New course beside my house...

Well over the past 8 years or so they have been building a new course right down the street from me, I could walk to it if I wanted to.

I have been very excited over the past few years and really looking forward to playing there.

This summer it opened, finally !

But now I am highly dissapointed...It is the biggest let down ever...

First of all let me state the course conditions.

It has no clubhouse. It is a trailer.

The range is terrible and only goes to about 250-260 yds.

Tee boxes are hard as marble, I am not kidding. Every single time I try to put a tee down it just snaps it is seriously rock hard.

The grass is absolutely horrible, I have much better grass in my own yard. It is scattered and mostly crab grass with enormous areas of straight dirt.

The fairways are hard as rock also, there is one fairway with water on the right and it has a very SLIGHT slope towards the water. I have hit countless center-of-the-fairway drives only to watch them boune and bounce (not roll, BOUNCE) into the water.

Greens are also horrible. Yes you guessed it! rock hard with bad grass !

Any area not considered fairway or teebox is conmpletely over run with weeds. Your ball is lost into the endless weeds if it is not a good shot.

Now for the month of June they had a special and only charged $14 for 18 holes so I played there quite a bit. Vowing to never return after June. And I haven't...well to play...

But this is what really gets me going. My dad has bought a range coupon there so I will go and hit balls into the crappy range and break my tees over and over again trying to put them inot the ground. So I decided to ask them what they charge for 9 holes on a weekday afternoon, the man working replied $17. I replied with "Wow" and he asked what I said "Wow" for. I told I thought that was a bit pricey for a weekday afternoon for only 9 holes. He seemed offended and asked where I was getting expensive from so I gave him a piece of my mind, politely as I could.

I was not rude and simply presented information that was correct. I said I'm thinking that's expensive because Chesapeake Golf Club only charges $15 for 11 holes at that time and that Virginia Beach National (TPC) only charges $16 for 9 at that time. Now CGC is a pretty nice course, 100x better than this new crap place. And VBN is a TPC and is extremelyyy nice. Probably the nicest course around, the LPGA stops there.

I just stated that I did not understand how they were going to charge MORE money to play here than at VB National and MORE to play LESS than CGC.

The man simply replied with "Well, all I can say is that we are not charging any less than $17 for 9 holes."

So I told him that I am sorry to hear that and he will probably never see me again after my range ticket is up until they get some fair prices or improve their conditions.


I guess this si more of a rant than anything else but I just could not believe it. It was ridiculous! And the worst part was that it seemed like he honestly believed the price was fair !?!?!

What were your experiences with new courses in your area ?

Sounds like a crappy course. Maybe it's still developing? I know it takes years for a golf course to mature. I don't know though, just giving them the benefit of the doubt.

About the clubhouse thing...when my golf course opened about 20 years ago(I wasn't alive), it had a trailer as a club house for about 5 yrs...now there is one, and its nice.

Give it time. I'm sure the conditions will improve over the next year.

Haha nice. Way to speak you're mind. Was the guy you were talking to an employee or an owner of some sort?

There was a course I played in Tennessee twice. The first time either it had just opened or was in the process of redoing a lot of the holes. The conditions were bad. Not as bad as you described but they were bad. Luckily the water hazards didn't have much water in them so the stray shots that made it there were easy to retrieve. I remember on a couple of greens there were bare dirt spots, along with some of the fairways. A year or two later I played that same course again and you wouldn't believe the changes. You could hardly tell it was the same course. Like others have said give it a year or two and things will improve.

No sense getting upset. There is good golf and there is bad golf. A shame that it couldn't be better given the close proximity, but oh well... Move on. Nobody says you have to play there.

Definitely sounds like a mom & pop if it took 8 years to develop. Some folks have the property and decide they want to build a golf course but without the right resources they end up with a crappy course. Designing and building a golf course is a job for the pros.

And about the clubhouse: Golf to me is all about the golf course. If the golf is great they could have a tent for a clubhouse for all I care.


Tom

As far as the trailor for a clubhouse goes I could care less, that is not even a concern I just threw it in there.

I have also considered the fact that it is a new and developing course and would not be bothered except for the fact that they are charging more than a TPC course and think it is fair.

I was also speaking with an employee who was good friends with the owner for whoever asked (sorry too lazy to press the back button).

Anyways I understand the conditions and am willing to give it time but I just can't understand how they think it is okay to charge more than the nicest course in the area!

There is also a reason it took 8 years to be built. It went through a few owners at first and now the current is sort of screwed because of the previous ones.

They used some byproduct of burning coal to shape the course. And now there is a HUGE controversy going on about this. Apparantly whatever they used has contaminated the well water used by the course with some toxins. And now the people living directly beside the course (I am more of a 1-2 min drive) are worried their well water will be contaminated and thus make their properties worthless!

It seems the course has caused more bad than good...and I hate to say it but I sort of wish it was never built in the first place..