Are executive golf courses maintained at a high standard??
 

According to the Villages website, “Unlike many "executive courses" outside The Villages, ours are maintained at a high standard.”

Is this true??

The last couple of executives that I played were in very bad condition. The tee boxes were mostly dirt and the greens were in very bad shape with quite a few weeds in the green - but at least I had an excuse for my poor putting!

Was it ever true??

And won’t it get worse in the winter with the snow birds returning?

I don't suppose anyone ever expected The Villages website to state: "Our executive courses are usually in terrible condition", did they?

And all golf courses in Florida tend to get worse in winter with dormant Bermuda grass and increased play, not to mention the lack of etiquette and care of the course by some of the golfers.

If the truth is bad, don’t say anything about the condition of the course and focus on how we have 700+ holes in a beautiful park like setting where the golf is free.

However, I don’t expect that they will lie. And some executives are in great shape. Not sure why some are great and some are horrible.

Depends on where came from, how much traffic, level of golfers, and how high standards you have. I came from okieland and nothing like playing on hard pan clay. Like hitting approach shot off concrete.

I find executives courses in great shape for level and amount of traffic. Now where else in world has many holes as villages. I would think golfers would be very happen here. But like some say, where you get something for little of nothing you don’t take care of it.

No matter what the condition, it sure beats shoveling snow during the winter months.:a040:

About in the same condition as a $15 Muni in the real world. 3-4 on a scale of 1-10. I've heard some may approach "5" on a good week.

They are definitely maintained.

No. They're not.

You should see Briarwood! It looks like a museum! Of course, we mere golfers have not been allowed to use it for about 6 months. I guess they're just preserving it as a showpiece.

On they day they intentionally killed the tees and greens and started the $5 million dollar project to dig up and replace all the dirt, grass, and sand on every green, tee, and bunker, it was in better shape than any Southern executive course I've ever played. For the money they've blown on this one little mediocre par-3 on the Northside, I bet they could have fixed the divots and ball marks on every other course in the system.

So if you get disgusted with the shape of your local course, come on up and have a gander at mine! Just leave your clubs at home!

OK, $5 million and 6 months to put it in good condition. How long do think that will last????

Over the years we have observed a head scratching lack of consistency of conditions. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as conditions vary both between courses and at the same courses at different times, with no distinct seasonal patterns. It’s hard to figure out, but logic dictates it’s either incompetence or lack of consistent funding. There are some courses that do appear to be both better and worse, than average, most of the time. Since I think they all have similar maintenance budgets, it’s reasonable to conclude there is a lack of consistency between the capabilities of maintenance staffs. The lack of consistency doesn’t particularly bother us, my wife is not an overly serious golfer and finds the conditions good enough. I am a more serious golfer, but don’t care how I score on executive courses as I view them more as practicing ball striking with the shorter clubs in my bag. I certainly have much higher expectations for the Championship courses, especially given the expensive high season rates while using my own cart.

My husband feels the exec courses are practice ranges not golf courses.

Good for him.

The way I chip, just one visit :)

That depends on how well the golfers fill divots, rake traps after use, and repair ball marks on the greens. If all golfers leave the course in better shape than when they found it, courses will remain in as good a shape as Mother Nature can supply.

That's the same nonsense that's used over & over again, to justify lousy lousy maintenance practices in TV.

Do you ever watch golf on TV? Have you ever seen anyone, fit a ball mark on a Green? Did you ever see a Caddy filling a divot? Have you ever seen what a golf course looks like, the day after a PGA Tournament is done ... & then a week later, when all is back to pristine?

Management is responsible for the condition of the courses, player abuse is minor contributor.

I don't feel player abuse is a minor contributor. Witnessing what I see when I play on our executives it's the laziness or entitlement that's the major problem. I don't believe the cameras are going to focus on what the caddy's or course staff are doing during a tournament. They focus on the players. I personally can't see golf staff following behind players like their mothers picking up after them like they were children. I have seen ambassadors come by and pick up broken tees and fill divots on the tee boxes

I don't blame the course workers. They only go out and do what they're told. Overall I feel the course management folks and the golfers need to do better.

I've seen executive courses struggle in the summer heat if there is a lack of substantial rain for a two week or so period. The executive courses are not as well irrigated. In the winter, much of the grass will go dormant and I do not think the executive courses are overseeded to a great degree. Still, for the most part they are in decent shape much of the year.

I'll have to disagree. Ever see a caddy replace a divot---many times. Ever see a player throw a divot back to his caddy to replace----many times. And remember, the TV cameras are showing birdie putts and great shots, not the routine work of caddies. Have you ever seen a caddy rake a bunker---many times. In fact, and you may not know this, but if a caddy does a poor job of raking, both he and his player are fined.

As far as "management being responsible, they are not playing---they cannot be there to fill divots, rake bunkers and repair ball marks---and that is the major source of wear and tear on the course, other than maniac cart drivers that pull right up to greens and tees. "Management" can supply adequate water, fertilizer and mowing, the rest is up to the players.

I've played 70 rounds on 33 executive courses in the Villages this year, all north of 44, and with maybe an exception or two, the condition of the course has been more than adequate. A lot of the moaning here seems to come from those who "have heard" that the courses are not good.

My biggest complaint about executive golf is they cram you out onto the course 10 or 15 minutes before your t-time, resulting in backups that slow everyone down, and at times, ruin the experience. But if you're complaining about the condition of these Executive courses, for a cost of $150 a year, you should choose another game to play.

Aren’t all golf courses practice ranges unless you playing for money?

Given that over three and a half million rounds of golf are played per year now in The Villages, mostly on Executive courses and given that everybody complains loudly whenever any course is shut down for maintenance, much less for a total makeover (as three courses currently are, at a cost of nearly three million dollars), I'd have to say that the Executive courses are maintained at as high a level as can be reasonably expected. If they opened up another 10 or 20 courses, people would still complain when they closed any of them for work. If they closed current ones down more often and did serious maintenance on them, people would complain A) that they are closed down and B) that they are "wasting" money trying to make these courses look so nice. It's like every dollar spent on new facilities or fixing up existing facilities comes out of the pockets of just those who complain. As I understand it, building new facilities comes out of our bonds (which are really not that much) or out of the monthly HOA-type fees (which are dirt cheap compared to almost every other retirement community I've ever researched).

I sometimes play outside of The Bubble at, for example, Pennbrooke Fairways. They have two 9-hole Executive courses and one 9-hole Championship course and they are always in great shape. But then, the locals in the retirement community containing these courses just don't seem to play golf. My buddies and I seem to be able to get tee times whenever we want. And when I play, I find myself thinking, "I can't believe I'm paying this much to play here instead of for free at The Villages, just because the grass is a little nicer." Yep, I'm a Villager, all right.

Overall I find most of the courses in generally good shape with apparent irrigation problems during the summer months. I do agree the pushing out of golfers mostly this time of year is the worst. You end up getting backed up by the 3rd to 5th hole because the starter hasn't checked the status of the group if they are on the green and tells the following group to hit. Luckily some other starters watch what's going on when they send groups out.

He plays for money.

The last couple of years I have played many executive courses where the tee boxes were in very poor shape. That is primarily because of the many “beginner” golfers in The Villages. Covid got some on the golf course that never played before. Many beginners hit the ground before they hit the golf ball. Sometimes they fail to hit the golf ball at all. The divots could hold a small squirrel! Few fix their divots on the courses or ball marks on the greens. They do their best, but Maintenance just can’t keep up with the number of golfers playing so called “free golf” here in The Villages.

Played Bonita pass yesterday Dec. 22, greens were terrible, dirt and sand.

Just played Walnut Grove wednesday and observed they are also pulling up and repairing broken parts of the cart paths on Briarwood.

True

Played Bonita Pass last week and greens were in decent shape. Played this morning and the greens seem to be hit with some sort of disease. Terrible shape in only a weeks' time. Unlikely to improve over the winter. I would expect to see them use that green copper fungicide spray before long.

I played there this morning also. I agree that the greens are not in good shape. When fixing ball marks, I noticed that there wasn't much in the way of any root structure.

Feel you are on point, but the $15 muni is now obsolete. In S. Florida some munis are $125-$175 a round. Does include the cart. On bright side they are good munis

Agree Briarwood was renovated this past summer. Do question why it was renovated. It was one of the best conditioned exec courses in TV. No way they paid or budgeted $5,000,000 for this work. Most, if not all, of the courses have been renovated in the 300K range. New 72 par courses can cost $5,000,000.

Most of the dirt sand on the greens that I have seen was there as it is a part of the regular maintenance.

Plenty of "dead" patches among the sanded surface which is likely due to a fungus or mold spreading on the greens. Mowers carry the disease to other greens as they go along. All it takes is one bad green to contaminate the others.