Are you happy?

bobmac

bobmac

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I have been fortunate enough to play a few new courses in the last few weeks (Pitreavie and Balbirnie in Fife and most recently Hunstanton last week in Norfolk).
The problem is, when you play on good courses and your home track is not so good, it's a big disappointment.
I know the weather has been very dry and lots of courses and starting to show signs of the drought, so my question is......
Are you happy with the condition of your course or is the grass greener at the course next door?
 
In honesty, the condition of my local is dreadfull at the moment, id go as bad to say its the worst ive seen it in the 15 years of playing it.

* greens - patchy is un under-estimate, you can putt across a bald patches, then green areas, then back across bald patches again making long putts a nightmere to read. Its also the green being so hard your playing links style golf playing short of every green and hoping for that friendly bounce. Yesturday in our medal on 5 par 3's 2 greens remaind unhit all day!

* tee's - burnt out with next to no grass on them at all.

* fairways are scorched and now have major signs of cracks appearing

as i said, never seen it this bad in 15 years, but accoridng to sources within the club, the credit crunch has hit the club hard. Money no coming in means less money being spent, and the course is suffereing.
 
Don’t know, not been able to get on for a game over the last week due to societies and when the tee is free for members a huge group of four balls will be cueing up to tee off.
 
Very happy although with being so dry it's becoming extremely noticeable with the amount of old divots in the fairways from normal tee shot lengths. On a couple of holes if we don't get some rain soon there will be more divots than fairway grass. Nothing that can really be done with it either as being so dry you tend to gouge a chunk across the suface rather than taking a divot per se.

I've played quite a few courses round this way over the last couple of weeks having been on holiday from work and to be honest I've felt ripped off everywhere lese I've visited with the exception of Rustington Golf Centre - twilight 18 as a guest with members for £11.50. Yes it's an easy 9 hole with 2 sets of tees on each hole to make it 18 but my god were their greens good! The tee boxes were superb and the fairways were exceptional for the severe lack of rain we have had. At maybe 15 years old it's still to grow some teeth but the irrigation system does its' job superbly.
 
Until probably mid May my course was awful, but for probably the last month it's been in superb condition. The greens are immaculate and they've grown the rough up slightly. It suffers really badly in the wet, so the dry spell did it some good and helped it cope with the recent rain.

Unfortunately I'll still be looking to move at the end of this season as the winter is a total write off where I am now
 
We've had a little rain of late so our course is looking quite good & green.
There are a few bare patches but not too bad.
The main problem at my club is slow greens. There were nice and quick when it was very dry but now you have to HIT putts more than before.
I played at Kedleston a few weeks back and the greens were quick & true which helps no end on shorter putts.
 
My old club is in terrible shape apparently. A lot of my mates are they and they are cursing it.

Doesnt help that the head greenkeeper is a grade-a knob.

You know there are problems when a local pay-and-play that is a hackers paradise is in better shape.
 
The condition at my course has improved massively over the last 2 weeks with a bit of rain. Nothing they could do before that, they were watering but it was just too dry.

So in answer to the question, yes I am happy: The fees are reasonable, the beer and food is cheap, the course is in decent nick and there is never any problem getting on the course. What more could I ask for.
 
Our course is grand, we seem to host an awful lot of local seniors, girls and qualifier rounds. Our greens are fairly good but could always be better.
Our teeboxes need levelling in some areas, nothing dramatic but can be felt if using a non usual teeing area.

What about the other way round, playing dire courses and thanking your lucky stars you are where you are and not somewhere lesser!
 
You wont find a course around here that hasnt been savaged by the drought. Ours is probably as good as any i've seen this year , it wasnt up until about 6 weeks ago though. I dont expect you saw any green grass at all up at Hunstanton though
 
I'd say mines about average at the moment. Greens or ok, but they have been a lot better. Fairways are a bit dry, but not unplayable.

There are a few courses in our area that are in better condition, but they don't get the traffic we do. Which I guess means our course is popular, even in it's present condition.

Also played a couple of courses recently that were in really bad condition.

It's taken a while for our greens to come back. Our course is pretty much open in any weather, as it's crown golf, which is great if you want to play, but bad as it damages the course. After the winter it took a good 2-3 months for the greens to recover.
 
Have to agree with JD East Anglia has been savaged by the drought though there are tinged of green reappearing now. There are still some parts of our fairways that bear closer resemblance to a cricket wicket. Greens and tee boxes are in good nick though so I'm happy.
 
Greens are great right now - tees are good - fairways running a bit but still offering a grass lie - rough, even the first cut allows the ball to lie down making distance hitting impossible and the second cut is waist high.

Greens a tad hard and are not showing the normal pitch mark damage but stopping the ball can be difficult especially downwind.

Hitting the short grass is therefore the number one priority, distance off the tee is irrelevent as the extra run does help. 280yards waist deep or 250 yards on the fairway? No contest.
 
Our greens have been very lush through out the dry spell. Fairways are still nice and green, tee box's still have lots of grass. Cant really explain tbh, but the dry weather hasn't really affected our course.
 
Considering it's position on the south downs our course is in very good condition but there are a few brown patches around the fairways.

We are fortunate that the club introduced a policy of re-seeding the greens with a drought resistant grass, so the greens are in good condition even in this hot spell.
 
I'm a member a two Clubs ( Tain, Torvean) in the Highlands and both are in great nick. Played Brora last Wednesday fantastic, Spey Valley Saturday again superb, it was even sunny!
 
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