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#803

Which is about the course my sis, BIL, and I played today. (The Woodlands Country Club Oaks Course, White Tees—they’re staying at the resort while waiting for my wedding Saturday. So I bought them a round of golf.)

First real course in awhile. Need to play more. The starter was very pumped about their 12 Stimping greens. Indeed, they were pretty quick. I liked it. Had a bunch of lip-outs and robbery, but that’s golf. Shot 92. We had fun. First HDCP score for me. One of those rounds where there was much better ballstriking at times despite the score. And much worse, of course. 40 yd sand shot to 4 feet and dead shank 105 yd 52 wedge (after a measured 287 yd drive, naturally) being some of the polar extremes.

Eager to get there again. Jon was right: you get better at this game by playing it, not sitting at the range or practice greens.

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#804

First of all, congratulation again for taking on the responsibility of getting married and hopefully what will come with it. It is why we are here on earth for.
Nice of you to entertain the guests on your dime. I know some had paid for traveling and the stay for their guests. I will not be able to show the generosity as such if and when my kids are ready.
I’m a more practical person, although my wife will veto my plan often enough. I’d give the money for the wedding for the kids’ future, like toward down payment for a house or something more practical.

I know this will be voted down, but, I don’t care. Life is such that the more you prepare for the future the better off you’ll be when you get there.
In any case, toast to the broom and have a merry life.

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#805

Teed off at 0756 today as a group of 5. Next group in front teed off at 0732 and were a 3 and only had groups of 3 in front of them. Even as a 5 we caught the 3 after 7 holes and were held up for the rest of the round. Finished in 3hr 35min. I had 6 pars, 1 chip in birdie, 8 bogies and 2 stupid doubles. Took 2 to get out of a fairway bunker and bladed a wedge though a green otherwise a fairly mistake free round. Only hit 4 gir, and one of those was a three putt, but I had 7 up and downs so chipped and putted really well. Playing off 16 I finished 12 over. A beautiful warm 23 deg day and the course is hard again after being muddy two weeks ago.

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#806

Amazed you are permitted to play as a 5!! 3h3 35 is pretty quick I’d say for most courses.
I have a similar issue in not hitting enough GIR and my up and down percentage is not good enough either! So, I know what I will be working on…

#807

We’re more of a non-traditional couple. I’d been married before, a long time ago, and we’ve been together for quite some time. It was more of a, “Finally!!” from everyone, and we both were in a better position to pay for how we wanted things to go, than either set of parents are.

Small wedding, not that far for most guests (albeit my sister and her brother, and all parents, had to fly in.) It was great to enjoy everyone’s company as they celebrated our union.

The course was fun. Definitely cued the “Newspaper-Reading Cat” meme: “I should join a country club…” Great conditions, not much traffic, aforementioned fast but fair greens, and just challenging enough.

I could get used to that…

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#808

It is amazing the time between the groups are more than 20 minutes.
Decades ago, we had a gap of 15 minutes between the groups on the tee sheet. Now everywhere is 8 minutes between the groups. In the name of maintaining the speed of play.
Some of the golf courses also took out fairway bunkers, trimmed down the rough and eliminate the hazards ( making a free drop zone ).
Greed has taken over the original design of the golf course. Like pulling out the teeth and the claws of a tiger.
A few popular golf courses had hired course marshals to push the groups along, even when they are on track for the schedule. So they could squeeze in a few groups of walk-in standby.
Sometimes, we’d drive a bit farther out ( carpool ) and golf at a place with better pace of play. With the terrain we have ( rolling ang/or elevation changes)distance between the greens to the next tee box, a round of 4-4.5 hours is pretty speedy for the walking round.

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#809

Our course has 8 minute gaps but there was no one booked in the the two time slots in front. The group in front teed off 24 minutes before us

#810

We are not allowed to play as a five but out of sight of the proshop and the group behind wasn’t keeping up so noone to tell us off. All because a friend was booked as a 1 in the group ahead. We all play ready golf and hit out of turn as soon as you are ready. We all walk ahead to our balls rather than walk together to each ball. Didn’t have to spend much time looking for balls. We would have to be one of the fastest groups at our course. Not many practice swings and we are strong walkers.

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#811

We should send some of our golfers your way. Our public daily fee golf courses are jammed everyday, even for weekdays when the retiree golf.
So many 20-40 years old on the golf courses now. I wonder if that’s the result from “home office”?
Yes, ready golf is the only way on the public golf course and we seemed to play better golf when we don’t have much time to drill on swing mechanism; just play golf.

#812

Mt Osmond is a private course and we also charge big$ for visitors. Golf is booming over here as well. Daily bookings range between 180 players on a Saturday to 130 during the week. We have plenty of slow players at our course as well as quick ones. It seems the slow players are all drawn to each other and all play in the same groups. We have all ages on the course. Shift workers and retirees during the week plus people coming after work as sunset is 1930 at the moment. Weekends everyone. I worked out a long time ago that a bad practice swing fills your mind with bad thoughts so then I decided to just step up and whack it.

#813

Yes, it does charge more for the visitors. As we do here also with the non-residents. Any golfers from outside of the county will pay a higher rate.
The top public golf course here would be the Chambers Bay, the fees are 3 tiers, The county residents=$130 U.S.D. , the State residents =$170 and the visitors =$200 U.S.D. Plus another 15% of all taxes and fees. Walking only, no riding cart service except for a few available for the certified handicapped golfers.

But, the normal fee for our municipal golf course would fall between $50-$70 U.S.D. weekdays and weekends. Senior rate is slightly lower yet, still a hefty sum for the retirees to pay just for an interesting walking exercises with a game thrown in. Ideally, the retiree should get in 2-3 rounds of golf ( walking) per week for health reasons.
Not a game for the mass any longer. Since the game’s growing popularity from the 70’s through today; it went from a sport for the elite group to the average Joe’s and now sliding backward to the few who could afford to enjoy it. Some of the guys I know had picked up cross country biking, mountain biking and hiking instead. They’ll spend less for the equipment and no extra expense after that.
Service and quality of the golf courses today are not necessarily better than half a century ago with the higher green fees.

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#814

So I am making the move, (be it a little early) to the new Club in November. They are definitely up and coming with the redo of the course design (back to the original concept of the architect). Biggest thing I believe is the investment into a proper irrigation system. I’m hoping to get to meet some of the members soon. I do have a question. The course has and interesting layout quirk. Five Par5s, Five Par3s and 8 Par4s. Depending on your alignment from the tee boxes the fairways are generous, BUT a pull or push and you are in jail no parole. The greens are medium sized but some are pretty sloped. I’d like to hear what the opinion is of the layout… I kinda like it, one of our partners isn’t coming over with us as he doesn’t like it. Doesn’t like the Par 3s! Love to hear. A quick review of the new Club

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#815

From that YouTube video the golf course needs irrigation system they had just put in.
We don’t have irrigation needs except for a few weeks out of a year, but a good drainage design is needed for months of wet weather to avoid buried tee shots and trampled greens.
We are familiar with tree lined fairways here but the trees in the video seemed too dense and will give a different perspective when as they mature. The over hanging branches will make some holes unfair to play if not trimmed and maintained regularly.
The trees here are common with the towering pine and cedar trees, often over 30’-60’ and one could not put the arms around the trunk near the base.
If they keep the trees in the shape of the design, it’ll be an interesting layout.
Considering what we have here, the green fees seem very reasonable at $50 with the golf cart. Although I am a proponent of walking the golf course.
The 5 par 5 and 5 par 3 layout is somewhat unusual, but the architect will take what the land will give him and not disturbing the land too much by putting the golf course on it.
Being just over 6,000 yards with 5 par 5s; it must be an interesting golf course.
I always thought the strong suit of a golf course would be in it’s par 4s. Although some par3 could be made interesting to play. I don’t see the typical dogleg holes to tickle a golfer’s course management.
All in all, this might be a great find in your neck of the woods.
Our great find here had changes over the decades, mismanagement from the Cities ( should never let the Parks and Recreational Department take over the operation and budgeting ). All the past jewels are in shambles now.

#816

Yes, the “kids”, probably learned from the same golf course management book for maximizing profits. Which might be written by someone who had never set foot on a golf course.
Digital management, we call it. Works well on paper but not necessary in reality.
The old school pro will implement whatever works and at the same time to keep the maximum of the existing clients. The new way of management is just looking at how to maximizing the profit with data, risking of losing part of the existing loyal patrons to the golf course.
As I answered one golf course director why they didn’t see out group as often in recent years. we told him because when the green fees of a municipal golf course approaching the rate of a much better public golf course just 20 minutes away? We certainly would have choices now since the fees are very close.

#817

8 mins works well here. Most weekday rounds are 4 hours. You can still have 4 hr rounds on the weekend but if you are held up it can be as bad as 4.5hrs. Last Sunday was 4.5hrs but that was because I was playing with some high handicaps and we spent too much time looking for balls.

#818

Around where I am, the weekend round of golf at any public golf courses near the metro area will be 5+ hours. weekdays usually between 4-41/2 hours walking.
One of my friends golf several weekends ago and he quit at the turn after 3 hours and 10 minutes for the front nine. High-end public golf courses will have course Marshal to watch for pace of play but not at the municipality owned golf courses. Some pumped out 45,000-60,000 rounds per year. Very busy indeed.
If I remember correctly, either Sweden or Norway made it mandatory for all golfers to take an etiquette class before they could set foot on a golf course. Simply because of limited real estate with fewer golf courses, the pace of play will be crucial for everyone to enjoy the sport by sharing wisely.

#819

Thankfully Mount Osmond GC is a privately owned club where the vast majority of players are members. 6 day membership cost me $2525 this year. I don’t think I have ever had a 5 hour round. We used to have a marshal but they don’t do that anymore. One time they told me to hurry up I was already waiting for the group ahead to move on. In France you need to do a test first unless you are a visitor. I was able to get on at Chaminoix no trouble.

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#820

So Saturday, half our group couldn’t play and we got hooked up with a father and son tandem. As we are getting ready to tee-off father says…so we’re playing for $50 a hole right… I said no weight, you’re on! The son says best ball, I said you’re on, wanna make it $100? We get done 9, and I said to the father, very nice guy too and actually a decent player, your down $150, sure you don’t wanna double it? He looked at me in a panic… “Just kidding I said” He said, yea I shouldn’t say stuff like that, when I don’t know who we’re playing! Played 36 on Saturday. Had to be the best weather day of the year. Walked 18, had lunch, rode 18. Except for a couple of flip-flopped holes…shot 79/79… Very poor putting rounds, no Birdies, 3 3putts, 2 NO PUTTS!.. On our #8 hole, pin was up front, 132 yds by my GPS… Hit 9i 3ft short of the pin, spun off 25 ft into ruff, chipped 2/3 of the way there, UGH! rolled back to fringe, putted same distance, rolled back into ruff Double UGH!.. threw my putter 25 yds away… chipped in from there for a miraculous 4!. BTW the father was on the green in regulation, hit his putt, missed the hole, rolled off green, tried to chip up, rolled right back to his feet, hit his fourth… missed and told him pick it up 5 was good! I will say, I’m finally starting to straighten the #1 out and avg, 232-255. I am struggling with my scoring clubs (8,9,W,GW, SW, LW) I’ve been getting the strike out on the toe more often than not… so my once reliable wedge game needs work again.

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#821

Im exhausted reading it

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#822

Sounds like one of the shorter goat track we have around here. The yardage is shorter so they made it up by the difficulties around the green. Really need to have the local knowledge to score low there.
A sandbagger used to collect bets from the members there on a regular base and it snow balled to some large sum which was not by any means a comfortable bet to lose. The members brought in someone who cleaned out this guy’s bankroll then told him to forget the balance if he leaves town ( rumor had it that the sandbagger lost the equity on his house ).
We never get crazy on the bet, a dollar skin with no garbage, will be the most common the most common game we play. It cam get larger if we play the variation of the skin of 1 against the other 3. So potentially one could lose $3 per hole and $54 over an 18 hole bet. Some times we add the birdies another dollar.
For the low handicappers, sometimes we play the Skins with validation. Which the winner of the skins has to validate on the next or the following holes to collect. This is a much more difficult and in my opinion unfair way to collect the winning.
Often the winner of the skins will buy the first round at the 19th hole. Our club house had raised the price on the draft beer to $22 ( typical small tavern pitcher to barely fill 3 pints ). The group is considering going to neighborhood sports bar for a better quantity and price now.
We love to give our business at the golf course but, the price increase had gotten out of hands.