It pains me to say, but after several years of great enjoyment at Whitewater's SPRING CREEK GOLF course, those days are done. We learned that the course is under new management/ownership, and it shows. They either don't know how to make a course successful, or they don't care. Hopefully they just need some help.
My sons and I are not strangers to great courses; much of my youth was spent at Exmoor, not far from my Glencoe home. After retiring 7 years ago, we made it our weekend mission to seek out exceptional par-3 courses in southern Wisconsin. That's when we found SPRING CREEK. Besides the challenge of the course, we were--and continued to be until recently--impressed with the pristine greens, the knowledgeable and friendly staff, the pride in ownership, and the vibe of the entire place.
We started to see negative changes last year, which have been more noticeable this year. For starters, the greens need significant improvement. The bar and bathrooms are grungy. And sometimes, when we showed up, the staffing seemed to be short-handed. I don't want to knock college kids, but as employees they just don't seem to know what they're doing, and their frustration shows. Maybe coincidental, but the owner(s?) never seems to be on site when we are there, contrary to our experience over the previous years. There's too much focus on glitzy stuff, and not enough attention on the core basics. We've become friends with several long-time course players, all locals. They're growing frustrated, and some have called it quits.
I hope the new management finds their mojo soon before it's too late. SPRING CREEK has a history of being an exceptional course, at least in our eyes. Maybe I'm being too critical, but I'm too old to sugar coat what we've experienced at this course. Golf is my passion, and life is too short to settle for mediocrity ... so, we are moving on.
During my 22 years as a small business consultant and coach, I helped many companies recover. What was their common thread to success? Management hungered to improve. Best of luck, SPRING CREEK. Make it a special place again ... lots of folks are hoping so.
David C. read more