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.
I love that course, but only go in the afternoons. The mornings are slow and do have older grumpy men, but let me be clear – there were many nice older men too. I got into an argument with one and his grandson, and I am so relaxed on the course. I was walking to my ball and going to chip up to the green and I saw a twosome ahead on the tee box. I hit my chip, and then grabbed my putter and went to the green and finished the hole. I look up and the same 2 guys who saw me walking up are still on the tee box (one is helping the other). They go on to take 3 shots each (don’t ask me how anybody was helping anyone), and still are 250 yards off the tee. This is a 470 yard par 5 and I finally hit my tee shot and I am around 230 yards out. I hit my 5 wood which I never hit over 200 (they are on the green) and I hit it well and it rolls to a stop 40-45 yards from the green. They both stare me down and when I walk up to see what’s up the old man starts yelling never shoot your 2nd shot on a par 4 while someone is still on the green. I yell back that’s correct but this is a par 5 and my ball wasn’t anywhere near you. Then I blast him for lecturing me and tell him first-you suck at golf, second-you shouldn’t be giving lessons, unless you are going to let me pass through, and third-you have the balls to lecture me while you have no idea what the @^$^@ you are doing out here, and threw my cap into my cart. Since I got serious with the pretender tough guys, they then said ok you can go through! Unf’nbeleivable!!! Southern hospitality is the biggest myth going. It’s really easy to be nice, but do you know what consideration and courtesy are?