A Good Walk Spoiled

Posted by John

October 28, 2008

A week ago Monday I was lucky enough to play Crumpin Fox golf course in northwestern Massachusetts just a few miles from the Vermont, New Hampshire border. It’s a beautiful course in the rolling hills typical of the area.

It’s very challenging, with tee options over 7000 yards. The greens are like table tops, fast and true. So what’s my problem? It took 5 and 1/2 hours to play on a day when the course wasn’t crowded.

I couldn’t see where the bottle neck was as it was at least 3 foursomes ahead. I’ll wager it was just one group that caused all the other golfers to suffer. We mentioned it in the pro shop at the turn, but they didn’t do anything beyond shrugging and saying they didn’t have the staff to address it. You can bet they had a beer cart out and there were a couple of people in the pro shop. I’ll wager they could have addressed the problem with one 15 minute golf cart trip.

As we whiled away the hours on various tees waiting to hit, we came to know the groups in front and in back of us. A couple of golfers had to leave before finishing because they had made commitments, figuring the 5 hours they alloted would leave them a comfortable margin of error.

I ask you, is it enough to have a beautiful course but not manage playing time? Is that all it takes for a golf club to compete and win golf rounds that will become more dear as the recession cuts into our discretionary activities? Personally, Crumpin Fox is not on my future schedule even though it’s a beautiful course with the best greens I have played this year.