Farquod
Short Game Tragedy
- Mar 8, 2005
- 1,165
- 0
Guys, after 5 years, I have pretty much decided to give up my club membership. It's at a semi-private, pretty nice club, which has two 18s (one parkland, one links style) and a great practice range/short game area. Here's the link:
http://www.roycebrook.com/
Why? A few reasons. One is that my foursome is breaking up, as one guy has moved down to Fla, and one other doesn't want to foot the membership bill any longer--we had had a "founder's membership" which gave us a break, but which is no longer in effect,
Another is that the short game area--which I love--has been closed most of this year. We've had a fair bit of rain and I don't think that it's particularly well drained (the original manager was a moron). They hold golf schools in that area, and I think they just don't want the members hacking it up.
There're a few other minor annoyances, but the other factor that is weighing in here is that last year they began to charge members $15 per round to walk the course in the mornings. This has grated at me since they began this policy. Obviously, they do it to get you to rent the cart for the extra $10, but in this case it's the principle. It just really pisses me off that I pay the dues then have to pay to walk.
One the other hand, there's a really good group of guys--probably about a dozen--that get together for a Nassau on the weekends, and I was invited to join that crew last year. Obviously, I could do so now, as long as the opening still stands. Also, the club is on my way home from work, so it is pretty easy to jam a little practice in. Plus I get 30 days lead time to reserve tee times, and the west--the links style course--is reserved for members only.
The third member of the foursome and I plan to continue to play every Saturday AM, and we've decided to maybe check out the public courses in the area, which we haven't been playing. There are a few that look pretty good, and I found a county course yesterday out by Rutgers (not the RU course) that is right across from one of my kids' twice-weekly soccer practices. I spoke with two of the folks that work the proshop and found that it is under-attended, and apparently easy to get out and around on a Saturday--to say nothing of jamming in 9 while my daughter slams into a post or two.
In addition, I went to Rutgers (my alma-mater, btw) and found that they had included a huge practice area across the street from the course--including several bunkers and putting greens.
To top it off, I figure, even if I spend an average of $75/round on the weekends, and play one weekend 18 and two weekday 9s--a total of say $125 a week for maybe 30 weeks--I'll be paying about half the price of the membership for the year.
Am I losing anything here?
http://www.roycebrook.com/
Why? A few reasons. One is that my foursome is breaking up, as one guy has moved down to Fla, and one other doesn't want to foot the membership bill any longer--we had had a "founder's membership" which gave us a break, but which is no longer in effect,
Another is that the short game area--which I love--has been closed most of this year. We've had a fair bit of rain and I don't think that it's particularly well drained (the original manager was a moron). They hold golf schools in that area, and I think they just don't want the members hacking it up.
There're a few other minor annoyances, but the other factor that is weighing in here is that last year they began to charge members $15 per round to walk the course in the mornings. This has grated at me since they began this policy. Obviously, they do it to get you to rent the cart for the extra $10, but in this case it's the principle. It just really pisses me off that I pay the dues then have to pay to walk.
One the other hand, there's a really good group of guys--probably about a dozen--that get together for a Nassau on the weekends, and I was invited to join that crew last year. Obviously, I could do so now, as long as the opening still stands. Also, the club is on my way home from work, so it is pretty easy to jam a little practice in. Plus I get 30 days lead time to reserve tee times, and the west--the links style course--is reserved for members only.
The third member of the foursome and I plan to continue to play every Saturday AM, and we've decided to maybe check out the public courses in the area, which we haven't been playing. There are a few that look pretty good, and I found a county course yesterday out by Rutgers (not the RU course) that is right across from one of my kids' twice-weekly soccer practices. I spoke with two of the folks that work the proshop and found that it is under-attended, and apparently easy to get out and around on a Saturday--to say nothing of jamming in 9 while my daughter slams into a post or two.
In addition, I went to Rutgers (my alma-mater, btw) and found that they had included a huge practice area across the street from the course--including several bunkers and putting greens.
To top it off, I figure, even if I spend an average of $75/round on the weekends, and play one weekend 18 and two weekday 9s--a total of say $125 a week for maybe 30 weeks--I'll be paying about half the price of the membership for the year.
Am I losing anything here?