when i played at gleneagles this past weekend a few things irritated me about my saturday round (not to be confused with sublime sunday round).
1 - they accepted a booking for 1.30pm tee off, yet when you look inside their system, they have the word "DARK" alongside bookings from 1pm onwards. you would have thought they might have said something - even if you think i was stupid for booking so late in the first place.
2 - the half-way house was closed, at 3.15pm - and this was a day when you really needed it!
3 - the men were effectively playing off the women's tees.
4 - all the greens had been tined
5 - the place for receiving the clubs was closed when we finished around 4.30pm (with everything saturated).
I think it would be much better if clubs were a bit more transparent (eg, on their web-sites) about what playing golf in winter involves and said something along the lines of: if you play after october 31 (or whenever), you should expect that the course will be sub-par in a number of ways (as outlined above). We still think you will have a great round, but the green fee is reduced to reflect the fact that the course is not in the same condition you would expect through the spring and summer.
in this case, lack of transparency about points 1-5 above left slightly the wrong taste in the mouth. even if you tee off late, you are surely as deserving a customer as someone who tees off at 9am?
does anyone else recognise the experience? do they do it better anywhere else? or is it just the way of golf-clubs that if you tee off late, you better not expect the full run of the facilities. i would be lying if i said i had not experienced similar things elsewhere - maybe you expect better at a top notch resort.