Top 5 indicators of a quality golf facility

[Wayne_Kozun]

I meant no disrespect to fruit-flavored beer lovers (not that there's anything wrong with that) I just envisioned blueberry-flavored budweiser and a shudder went through my limbic system.

Budweiser of any sort is not real beer but a nice Belgian fruit lambic like Boon Kriek or Framboise are fantastic!

Up here in Canada we like to say that American Beer is like Making love in a canoe - It is f$%^ing close to water!

[Anthony Gray]

I don't know about word of mouth, but Cabo holds no interest for me as a golf destination at this point in my life.  The same could be said of practically every "sunny" destination mentioned.  It has nothing to do with the quality of the golf, only my aversion to resort golf and what are usually very high prices to pay for stuff I don't care about - such as the list of five things.  Talk to me in five years and maybe I will have changed my mind.  I also may be interested in taking a cruise too - in case there aere any travel agents out there.

Ciao    

  Sunny destinations have very little to offer me also.

 

 

 

[Greg Tallman]

Greg,

I just checked wih my wife. We went to Cabo in December of 2003, arriving the day after Christmas. (Obviously, a busy time.)

I actually protested payment through AMEX (useless) and wrote to Sheraton's home office and they responded that under Mexican law, a hotel is not required to honor special requests. Further, they told me Sheraton follows local customs, and the hotel in Cabo is not bound to follow Sheraton's corporate policies. So we learned an expensive travel lesson.

My wife also reminded me what happened when we went to pick up our rental car prior to going to the hotel. They simply did not have the minivan we reserved...just a two-person mini car! So I drove that with one kid, and they followed us with the airport van which carried my wife, 2 other kids, all of our luggage and 2 sets of clubs. They did deliver a minivan two days later.

To be fair, my wife said that she would go back to Cabo, and I am being ridiculous... We rode quads in the mountains (awesome) took a day tour to Hotel California, went deep sea fishing, and did some other cool stuff.  

WOW! Certainly sounds like the trip from helll! At least you were able to squeeze in 36 holes one fine Saturday at Cabo del Sol. I .believe the hotel Manager at the time would have been a gentleman by the name of Pedro Grouschup, Austrian or Dutch I do not recall. This was during a period when we were still operating two facilities and I was flying back and forth weekly.


As for the rental cars... that has long been a disaster though getting cleaned up now with pretty much all companies with offices at the airport. For some period of time they would conveniently lose a traveler's on line reservaiton that was made at far lower prices and then force them to pay  a far higher price for the vehicle. Those days seem to be over as I have not heard any horror stories and the price of rental cars has come more in lone with a US destination. These companies now operate to the level that I can request a car be delivered to a golfer/guest at a specific time and they will be here, take less than 5 minutes and be done with the transaction, a far cry from 5-6 years ago.

That is an interesting response you received from Starwoon corporate and one that I will be liooking into. That is simply not acceptable of a hotel property located within and using the name Cabo del Sol.

If you ever get back this way I will make sure you get the VIP treatment wherever you would stay.

[Garland Bayley]

Is this a theory or conclusions drawn from some sort of survey?

A couple of decades in the high end of the business, logic, the fact that the grill room does not sound like GCA... etc.

Like I said a bunch of made up nonsense. You sit in a high end resort, listen to people there sound off, and come to the conclusion, "Like it or not folks that is the typical golf consumer. Probably 80-90% of those that play golf judge whether or not a facility is a quality facility and worth the money." Which suggests to me that you got a worse grade in English Comp 101 that I did (perish the thought).

This thread is complete balderdash. Peddle it somewhere else please.

  Garland...I'm going to tell that your round at Chambers Bay was comped.

   Anthony

Go ahead and try to see if you can get anyone to believe my hackers game has been comped anywhere. I doubt anyone here will believe I could even get it comped at Pukwanah Municipal let alone Chambers Bay.

[Bruce Katona]

Greg: You are supplying the service your property's customer base insists on to remain repeat customers in good standing.  You've determined what this customer insists upon and provide for it.  Mnay here may  not be looking for this type of service but many cutomers are.  We're all free to spend our hard earned dollars however we would like.   For a fact I know my wife would enjoy being a guest at your establishment, as she does enjoy service.

I can relate the following short story and the folks from the left coast will know the resort:  A few years ago we took our daughter and her friend to visit our friends in CA.  We stayed at The Montage, in Laguna Beach....spectacular setting, and just a terrific hotel.  I arrived a few days after wife, daughter and her friend (I was working to pay for this trip). 1 st morning of my stay we went to the pool, daughter says to me " Daddy , all I have to do is raise the little flag on my chair and someone comes over to bring me what i ask for"....she is 9 at the time......the girls all did enjoy room service breakefast rolled  and out onto the patio to dine overlooking the Pacific.  The hotel is just terrific, the property spectacular but I personally don't need quite that level of service....the wife enjoys it as do the customers of the resort, so they provide what this customer base expects.

[Ben Sims]

I've read this thread most of the way through, and find it devolving into a service discussion for resorts.  For the VAST majority of golfers, resorts make up very little of their regular play.  I have a question that involves what I believe to be indicators of a quality facility.

Can a golf club/course, using old school clubs like Palmetto GC, Yeamans Hall, Belvedere GC and SFGC as models, be built today and succeed?

The reason I ask is that those places seem to possess a charm and ambiance that is missing in many modern clubs today.  So many modern gems are being built, but with an abundance of cost prohibitive measures.  If someone asked me if I would like to be a member of Sage Valley or Palmetto, I wouldn't blink as to the answer.

How many golfers are out there that can sustain this thought process.? According to the premise of the thread, not many. 

[Richard Choi]

How nice the hotel/facililty has absolutely no bearing on me. I will gladly sleep at Motel 6 to play the courses that I want to play.

The facility is a HUGE factor, however, if I am on vacation with my family (especially my wife).

So, if the resort is like Bandon or Pinehurst where I am mostly likely will be there by myself with my golfing buddies, I don't think the facility is a not a big factor in planning.

But if it is a vacation spot like Cabo, Hawaii, San Diego, etc. where I will most likely be ther with my family, the quality of the resort facility will have a big influence on whether or not I visit that place.

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