What do you expect from the golf course in terms of playability for what you pay?

[phillyk]

Working through all kinds of weather and conditions, I'd like to say I've seen it all for playability of a course.  From extremely dry to completely flooded.  I feel like regulars of a course will play through practically anything while 1st timers will be very picky about conditions.

I can't say this for every course, but can we expect every course we play to be perfect?  A lot has to go into maintenance to keep courses running smooth and properly mown.  Obviously money matters.  If you're paying $100+ to play a course, it better be worth it.  But, if you're playing a course for $30, what are the weather limits of what you'd be willing to play?

The worst condition for me I think would be punched greens.  I can stand playing in rain or wind anywhere really.  But, with greens punched, I feel like I can't really get the experience.  However, if I magically got a chance to play Augusta or Pebble Beach, I wouldn't start complaining too much.  I'd like to think that in the end of a bad day in terms of the conditions, I'm still playing a great game.  But, is it worth it? Hard to tell.

[LuciusWooding]

The one thing I can't stand is mud. Soft, muddy turf that grabs your club, gets on the ball, makes the ball plug, and cakes your clubs with mud requiring scrubbing to clear off. I can handle wind and high or low temperatures. I can deal with dry conditions even if they make the course play really hard and fast, and I can deal with bumpy greens as long as they're reasonable. I avoid playing on aerated greens but usually they make the greens fees cheaper.

I would rather play on hard dirt than weak, muddy, rootless turf. Learn to grow some damn grass!

[WUTiger]

People who grew up playing public courses, or served in the military, are probably better able to handle course imperfections than country clubbers.

Last summer, I volunteered to play as local "guide" with a group of six people from Florida. Four of the six each had about $2,500 worth of clubs in their staff bags.

The semi-private course is a decent but not spectacular layout, with a couple of holes "under repair." The group got to play after 1 PM Saturday for $30 each. From the start, two of the Florida crew - the guys who rented clubs - complained that the fairways grasses were inconsistent, and that the greens were too hard, yada, yada.

The entire group quit after nine, saying the place was "not a real golf course." Whatever...

If a course is having severe maintenance problems, I stay away. Also, some courses have fungus problems and lose greens because walls of trees have emerged around greens in low-lying areas. These greens catch fungus such as dollar-spot by mid-summer because the sun and breeze can't get in to dry things out after rainy weeks. The lumberjacks can do wonders to improve overly forested courses.

Most of the mid-range courses I play have a couple of holes that need to be reworked. A steep greenside bunker starts to cave in, chocolate-drop mounds from 30 years ago start to rut out and mess up the mowers, a low fairway bunker turns into a half-acre bog when the rains come. Usually, liberal ground under repair rules can return some fairness to the hole.

As far as weather, if it rained yesterday or starts to rain while I'm playing, I can adjust. But, if it's been raining for three days, I wait a day or two for things to dry out. I injured myself twice last season slipping on boggy turf.

[VMAN]

No matter what I expect to be able to make a putt.  I don't care if the greens roll at 5 or at 12, but please let them be somewhat true and somewhat consistent.  Other than that I'll play on just about anything, harpan, poor drainage, no grass, too many leaves...whatever.  I don't mind brown.

Aerated greens don't bother me as that is a temporary condition for the good of the course.  And you can find out the schedule ahead of time.

[Mr3Wiggle]

If they've recently punched the greens, I expect a discount.

[lumpuckeroo]

For me, a course with maintenance issues.  I played last weekend on a course that I hadn't played in maybe 20 years, it's a great layout, it's in the sand dunes around Hutchinson, KS.  If it weren't for the houses on the course you would think you are in England, but the course is in serious disrepair.  The fairways were thin on grass, and there was not a single fairway that didn't have huge sections marked as ground under repair.  To make matters worse, they had punched the greens and didn't bother to tell us when we made the tee time.  If it weren't for the fact that we got the green fee off of Groupon and paid about 1/2 price for the round I would have been very upset and probably asked for my money back.