silver lake ex .golf course
 

I cant believe it will cost 1/2 millon to repair silver lake. what have they done with the course all this time? is it unplayable?? shut it down , water,seed,put some dirt down. I don't think they don't water enough. im not a grounds keeper, but its only grass and dirt.

I am sure Silver Lake renovation will be discussed at the upcoming AAC meeting this coming Wednesday. Bet a breakdown of the improvements will be available. Attendance is encouraged.

It's on the agenda at the Savannah Center, I believe 9 AM

Steve

Hopefully they will save this classic old course. Plus they need to retain golf courses in the north.

There is a lot more to maintaining a golf course than just grass and dirt. But I do agree that the money spend on Silver Lake has been wasted.

Does that 1/2 million include building the new practice green?

What they did spend a lot of money on was golf cart paths and the grass on the edges of those paths. That seemed to me to be totally wasteful as they allow carts to drive everywhere without restrictions. If that's going to be your rule, why bother to have paths.

I'm not an expert in golf course construction, design and maintenance, but I do have a bit of knowledge on the subject. The first thing that is obvious to me is that the course is very poorly designed as are many of the executive courses here in The Villages.

From what I understand, rather than hiring a golf course architect, The Villages has some guy that designs all of the courses except for Palmer and Lopez.

You should understand that designing a golf course includes more than just laying out the holes. While that is certainly an important part of the job, 80% of a golf course is underground. Designing irrigation and drainage is very important. There are seven sets of plans that are drawn up to design a golf course.

Having the right mix of soil, sand and organic materials for the type of grass and the climate is of utmost importance. Samples of those materials are sent to labs that test them and recommend the correct mix of the materials.

A golf course that is properly designed should be easy to maintain.

Instead of patching here and there, the whole Silver Lake Golf Course should be torn up and a new golf course built on that site.

One of the problems with that is that the site is not very good for building a golf course. But that is a common problem with housing development course. Often the developer will talk all of the best land for homes, streets, parks and neighborhoods and the golf course architect gets what's left over.

That being said, a good architect should be able to produce something much better than what is currently there.

There is talk of making a pitch and putt course or something of the like. I think that the idea behind that is that the residents are getting older. Just the opposite is true. All the sales of homes here are to younger (relatively) people as the older people are dying off.

I don't know what the cost is of building a new nine hole executive course these days but one of the problems is that there will be no new direct income from a new course. So The Villages can't say, if spend $2 million we build this new we can expect to recover that money and turn a profit within so many years.

Sorry folks, but golf is business and people that have a piece of land and want to turn it into a golf course do so because they expect to make money from it.

I don't know what's going to happen, but it is sad to see that golf courses in a community that promotes itself through "Free Golf for Life" does such a poor job with golf.

I am so impressed by The Villages in every other aspect. The homes are beautiful, the streets and cart paths are well maintained. Pools, tennis courts, rec centers are all beautiful. They do a wonderful job of beautification with all of the flowers everywhere. But the quality of the gold courses regarding design and maintenance range from mediocre to horrendous.

I agree with Winston, completely redo the golf course . I would redesign the course to have the following. 1 par 5 approx 400 yds from the yellow tees, 5 par 4s approx 250 to 265 yds, 3 par 3s from approx 130 to 160 yds. That would equal Par 34. The executive courses need an handicap system designed for all the executive players also.

That would be nice, but I don't think that there's enough room for that. It's a dangerously crowded course as it is. I'm actually thinking the opposite. Just nine good par threes of various lengths with some interesting features. The second hole is an example of what happens when you try to make a hole where there is not enough room.

I would love to see more par fours and the occasional par five on the executive courses, but I just don't see them being able to fit into that property. Are area around the second green and third tee is only about forty yard wide and it's right in the middle of the property. It really limits what can be done with the property.

But again, I'm not a golf course architect. What I would do is give a good golf course architect a blank canvas and let him go at it.

It is not the worse course we have. I played there and thought it was pretty nice recently.

From what I've seen, it's always had he best green in The Villages. I've played most of the executives and a dozen or so championship courses and have always though that the greens at Silver Lake were as good or better than them all.

The rest of the course is terrible however. I don't know what you mean by recently, but I played there about a week ago. The tees are mostly dirt and if you miss a green you liable to be between two clumps of grass of worse a hole in the dirt. Chipping and pitching are almost impossible.

Since I've been back playing, I've only played three of the executives and if Silver Lake is not the worst, it's really a shame.

I'm hoping they redo it correctly. I don't believe they have drainage problems as I have played it the day after a weekend of torrential rains and the course would be dry as a bone. Chipping and pitching on that course is troublesome and there are holes everywhere. Like I said, I hope they do it right and we end up with a beautiful course since it was the Villages first executive course. I don't believe the surrounding residents would want anything less.:popcorn:

It's always been unplayable, I'm desperate if I play silver lakes!!!!!

You can vote all you want ..No one will listen ..Just a smoke screen Remember Katie Bells our restaurant

Do not be confused. The executive courses north of 466 are ran by the AAC. The members are elected representatives. If you do not like their decisions you have an opportunity to change them every 4 years. The AAC is responsive to the residents.

.So I guess we can count you as a no show at the Savannah Center this Wednesday?
Steve

How clairvoyant