The quality of everything but the greens has gone downhill at Pine Trace:…read more
1) Cart path are brutal and will knock your fillings out
2) Fairways are in rough shape. It's been like that at least a couple of years.
3) They water the hell out of it, which doesn't help anything. Standing water in some places, and it hasn't rained but a bit in the last couple of weeks
4) The carts are garbage. Every single one of them squeals when taking off because the clutches are all worn out (They are gas carts).
But you know what, I can overlook much of this if for a pleasant golf experience. Today was not that day. Today was the last straw at Pine Trace and the related Cherry Creek unless I'm coming out here for 9 in the off season with my wife.
FIVE HOURS AND THIRTY FIVE MINUTES.
Yes, 5:35. That was the time to play 18 holes. Front 9 was 2:55. Back was 2:40, and that would have been 10 minutes longer if the group in front didn't quit after 17.
I knew it wasn't going to be good when they didn't have carts ready when we got there. I arrived at 11:40 for a 12:30 tee time. Some might think this is early, but we like to hit some balls, chip, and roll some putts. It's not like we were there 2 hours early.
So teeing off at 12:30, got done at 6:05. Waiting EVERY SINGLE SHOT. Multiple times we got to the next tee in plenty of time to watch the group in front of us WAITING. Attached here are pictures from the SECOND HOLE. There's a group on the green, and two groups waiting in front of us. In about 5 minutes after this picture was taken, another group rolled up behind us. So we had FIVE GROUPS on one hole.
I called the clubhouse. I mean, something is wrong...right? The guy says "I only see 6 carts on #2". They have some sort of tracking system. Why? I have no idea, because they sure as hell don't do anything with it. I said, "no, there are 8 carts out here". "Ok, I'll send someone out". Didn't see a ranger til 10, which we will get to shortly.
I hung up and thought "Ok, if you see 6 carts on #2, does THAT make it OK?? In what world is 6 carts (3 foursomes) OK on a par 3 which is the second hole of the day?
So we make the turn. Ranger lady is sitting on the 10th tee just writing down times. Why, what's the point? I said "took 3 hours to play the front, and there's one of your problems there", pointing to the group on the 12th tee. How did I know that? Because as we were coming off the tee on 9, the 12th hole was completely wide open. I know that because the two run parallel to each other. Whether 13 was occupied or not, I don't know, but even if it was, that's at least 1 hole wide open. But it was more than that.
We play 9 (slowly, as we are waiting of course for the group in front of us), still no group on 12. When we were on the 9th green, we saw the problem group. Took them forever to approach #11, It was so long that we finished the 9th hole, ran inside at the turn for a pee break, got to the 10th tee, and this group which was on the 11th green finally got to the 12th tee box. Guaranteed they were at LEAST 2 holes behind. Ranger lady HAD to have seen all of this, it's right in front of her!
Ranger went to the 12th tee, not sure if she said anything or just observed, and she came back and said they were waiting. I said "Were they waiting for the *group in front of them*?" No way they were, not-a-chance in hell. She doesn't know what she's talking about.
So this comes to management: Mike, if you're reading this, take note. I LOVE the layout at Cherry and Pine Trace. But either stacking tee times and/or not enforcing any kind of pace of play will kill your business. You might think that you don't want to piss off that one slow group, but I'm going to tell you, it pissed off at LEAST 3 groups, us and the two who kept rolling up on our tee as we all waited together. I don't know, maybe you're ready to get out and sell out to Pulte, but this just may be the last 18 holes I play at one of your courses.
See y'all tomorrow at Katke for a 4 hour round.