The golf course was in great shape. I drove down from the cities to enjoy a late afternoon round. My tee time was 3:30 ish. Nobody was on the tee & it was pretty empty so I decided to chip & putt, about 5 minutes in, the "ranger," came over to the putting green & said "the group in front of you teed of," I said "great, I am chipping & putting." The greens here were more undulating than my home course, so getting used to the speed was important. After another 5-10 minutes the ranger comes over again & says the group in front of me was on 2, I said good, what is behind me, he said what do you mean? I said is there a tee time after me? The tee is empty. He said you better get up to the tee." I didn't understand the rush to the first tee. He looked my clubs & gear up & down in an accusatory fashion. He then asks "Do you have a cooler?"
I said no I don't, just my diabetic gear. During the next 9 holes the amount of interaction with the "ranger," was borderline creepy. Quite often I could hear is cart seemingly cross crossing behind me the whole time, on 8 he again came up to my tee box, & says "OH you are playing the BLUE TEES!" The group in front of you is on 11. 8 is a very narrow hole & you need an exacting tee ball. While he watched me, I hit the trees to the left he then shrugs & says you can par it from there. He also let a 5 some in front of me while I played 8-9. Ending my bid to catch "that group in front of me." I work at a golf course in the pro shop, as ranger, & a starter. Spring Valley is a very scenic & a nice golf course that I have been playing for over 40 years, but the Friday Ranger needs to encourage people to come play the golf course, not creep people out with his vibe. The lady in the pro shop was very nice & told me "we aren't very busy today go have fun!" She was very pleasant. Not sure if I'll be back this year given what I experienced, there are a lot of options out there. I am kind of feeling sad writing this. I spent 9-11 playing spring valley, & many 100's of rounds when the Dodge family owned it. The new owners are trying their best & many of the changes have been for better playability. The only negative on the course itself were some tee boxes weren't flat, downhill/sidehill lies on tee boxes isn't what you want. Other than that the greens, fairways were great, the rough was tough, but playable. I ended up making a par from 10 feet on 18.
I was absolutely shocked & saddened to see Downtown Spring Valley was empty on a Friday night! read more