ultralinear

Both of Brookside's courses are solid, generally well conditioned golf courses. But, the entire facility is let down by the disgraceful behavior that occurs during their constant tournaments.

Last Friday, we knew we would be following a tournament that started over an hour before our tee time. The overall pace of play was really not bad considering the number of players on the course.

But, the behavior of the players in the tournament was unimaginably bad. As loutish as the players were (heavy drinking, yelling, driving carts on putting greens) in the end, I hold Brookside's management responsible.

Tailing the groups and driving all over the golf course were "Hole in One Monitors." These were golf carts filled with college-aged girls who drove their carts up and down the fairways with no particular destination or purpose. They would routinely call out across the fairways toward the players in the tournament who often shouted back to them, or just drove their carts across a fairway to meet up with them.

I understand that a golf course needs to make money but a 36 hole facility like Brookside owes a great deal to the players who play their courses on an ongoing basis not just to a collection of fools who play and abuse the golf courses during a single tournament.

Never in the course of the five hour round did I see a single ambassador anywhere on the golf course. Astounding. The management of Brookside has failed badly and should be replaced.

I would love to read the management of Brookside respond my my review and the many complaints lodged by other players about this unnecessary problem.

But, I bet we won't get a word of reply from them.

I've heard about Redhawk for years so it was great to get a chance to play it on a Monday afternoon.

Sadly, they sent us out directly after a high school team that was teeing off; what were they thinking? The starter didn't say a word...

No matter.

We dashed around to the back nine and had a great time. Like many courses in the area, there are houses around. But, unlike other courses the routing of Redhawk pretty much keeps the houses out of play.

The greens are too soft and few players seem interested in repairing their balls marks. This is too bad since the course's greens are very interesting with very challenging slopes.

Bunkers are in great shape, as are most of the fairways (considering the drought). Overall, I prefer the front nine to the back. The par-3 holes are especially good!

Fivesomes are never good, especially when a round costs $50 or more.

Good: Fairways were generally OK, but already getting burned up in spots.

Not so good: greens were exceptionally bumpy by 8 a.m. It always strikes me that both of the Brookside courses try to keep their greens rolling too fast. The result is greens that are not as healthy as they should be and are prone to being bumpy and uneven.

Poor: On a hot sunday, we played 11 holes before seeing a beverage cart on the course. That's not good for the players on such a hot day and not good for the courses' ability to bring in extra revenue.

Brookside always strikes me as a pair of golf courses that rests on their reputation. This a very bad golf economy to try to do that!