When did these Champion courses qualify for the US OPEN?
 

I don't know what the thinking is to let the rough grow to the point where it's unplayable for senior golfers. More time is spent looking for balls in the rough. There are places on all Campion courses where the rough is close to 10 inches high. This is a senior retirement community so make the conditions so we can enjoy playing the game.
I won't even get into the conditions of the sandtraps. They are the worst I've seen in my 50 years of playing this game.
Spend some money and hire more help to maintain these courses.

Not just here. Played Lake Jovita this past week end and same problems. Biggest beef is the weeds. There were weeds growing 2-3 feet high on the bank at Palmer last week. On the length of the of rough, we are more likely to find a golf ball which was chewed up by a lawn mower blade than our own ball. Villages should have a local rule that if a ball is lost in the rough it is a 1 stroke penalty. We do not have hundreds of fore caddies like the pros.

I think it is the large amounts of rain we have gotten over the last four months. I've seen fairways, greens, rough, and even tee boxes that are far too thick and lush. Champion courses and executive courses. But I also see entire areas marked off as being wet with signs directing cart traffic away from them. I am looking forward to the winter and the extra 15 to 20 yards of roll I will get on tee shots.

Personally I enjoy having different lengths of rough. Playing the senior card means your game may not be good enough to play Championship, or you are playing from the wrong tees. The fairways here are very wide and should accommodate everyone's game. We should be penalized for bad shots, golf has always had consequences for poor shots and for the prices they charge, the course should be challenging.

Problem is that you can miss the fairway by a couple of feet and the ball disappears and/or is plugged. Slows down play too.

Agreed. Try playing one of the famous links courses in England, Scotland or Ireland, where the tall fescue grows to knee length just off the first cut. Visually stunning. The Villages "Championship" courses are just driving ranges in comparison.

One solution could be to have some of the courses set up as challenging and the others set up as closely cut everywhere.

Finally, someone who understands how a golf should be played and how a course should be set up. Our courses have overly forgiven width in the fairways and in most cases lack of trees. Our courses are extremely senior friendly. I just returned from a two week west Coast golf trip where the rough was 6 inches deep and twice as thick as anything we have here. Greens had severe slopes to them and were lightning fast. Bless your lucky stars what you have here.

Generally, the fairways are generous but not everywhere. Tierra Del Sol (back nine) and Hacienda Hills (Oaks and Lakes) courses are a few that come to mind with some very narrow, tree lined fairways. It isn't just the rough that needs cutting in some instances. With all the rain we have received, the ground crews are struggling to keep up right now. Plus some areas are just too wet to cut sometimes.

The rough is “rough” indeed, but the expectation of what being in there means is known on the tee box. However, the sand traps are a completely different matter and one that is not at all being addressed anywhere here in TV.

Sand traps vary anywhere from mud holes to weed beds to hard pad depending on the current weather conditions. Personally, I cannot recall seeing a sand trap raked much less manicured on any course and I play five days a week. It almost seems the Ambassadors put more sand on the tee boxes than is in the traps. Of all places on earth, you would expect Florida to gave decent sand traps on the golf courses.

And yes, I have brought the sand trap conditions to the attention of Ambassadors, starters, pro shops and TV as I expect many others have . . . . deaf ears!

Stop all the complaining been here six years nothing has changed
 

So everyone just needs to play tee boxes for the level of golf they play just an example IAM 69 and play the blue tee boxes carry a 6.9 handicap just saying if the courses are that unfair I would have a handicap of at least 14 so live with the conditions and stop complaining been here six years and nothing will change so saver your breath and just be thanfull you have all these courses to play in one locatio

Buy cheaper golf balls, take a no penalty drop in the fairway and play the packed, hard sand traps as if its a bare dirt lie. If you're playing championship courses and those things bother you then you might think of saving some money and playing the executives where you'll probably lose more balls, but without paying the higher green fees.

And I'm sure there are people that do that. The only question is what they call the game they're playing, since it is no longer golf. I believe one of the earliest rules dating back to the 1400s is "play the ball as it lies". Remember, the course conditions on any given day are the same for everybody.
I grew up playing Bethpage Black back in the day and the rough there is far more punitive. Most of the time I could horse an 8 iron out of it about 150 yds down the fairway. No longer 45 years later. A similar lie in our Bermuda and I may have to hack a sand wedge out sideways. So be it, that's where I hit it.

This jumped out at me: “senior golfers. More time is spent looking for balls.” Is that true?

Bermuda rough is nasty, a wedge back to the fairway is often the only option. It’s part of the game. I wish the rough could be kept deep enough so it’s a penalty to hit into it, but not so deep that it slows the pace of play because the only way to find a ball is to step on it while looking for it. Unfortunately, during the high growing season with lots of rain, it’s very difficult to impossible to keep the rough that consistent. That’s the nature of golf, players need to adapt to the different conditions as they are always changing throughout the year. In the middle of January, I sometimes like it when the ball winds up in the rough so there is a little grass under the ball compared to the fairway.

It's called cutting the rough shorter (lower the mower)! It's one thing to have a difficult escape; quite another to have a lost ball mere feet off the fairway. :cus:

Bermuda
 

My favorite is when the Bermuda is tall enough to be in the way but thin enough that the ball is actually lying down on essentially hardpan. :-)

Played Lopez Torri/Errin today and the rough was as difficult as I've seen in 12 years here. But since there was no one in front of us with a 9:28 t-time, the 3 hour 20 minute round was great even with tough rough. The rest of the course was excellent, except it looked like they accidently killed all the grass on the tee boxes for some reason.

Course conditions
 

The writer sounds like he only played munis before coming here and wants these courses to play like munis too. No thanks.

I played Pimlico yesterday and found the rough on number 6 to be uncharacteristically deep too.

I agree with the sand traps, yesterday I hit a bunker shot and looked down after and saw dirt meaning there was may a 1/2 inch of sand in that bunker and I was on the slight upslope not at the bottom of the bunker!

You apparently don't hit it into Bunkers very often. That's how Bunkers work, it's much tougher to maintain sand on the slopes, than it is to maintain sand in the bottom.

Funny how that rain/water stuff works. It always seems to run downhill.

It would be nice if conditions on the "Championship" courses were upgraded to favorably compare with a decent Muni.

Maybe it’s not the conditions but the ability? We not spring chickens anymore.

Fairways
 

These fairways are incredibly wide, for the most part. If you’re hitting into really high rough it’s because your shot was way off.
Southern Oaks has some high rough but it is also wide open. You make a bad shot, you live with the consequences. It’s golf. It should be a challenge, the wide open fairways and the large greens make up for the high rough.

Rough
 

I like the second cut a little longer to eliminate the Villages roll where if you miss the green by 3 feet the ball rolls 50 feet into the bushes or water, same applies to the executive courses

:bowdown::clap2::clap2::BigApplause:

I believe the goal is to hit the fairway, stay out of the traps, play the ball where it lies and play the conditions of the course/weather. How many that are complaining are out playing in the rain or 20 mile an hour winds but then complain about the course conditions. Live on a championship course and see the total lack of respect for the course and the rules. Next week the grass will be too short and no rough. Just play the game and enjoy!

Not now but the last few years there was no rough. It was like hitting off bare ground with a touch of green sprinkled around. I don't need 10 inches but Bermuda grass at a few inches is as it should be. Making you keep the ball in the fairway is a good idea.

Logic
 

This over-reliance on logical debate is often found to be most irksome. 'Tis also why I find myself mostly avoiding the general public; the finding, that is, not the reliance. :-)

This may be my first ever usage of a semicolon. No idea whether it was appropriate. Would be happy to be set straight. . .

I thought wasn’t supposed hit over there?:throwtomatoes:

Hit
 

I *never* try to hit over there.

Being a senior isn't an excuse to be a lousy golfer. If you're hitting it into the rough often enough that it's complaint-worthy, then you're doing something wrong. Being old, is not doing something wrong.

Most seniors don't hit into the rough often enough for them to complain about how horrible the rough is. Most of them know that they sliced, or overshot, or whatever else, and play the hole and move on.

Seniors
 

Gonna have to ponder that one a bit. Most definitely harboring a long-held bias against that hateful, Bermuda rough, especially once it's reached a certain height. . .

Reading this thread reminds me of comments at my old barbers.
Too long, too short, uneven, bit more off round the edges, bald patches, etc etc!