The little things that make a difference

[L.I. Rich]

I went on a buddy golf trip in February to the Orlando area, and the four of us fit in 8 rounds over 5 days, and had a great time.  I post something later about the individual courses, as there are a few that I'm really looking forward to playing again.  But I really wanted to comment on a minor feature that some of the courses had, that I have never seen here in the northeast, and can't believe isn't standard equipment at every golf course.

 

Following our rounds, at the cart return, some of the courses had a small air compressor to blow clean your golf shoes prior to heading to the clubhouse and locker rooms.  Now, I know some or all of you are reading this and saying to yourselves, no s*** Sherlock, that's nothing new, but I swear that all I've ever seen are the ankle-high cleat brush stands that just spray your pants and calves with grass and goose crap when you brush your feet.  I think those brushes are next to useless as they almost always have a month's worth of crap piled around them.

 

Anyway, what are the little things that you notice about a course that can set it apart from the competition?  Here's another one, a rake in each golf cart...

[Kenny B]

Out here on the west coast (rainy side), many courses have an air hose to blow off grass and mud from your shoes.  It's an investment that saves them from grass in the clubhouse.  They usually put it somewhere by the cart path between the 18th green and the clubhouse, so walkers can use it to.  

 

Now the rake on the cart fooled me the first time I saw it.  It's nice unless you walk or it's cart path only and you are on the other side of the fairway from the path.  I didn't notice the rake on the cart and swore because there were no rakes in the bunkers!

 

My little thing would be NO steep climbs up or down to get to the tees or greens.  I don't mind walking but our knees of us older folks don't take kindly to hills just to get to/from the cart.

[L.I. Rich]

My little thing would be NO steep climbs up or down to get to the tees or greens.  I don't mind walking but our knees of us older folks don't take kindly to hills just to get to/from the cart.

 

I like to walk the course if they permit it; I have a push cart in the trunk all the time, but there are some courses where the greens installations are so steep with deep rough and/or bunkered that navigating around the green with the push cart is more difficult than carrying that I'll just leave the thing in the trunk for the day.

 

A competent starter is also very important.  I've seen too many starters trying to keep track of the tickets: wind blowing them off his desk; not sure which group is on deck, at the tee, who's going out on the back or the front.  It can turn into chaos pretty quick, especially where I am...

[Kenny B]

Many resort courses are not built for walking and many don't allow it.  If it's allowed and the green to next tee distance is manageable (and not too many hills), my wife and I will walk.  I have two push carts and two cart bags in my vehicle at all times.  Just coming off knee replacement surgery in Nov and my wife is looking forward to on this fall, so we stay away from hills.  

 

I agree about the starters.  Many of them are volunteers (retired) and treat the job as  just meeting people.  That's OK if it doesn't impact tee times.  I recently played one course that has 3 nines and a starter is an absolute necessity to avoid chaos.

 

Best of luck in MB; wish I could go this year.

[DaveP043]

I'm another who appreciates the opportunity to walk the course.  An added bonus, one I've seen only at MidPines in Southern Pines, NC, they have decent 3-wheel trolleys for walkers to use.  They don't offer a discount for walking instead of riding, but they do provide the trolleys free of charge.

I also like the air hose for cleaning shoes, but I can see definite liability issues.  I work in construction, and compressed air can be moderately dangerous, particularly with regard to eye injuries.  Safety glasses are an absolute requirement when using an air hose to clean something, which makes it hard to defend a club that provides an air hose to clean shoes when one of the golfers gets something in his eye.

One thing I like, when I do ride in a cart, is GPS that actually shows you the location of the group in front of you.  Makes for many fewer of those awkward moments when you come over a hill and see that you've just driven into the group in front.

[L.I. Rich]

I also like the air hose for cleaning shoes, but I can see definite liability issues. 

Geez, I hadn't thought about that, but of course that must be a factor in why they aren't everywhere.

 

One thing I like, when I do ride in a cart, is GPS that actually shows you the location of the group in front of you.  Makes for many fewer of those awkward moments when you come over a hill and see that you've just driven into the group in front.

 

Absolutely.  I loved that feature; knowing that I could hit if I was laying up to a distance because the group ahead was far enough ahead.  Every once in a while, I'd go to check how far ahead they were, and there wouldn't be any carts at all on the GPS;  I guess the GPS's are hitting a cloud-based service account, and if the WLAN/4G is down for a minute or two, that feature goes away.

[jaxbeachpackerfan]

Towels, tees in the golf cart.  Ice cold bottled water at the start and at various points on the course.  World Golf Village in St Augustine has wooden barrels filled with fresh apples in ice water on the first and 10th tees of both courses.  TPC Stadium has mini-coolers with bottled water in ice.

[HighFade]

When I played Pebble a couple years back, they sat you down on a bench and cleaned them by hand. It was kind of embarrassing (but made me feel like royalty, and it ended with a nice tip)

[Hula Rock]

My club has two small air comprssor stations,  most of the time guys are standing in line to use them.  The one thing I like at my club is the steamed towels in the mens locker room, great post round.....

[FrugalGolfer]

When playing on warm days, I generally take a frozen bottle of water (1 or 2 litre) & put it in my trunk. By the time I get to the course, some of the ice has melted and as we progress with our round, the water stays cold till we finish it. I also do the same to gator ade.

Seen a course that sold frozen bottles of water & they seemed to be a success.