acraney18

I’ll start off by saying in over 20 years of golf I had never played here because I always heard it was overpriced for what you get. I was a long time member at Pebble Brook and frequently played Bear Slide, Purgatory and Prairie View. I was a scratch golfer back then but I am currently a 5 handicap. I have also worked at multiple golf courses including Purgatory and Gator Creek in Sarasota, Fl. The reason I tell you all that is because I grew up around the game, played at a high level and worked at multiple courses over a long period of time and I have never once seen anyone kicked off a course. I’ve seen some pretty dumb things done on golf courses but none of those things led to being removed from the course. There was a one time warning and that was the end of it.

That being said, about 3 months back a friend invited me to join the Wednesday night men’s league at Plum Creek so I decided I’d give it a chance. I enjoyed the format and the people in the league. I’ve made some good friends and ended up making Plum Creek my regular course because many of the league players I’ve become friends with are members there.

A few weeks ago I went out with my daughter, a friend of mine and his kids. On #9(our last hole) my friend made a hole in one. It was late and we played until dark but as the tradition goes, my buddy had to buy everyone a drink at the clubhouse. The bar is supposedly open until 10 but on this night the bartender had closed out her drawer at 9:45. We walked in at 9:48, literally. Instead of reopening the drawer she refused drinks for a MEMBER(even though we were paying cash) and refused to even put the cash in an envelope and ring it in the next day as I suggested. I don’t think I need to explain how this decision took away from probably the most exciting moment my friend has ever, and probably will ever, experience while playing golf.

Moving on to today, I head out to play with the same friend again. We arrive a few minutes before our tee time. I keep a bottle/flask of fireball, as many golfers do, in my bag. We were rushing to the tee so I did not have time to grab a drink from the clubhouse as I usually do. Right before teeing off I decided to take a quick swig of my fireball in my bag. I go to tee off and next thing I know, Mark comes out from the club and asked me if I “snuck liquor onto the course”. I said “I don’t know about sneaking but yes I do have a bottle in my bag.” He then tells me that I can either give him the bottle and if it ever happens again I won’t be welcome back, or I can get a refund and leave. I gave him the bottle and he agreed to let me play and give me the bottle when we leave. Problem solved right? Wrong. As we were walking back to our carts from the first green Mark is waiting. He decides to go back on what we agreed upon just a few minutes earlier and informs me that I have to leave. I attempted to reason with him but he wasn’t hearing it. I went inside and left without incident. Did I mention that it is not posted anywhere that you are not allowed to bring your own liquor or beer and that there was no beverage cart on the course and many times there isn’t?

So... if you are a regular customer(or even a member) that plays at Plum Creek 3 times a week on average and spends $1,000’s on merchandise, beer, food, range balls and greens fees don’t expect to get any kind of respect or decent treatment from the management at this place.

Although the course is a Pete Dye course, that’s about where the positives end. Not all Pete Dye courses are equal that’s for sure. The greens are always covered with divots and from one day to the next they will putt entirely different. I always made a point to repair mine plus one more and many times two or three more. The tee boxes aren’t even close to level either and on at least half the holes you will not find a level spot to tee off that’s not chewed up. Outside of the greens the course is pretty well maintained but the two most important places are poor at best.

So to summarize, if you want to play off of side hill lies from the tees, putt on the surface of the moon and get treated like crap for spending your hard earned money at a “top” course then by all means head on over to Plum Creek! I assure you I’ve spent my last dollar there.