I am not usually someone who writes a review, but after today, I must.
First, when I arrived to the course, I was questioned about the $27 rate that I paid on their website. The person working in the clubhouse said he had never seen someone play the course for $27 before. I told him I went straight to the website to get the rate, and he said that's not possible. I had to show him the course website to get the rate that I paid online on their own website. That's only the start.
I was a single teeing off, knowing that I would be doing some waiting on the course because people were in front of me. As someone who loves to golf, I get that. That doesn't bother me. I was able to play the first 7 holes in about 40 minutes. It started to get backed up at hole 8, but nothing too drastic. I finished the front 9 in 1:15.
But at hole 10, it really started to get backed up. At hole 10, the group in front of me left because they had enough of the wait. They said they had been waiting about 20 minutes on every hole since hole 4. Another person in front of them also left the course. After these two groups in front of me left, the next group in front of me had 3 people, and the group in front of them had 4, and the group in front of them also had 4. The holes behind me started getting really backed up. So I joined the 2 people behind me, a very nice elderly couple. However, when we couldn't tee off in the next 15 minutes, a single behind them also joined us to make a 4-some. I was hoping that joining a group of 4 would help the round move along. That wasn't the case at all. In fact, it became even worse.
At hole 12 (it took 45 minutes to play the next two holes), the other 3 who I had joined up with me had enough and took off. So now, that is 4 groups who decided the wait wasn't worth the money they paid to play 18 holes. I was even after 12, so I wanted to see the round out. So, I continued to wait and play out my round...or at least HOPE I could play out my round.
At one point, I noticed there were 4 groups in front of me all on the same hole. 4 groups on at once, and if you count me as another group, I would make 5. But I waited patiently with the hopes of finishing my round. When I pulled up to the par 3 17th, the group of 3 in front of me thought it would be fun to take out their driver and hit tee shots anywhere on the course they could find. They weren't afraid of the possibility of hitting a house or a person. The would just hit random tee shots with their driver on the par 3 17th not caring where the ball would land. I was shocked to see this on a nice course like this.
But that still wasn't the worst of it. After they were finished, I played the par 3 17th. When I was on the green, I could easily see the tee box of the 18th hole. There was a GROUP of 8 all teeing off, yelling and hollering, and completely disregarding the course rules. I was furious. This group of 8 idiots clearly held up the rest of the course.
Here's what made me more furious. I decided after waiting 20 minutes to tee off on #18 (I was 1 over and would have loved to finish my round on this par 5), I had enough. I couldn't take it anymore. I drove up the cart path on 18 to get to the green when the person working at the clubhouse was having a conversation with the group. Here is the conversation I overheard:
"I had 6 phone calls while you were out on the course, and numerous groups who quit because you were holding up the course."
Here's the problem with this statement. This means that the clubhouse knew that these guys were holding up the entire course and did NOTHING about it while this group was on the course. NOTHING. If they had 6 phone calls to the clubhouse from people on the course, why didn't they send someone out there to speed them up or kick them off? Why would they let so many people quit their round? This is a pathetic way to run what is supposed to be a quality golf course.
And not to be forgotten, the heat index today was 97, and I only saw the cart girl 1 time in the 4.5 hours I was on the course. I expect to spend 4.5 hours on a golf course, but not if I finish the front 9 in just over an hour. And 2 of the water jugs on the course were empty as well. I was very unhappy.
I would have loved to have asked for a complete refund of my money, but instead, I will just never golf at this course again. There are so many nice courses in this area: Bear Creek in Wentzville, The Falls, Bogey Hills, Innsbrook, The Landings at Spirit, Missouri Bluffs, and plenty more. Please take my advice. Golf anywhere else but at The Links at Dardenne. It isn't worth the money you spend, and that's saying something. After all, I only spent $27, but it took me to show them their own website to get that rate.
This was my worst golfing experience I have ever had on a golf course, and I've been playing golf for 25 years. I still can't believe they clubhouse knew they were holding up a number of other people on the course and did nothing about it. Pathetic. read more