Golf!!!2!

[DoubleK]

Thanks Roughneck.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by darklord700

I suspect one of the groups like Windmill will snap up Bearspaw with papers, assume the debt and take over the operation.

I'd hope for Totem vs Windmill, but please someone pick it up.

[CarlLester]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

Willow Park has a discounted buy-in right now but I think they're the only non-equity club that's dropped their initiation.

I had heard that Canyon dropped initiation this year as well. Haven't been able to confirm that though.

[Dion]

I attended a members meeting of the Highwood golf course this afternoon. Being a High River resident I was curious about the financial trouble they are in and how they planned to address that issue. A few years back they built a 3 million dollar clubhouse and restaurant and are now having trouble making the mortgage payments. They lost half their membership after the 2013 flood and are struggling to find new ones.

The course went to the town over the winter in hopes of securing a 50% break on their property taxes over a 5 year span. Council voted it down and instead gave them $75,000 of taxpayers dollars to help meet this years mortgage payments. There was a promise also to back any loan the course could get that was at a cheaper rate.

Today members were told that had found a lender that could save them $60,000 a year in mortgage payments. The golf course has to prove to town council they can make the mortgage payments. If not they won't back any loan.

I walked away feeling the course is doomed. They failed to address the issue of them having close to the highest green fees and cart rentals in the area. Also the fact is the plan to increase those fees in 2020. Yearly dues are close to $3,000 and will be going up. If walk on players can't afford their rates, why are they raising them? I live a few blocks from the course but play in Nanton where it's much cheaper and affordable.

They don't seem to want to address the bloated staffing issue. Like, why does a course need 2 golf pros? Eliminating one position would free up some money. The same applies to all the upper management staff. Trim some of the fat to reduce daily expenses and become more efficient.

I give them 2 years max before they fold.

[station]

Speaking of courses in financial trouble, Salmon Arm Golf Club has announced it will be going up for sale this year. If anyone has a spare $4 million laying around you can buy a beautiful 90 year old course currently ranked #31 in Canada.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by Dion

I give them 2 years max before they fold.

I'm not that impressed with Highwood golf club. But they do have a very good clubhouse that is above their rank. The track is nothing special after playing it twice. I hardly remember any hole layouts and the quality of the turf is sub par to say the least. I am afraid Highwood has some tough competition in the South Calgary area like Sirocco, Heritage Pointe, just to name a few.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by darklord700

I'm not that impressed with Highwood golf club. But they do have a very good clubhouse that is above their rank. The track is nothing special after playing it twice. I hardly remember any hole layouts and the quality of the turf is sub par to say the least. I am afraid Highwood has some tough competition in the South Calgary area like Sirocco, Heritage Pointe, just to name a few.

I live 3 blocks from the course and play in Nanton. That should tell you something about the course itself.

Many of the members didn't pay their yearly dues this year and opted to go the pay as play option. They say the value isn't there for what they have to cough up for dues.

Nobody wants to play the nine that goes through the housing district for fear of breaking someone's windows or chipping someone's sidings.

[jayswin]

Yeah, I hate the houses. We often play the front nine twice as a round. It's a fun little course but at the end of the day they act and price like they're on the outskirts of Calgary.

They needed to offer more to get people to drive that far, and like Dion mentioned even the people that live close are just going to drive 20 minutes to any number of courses that understand they're far away from Calgary and can't act like a city course.

[Weitz]

Played Kananaskis yesterday. Course wintered well. But as usual it played very slowly. Just about 5 hours to play.

Still think they should have kept it to $100 with cart however.

[2ArmBands]

Played Carstairs this morning... bit of a haul for me but the course was in real nice shape. Fun track.

Hoping for some decent weather for Wednesday so I can finally get some league play in.

[jayswin]

Is it just me or are most courses in Calgary pretty bad at creating water features? I don't mean the placement or layout, just the actual ponds themselves are poor quality.

It takes a lot of attention to detail to pull off nice water features and it seems most courses in this city botch them. You can't just dig out a hole, pour water in and have it look decent. You need to really focus on the shorelines and either grow plants (usually bulrush) that create a divide or you have to really define the shore with a nice edge and then make sure the water comes up to that edge.

You can't just have a rough dig out with less than capacity water, it ends up looking like roadside storm water ponds. Just so ugly and most Calgary courses fail at it.

[moncton golden flames]

Played Mt. Kidd on Saturday, decent shape for a mountain course this early in the season. We kept the pace at 4.5 hrs. Got sunburnt pretty good, but the 85 on the scorecard made up for it.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by moncton golden flames

Played Mt. Kidd on Saturday, decent shape for a mountain course this early in the season. We kept the pace at 4.5 hrs. Got sunburnt pretty good, but the 85 on the scorecard made up for it.

I played Kidd saturday too. 5 hour round. Booooo.

[DoubleK]

Played a scramble at Lynx that was 5 hours.

Talk about painful.

[Bunk]

Radium Springs was gorgeous on the weekend. Got off first on my own, which is absolute glory. Under 3 hour round walking. Easy to get into a great rhythm. After bogeying 4 of the first 5 a bit cold, played even par after that.

[prarieboy]

Me, the Mrs. and another couple tied for second in the Mixed tourney at the club this past weekend. Lost the count back though and ended up in third.
We started slow but built up huge momentum on the second nine to finish Net 62 for the men and Net 62 for the ladies!

[Tron_fdc]

Anyone play Cottonwood regularly? I'm considering a membership, but I don't know anything about the course. Any members in here?

[Weitz]

I've played a couple times. Its a nice track.

No cell phone coverage though. Unless they fixed that. Had to stop going there because I couldn't take work calls.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Anyone play Cottonwood regularly? I'm considering a membership, but I don't know anything about the course. Any members in here?

I really like it. If I lived closer, I'd probably join. One of the better short game practice areas in town.

Can't speak to the membership as I don't know any.

[DuffMan]

I played Riverside/Mountainside, Springs x 2 & Eagle Ranch x 2, this past weekend. First time at Eagle Ranch, really nice except the greens were really slow.