaining already.

For what it’s worth..played Lopez today everything in great condition.

Played Tierra today, greens were true and fast. Course in great shape. Has anyone played Orange Blossom lately, what condition is it in?

Need to put this all in perspective, folks. Last week during my return from Virginia, we stopped at Hilton Head Island for two nights, just so I could play one of the famous resort golf courses. Got a tee time at Sea Pines Resort, Atlantic Dunes course. Paid $250 for one single round. There were some nice amenities in the form of cordial helpers around the bag drop and starter, and a drink cart that came by us probably five times during the round.

However, the condition of the course was in essence no better than what I see here at home in The Villages. Fairways were cut too short, leaving little grass to cradle the ball. Roughs were also too short, with some bare spots. Color of the turf was still brownish. Greens were smooth and well-laid, but not always consistent roll.

So all in all, comparing our courses at $40-60 to this resort course at $250, I think we've got a pretty good deal.

Golf in The Villages
 

Coming from Naples. Florida, I can see quite a difference in golf course management. In The Villages, the money goes into the pocket and certainly not into golf course management and improvement. The green fees are tweaked but not the course conditions!
Soon a Boycott will be in place??

Bonifay in good shape yesterday.

Help yourself.......
I’m out!

Don't hold your breath!:icon_wink:

You will not believe the improvements...Thorney Lea wanted to hire the Super a couple of years ago. The city still has him and he doesn't have the private club headaches (members). :coolsmiley:

Played Sterling Heights yesterday. The fairways were a bit thin, but you're not suppose to be on them, right? ;)

The few I hit (the par 4s) were quite easy to hit off of. Made a shallow divot, filled it with sand and headed to the green (which were quite nice!).