Played Hacienda yesterday Sept 19th
 

A total dog track. Do not play it period. It was our 6th choice. Fairways not cut greens at about a 5 speed rough very high to the point of losing golf balls. If they cared a real embarrassment to this community. So glad I didn;t have guests playing this piece of junk. One of the nines we played had been closed for a week! What did they do? Just tired of it all. Makes my decision to leave much easier. OK you Kool-Aid drinkers I'm ready for all the excuses.

I love The Villages. They seem to so many things so well. The pools are great, rec centers spotless. cart paths and roads maintained. beautification with flowers everywhere. When it comes to golf, they seem to have no idea what they are doing. Courses for the most part are poorly constructed, poorly maintained and poorly managed. The I find that the golf courses are used as flood plains when ponds get too high.

The conditions and overall quality of the courses in The Villages simply do not justify the prices being asked. But as long as they are making money things will not change.

This is hard for me to understand from a community that makes FREE GOLF the cornerstone of its marketing.

You mean like golf courses all over the country?

I played Hacienda Hills on Sep 18--Palms to Lakes. My only complaint given the Covid and the amount of rain we have received was the slowness of the greens. So many fairways were too wet to mow or have golf carts on so Palms was mostly cart path or rough only. While the rough is long, it is rough, not fairway. Missing the fairway should be penalized.

Is it common for golf courses to be used to hold overflow water? Thought this was unusual how it was done here?

Home in NC is stilted. Behind each section of homes is a dry area sloped around 10 feet. As the water flows under house, collects in the new pond.
During last few hurricanes, after ponds filled, the excess went to the golf course. Anything near the barrier island is mandatory evac zone. That is a sheriff at your door, with a five minute leave order, and they wait.
By the time drones are up and running the courses are very wet, and retention ponds are full, and at most rear stilts. It’s an event every time there is a major storm

I really don't have an excuse for anyone's decision to leave. But, it does seem to me that once the decision is made, it would be followed by a period of "I no longer feel the need to complain because I realize that I am in control of my situation.".

Drainage systems are design to a certain "design storm". Unavoidably, design storm criteria are exceeded by storms with some degree of regularity. Any drainage engineer worth his/her salt wants to have some way to accommodate those storms that exceed design levels. If there is a golf course nearby, it's almost a no-brainer...lots of open space that will be able to absorb excess runoff relatively easily with minimal damage. And of course this is far more desirable than letting it flood other nearby developed areas.

No problem with flood plain use. It's why Bellglade and Evans Praire are closed again. My issue is after. When these courses reopen one would think they would be in good condition because of lack of play. If history is any example they will reopen as a mediocre public course. Rain,too much not enough, heat too hot too cold, play too much not enough. As for the rough yes there should be a penalty but for many of us it is much too severe. We arte just not as strong as we used to be. And withall the other "mowing" they do keeping it a reasonable length should not be an issue.

I also played it and fully agree. I’ve played public municipal courses in far better shape. Just horrible conditions independent of all the rain.

Conditions
 

I agree to a point. For the prices we pay, sometimes I think the courses could be a little better.

I have had numerous friends who have moved on to other parts of Florida from The Villages for this very reason. Most every year it is the same thing. In winter you think your hitting the ball a mile and you are as there is no grass on the fairways. An ambassador once told me TV is the only place you can play golf where you get tighter lies from the rough than you do on the fairways. In summer the courses have a tendency to get very wet and the greens are always slow. Always wondered why they almost never roll the greens. This is not hard to do. Then in the end it is very expensive even when you have a priority membership. If you take the cost per round and the fact that you are using your own golf cart, it is not cheap. Many of my friends, including myself play outside in the winter as the conditions are better and the cost is less. Ten years ago it was not as bad. They use to overseed for winter conditions but they stopped doing this. They said it was not good for the courses. Let’s face it, it’s all about the money. They need to hire professional greens keepers who know something about golf course management but this will never happen as they have a captive audience and every tee time is full. So, and I hate this expression, “It is what it is”

The way to get their attention is ----NO one make T-Times at bad courses......NO ONE !!!

It's all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

OK here comes the excuses it’s called excessive amount of rain all courses are struggling to stay open many have cartpath only couple are totally shut down. Some villagers have the ability to drive through every wet area and of course tear up the sod.
I for one am grateful to be playing golf so many parts of the country are unable to play!

I must not be picky or I'm not playing the same courses you folks are. I haven't played Hacienda in about 10 days but it wasn't in bad shape then. As far as other courses, I find them very well kept and playable. I'm sure it is tough to maintain courses and maybe they are over priced, but I love all the courses we have here and enjoy playing them.