Month: June 2009

I played at the Zebulon Country Club this week.  Overall it’s a very good course as far as conditions go.  Among local courses I would rank the fairways and greens slightly above Lochmere and Wil-Mar.  It’s definitely way better than nearby Wendell Country Club (which is barely a golf course anymore). We were told the greens may be a mix of bent grass and Bermuda.  They were almost as good as the bent grass greens at Carolina Country Club.

It’s not a long course and has some easy to par 470 yard holes.  It’s got a couple of easy to birdie par 4’s if you’re even slightly better than me.   All-in-all it’s a course worth going back to many times, again based on the conditions.  But it does have one really bad problem on weekdays: lots of grumpy old men.  I mean, these old timers are straight evil and angry that anyone under 55 years old dare, yes dare, come on their course.  They play with no golf etiquette, none, zero.  They don’t finish out their putts from five or ten feet and then proclaim “ya, I scored a 74 today”.   Right, minus any putting at all.

Since they don’t putt out once they hit the green they’ll pick up their ball and tee off immediately while the group in front of them is still on the fairway.   One thing is for sure, these old coots won’t slow you down.  They’ll spray the ball to bejesus, usually on to another fairway, and then without warning or any dialog drive their carts straight onto a fairway someone else is playing to hit their shots.   We were playing fast (pars and bogeys) but one group behind us was so bad we let them play through since no etiquette, hurry up golf was their thing.  Only to have another Geritol gang come up behind us and almost hit us with a ball (literally) as we  finished putting.  I said something the the effect of “You need to slow down and chill”.  To which one old man replied “No, you need to move boy!”.   So I replied “No. I do not and will not”.  I know what they’re trying to do because I’ve seen it before.  It’s an ego trip for these old guys to be able to say they can play 18 holes in 2 1/2 hours or less, score be damned.  It happened a lot at Winton Country Club in Virginia where the average member age is probably 62.  Nothing makes them prouder than to have the “youngun’s” let them play through.  Somehow in their minds this equates to better golf.  Never mind taking the time to make shots that score low.

I’ve decided to try this course another day at a time later in the afternoon to see if the “Geritol Thugs” might be less of a distraction.   The first time I went to check the location and prices a really nice manager was offering some attractive membership rates.  Even with the wonderful turf this course has, if you’ve got to sacrifice playing a complete game to let angry old people who don’t really care about quality golf have their way, it’s not worth it.  The attitude of regular patrons can make or break a golf course.  I’ve played many, and these regulars are the absolute worst I have ever seen despite the sign coming into Zebulon that says “Home of Friendly People”.  Ya right, friendly people that think they own a golf course because it’s the only one they play four times a week.  I hope my next experience is better so I don’t have to leave these great turf conditions to the cranky old coots.