How far do you travel to reach your home course?

[Lefty22]

I live 2.5 miles from my course according to Google...

[Chief Broom]

The conditions were nice out there and the greens look to be improving. The bent grass greens are much more fragile than local berumuda variations are, though.

The last time I played the river (a month or so ago) the one thing I didn't like was the fact that the greens were pretty beat up with old (and new) ball marks. It's pretty easy to leave an almost unrepairable ball mark on greens that soft. I high shot that comes in almost vertically can leave a mark the same size as the ball and if it knocks out a piece of turf it's hard to smooth that back out. You can almost do it but you know that there is going to be a mark left on the green that will take a while to go away. To add to that problem a lot of marks obviously go unrepaired! I know I fixed a couple additional marks on every green and that didn't put a dent into what was there. Fortunately that didn't effect any of my putts but if you played there much it would only be a matter of time before it would. While I love those soft greens it kind of left me appreciating the bermuda I'm used to and have played on all my life. Bermuda is nothing if not hardy and tough. At the Patch it's pretty much impossible to leave a ball mark, but that's the Patch. At FH's the greens are much more responsive and soft, but still a lot tougher than bentgrass.

They seem to have an active junior golf program. You could see the green tees well forward on many holes. My son may love these. I'll probably just do an individual membership for starters and see how it goes. He's doing scouts, soccer and basketball now....schedule will open up for him in the spring.

BT has a lot going for it. A modern layout that is set up for a variety of skill levels. I like the additional par 5 and 3. That certainly seems to imply more scoring opportunities, but obviously you need to be more than a bogey golfer like us (well at least me) to take advantage of it.

Convenience will be a huge determinant for me when I decide to expand my membership to a better facility. It will have to be fairly close to home/work or somewhere in between. This past summer the kids utilized the First Tee at least once a week. We'd drop him off (the youngest really isn't interested yet although he's in class now with his big brother) in the morning and then pick him up a few hours later. The deal they get there is great and he's got a lot of friends who go there too, so that really works out. When he gets a little older and wants more out of a course (basically 18 holes) that's when I'm planning on making a firmer commitment. Until then I guess I stick with the Patch. The deal I have there is sweet (in more ways than one) and it fits that convenience requirement. I'm pretty sure when I do commit to more it'll be FH. The price is competative (they throw in their range program with a membership; at BT it's extra) and it's as convenient as the Patch. I grew up playing both the Patch and FH so I have a lot of memories at both courses. I've kind of got a soft spot in my heart for the Patch though in that there is nothing pretentious there. FH has always had to present itself as a cut above the Patch. In fact if they weren't so close together I bet the greensfees at FH would be a bit cheaper, but they do try to steer the hacks to the Patch. I don't begrudge them that but there is a little something in me that doesn't mind thumbing my nose at the country club mentality. I'm more Harrisburg and Frog Holler than ACC!

[Dub]

Walk out the back door to the 11th teebox. To get to the clubhouse to start at one is about a quarter of a mile.

Now that is handy. I can envision weekends when my vehicle would never even be used!!!!

To add to that problem a lot of marks obviously go unrepaired! I know I fixed a couple additional marks on every green and that didn't put a dent into what was there.

[DaSportsGuy]

I walk through my backyard and there it is! So about a 30 second walk.