I want to vent about something not political....could be long.

[Buddyblazon]

So...here in Denver...I've been going to City Park Golf Course for years. About 17 to be exact. I hadn't been in over a year. But it was because I've been on the road during the warm months the last few years.

I had known changes had been occurring at my favorite Course for quite a while. It used to be this quaint inner-city municipal course. Large old trees. In the middle of town. Cheap. Laid back. And the people that worked there were friendly and loved to swap niceties.

Well...as the neighborhood became "re gentrified" more money started coming into the course. First they started to fix the course itself. It was fantastic. Still cheap...still the same friendly people. But I could still go on a Tuesday at noon and not have to deal with crowds. And the people you encountered were from the neighborhood...and had been in the neighborhood for generations.

Then they fixed up the club house and the driving range. Still the same people. The new club house certainly had a suburban feel to it...and I didn't like it much. Part of golfing at City Park was the chance to NOT be on the golf course with the suburban minded folk. But the good news was that the original employees remained.

Well...going back today was completely different. Like I said, it had been over a year since I'd been. But, my friend, who rarely plays golf had just moved back to town...and we thought that would be the perfect course as it has always been so laid back and had such friendly staff.

Upon arriving, the parking lot was packed. No parking. I had never seen it that packed in mid week. Not to mention, the parking lot was filled with Range Rovers, BMW's, Mercedes. Not uncommon to see an occasional high end luxury car there. But this time it was packed with these type of cars.

Me and my buddy were running late, but our other two friends had already gotten carts. Immediately because we get there five minutes before our tee-time (but doing a pretty good job at getting our fees paid and ready to play ON OUR SCHEDULED TIME)..this manager type guy starts giving this passive aggressive attitude about how we are going to barely make it. Never had that happened at the old laid back City Park.

They changed around the holes...no signs...so the course I knew like the back of my hand was now numbered differently. At one point we got confused at what is comparable to a freeway interchange in LA in the middle of the course where 4 or 5 holes intersect. We had to let people play through as the course was completely packed. We had a couple of low end golfers with us. A good reason why this course was perfect. WAS perfect...a few years ago.

One of the Rangers came out and was very rude to us. I'm quick. Our one friend is quick. However two of the guys are hackers at best. This is why were letting people play through. We didn't mind. We were being courteous. Besides...remember this was the type of course people come out to learn on. Nobody had ever given me a problem when I'd take out bad golfers before. It was (no pun intended) par for the course.


This Ranger told us at the end of the 8th hole that letting people play through was "not good enough". That we need to start picking up our balls and moving on to the next hole. I know this is not an uncommon practice. But I can assure, I had never once heard it from anybody EVER at this course.

One of my bad golfing friends that made a valid point. "You talked me into golfing today, and I WAS, having a good time. While I am more than willing to let any party that needs to play through do so...we paid to play 18 holes. By golly, I'm going to hit my ball from tee to cup on every single hole."

In addition, he TOLD us to move up on the tees. I was playing from the blues. I always play from the blues. And I was hitting just fine. In fact, I was having one of my best rounds of golf I'd ever had. I had already had two pars in the first 8 holes (I'm lucky to get one a round) and several bogies.


We decided to call it at nine holes. I was so incensed after the interaction with this completely smug Ranger (and he had extremely bad customer skills just in the condescending tone of voice he used), that I decided I was walking from the 8th hole, back to the clubhouse to get my money back.

At first they wouldn't do anything for me. Than I explained to them we were too slow for their course and they immediately said ok. However they told me I could not have a refund. I could have a rain check.

"But I don't want to come back to this golf course."

"Have you golfed here before sir?", the cashier asked.

"For the past 17 years."

"Why don't you want to come back?"

"Because I don't want to golf here anymore."

Still they refused. I settled and said "just give me the rain check".

The manager was standing next to the cashier. Listening to the whole conversation. He didn't even ask if he could remedy the situation or what the issue was.

And not to mention the crowd that golfs there now is this elitist, yuppie crowd that likes to suck the fun out of golf. Why couldn't they just stay in the suburbs in their McMansions?


So...if you live in Denver...the bourgeois have changed City Park Golf Course into another country club. I hate country clubs...and I hate the type of people that tend to belong to them. Why couldn't they have left it the way it was...a quaint, laid-back friendly place where not being a scorching golfer was not a crime...and these old school neighborhood guys had no problem with people learning the game...nor would they make you feel like you were lower class because you didn't have a 1200$ set of clubs. Us normal people like to golf to...ya know?


Don't give them your business.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Wow - that totally sucks. I hate when good places go yuppie.

I also hate obnoxious course rangers.

My dad and I were playing an upscale course once on a day that was really, really slow... almost no one on the course. I'm a bit of a duffer, though, so we were moving kinda slow, but no one behind us, so no fucking big deal.

Mr. Ranger Fucker came by anyway about halfway through and told us we had to play faster.

Jackasses.

This was a course in Wisconsin (at the Baptist Assembly Grounds in Green Lake - I can't think of the course's name, but it's a famous one) that caters to faux-riche Chicago assholes, so the staff have all taken on the Chicago-middle-management attitude of jackassery. They're probably good Wisconsin folk down under, but years of dealing with Chicagoans who think they're wealthy (but aren't) has probably fucked their minds up.

I've played on some of the truly high-end-for-rich-people courses, and their staffs tend to be very helpful, kind, and courteous, even when they have to deliver bad news.

The kinds of courses that deal with faux-rich middle-management types have the rude staff, because they have the rude players.

[dger11]

2. Good point about those pseudo-rich golfers

I caddied at a very nice course for a few years when I was younger. It was full of the people you describe. Very pushy and rude. They always wanted to get their heart pounding and testosterone fueled round of McGolf done in record time. Some of them were downright sociopaths, a trait probably well suited for middle management types and the like. I'll stick to the cheap and local County course.

[Jamastiene]

3. I hate it when something good gets turned into something bad

because of snobs who think you should just move out of their way so they can be assholes without an interruptions. That's precisely what happens in those cases too. It gets on my last nerve. Great rant, btw.