Cherry Island -Sacramento, CA

[raymo]

Father's day rant

OK I need some perspective on this to see if I am overreacting.

Last week on Father's day my buddy and I decided to play a round at Cherry Island in Sacramento, CA. I am fully aware that this is most likely the busiest golf day of the year.

We made a tee time online for 11:15am. When we arrived to check in we were told they were running behind by 25-30 minutes. There were also no carts ready yet. I could expect this but why book online for a specific tee time then and get charged the online booking fee?

While hitting some balls to warm up I noticed quite a few groups of 5 going out. I also noticed more than one wife pushing a stroller on the course (presumably walking the round with her husband). How unsafe is that for the kid? More on that later...

We also see more than one guy re-tee after a pop up tee shot on the first hole but no starter around to advise them not to be doing this all day. I know this day brings a lot of beginners out to the course but come on! When we went to check on the status of our tee time we still did not have a cart and the times were 45 minutes behind. At this point I expect some type of apology and perhaps a range token for no charge. This did not happen

5 minutes before we were up we had to check again and finally get a cart. After starting 45 minutes late we still noticed nobody out on the course making sure folks are playing from the correct tees or even attempting to keep up the pace of play, which of course is agonizingly slow with all the newbs playing from the blue tees and taking 6 shots to get 200 yards.

On the 5th hole my buddy is about to hit his second shot on a par 5 from the right rough and some lady comes walking in from the right into his ball flight path pushing a stroller. No awareness at all that there are people hitting golf balls and actually playing golf. He was barely able to hold off and could have seriously injured her. I balme the husband on this one but still. Should I have to worry about this while trying to endure a slow round?

So after waiting on every shot and finishing 9 holes in 3 hours we could not take any more. I asked to speak to a manager and we were given a rain check for 9 holes since no manager was available. Given the following circumstances I am curious as to how they could ever get me to come back to their course and not tell every golfer I know to steer clear of this place?

To summarize our day

* No pace of play enforcement on probably the busiest day of the year
* No organization whatsoever on preparing for a busy day by the course
* No carts until right at our tee time. Some people prefer NOT to walk from the range to the putting green and also out to their car before starting.
* No acknowledgment regarding the late start times or lack of carts
* Groups of 5 and non golfers walking around the course oblivious ot their surroundings.
* No response to the message I left for the manager as well

I know that life is too short to get all bunged up over this so I will just not play there again but do you all think the course should have given us a full refund or something?

End Rant.....

[mullie29]

A half an hour late for your tee-time at Cherry Island, no carts, and moms pushing their kids around the course in strollers. I would'nt have even teed off!! Should have cancelled, went home and had a few brews instead. It sounds like the time our 4some went to Castle Oaks and it took us 1 hour to play 3 holes :shout: , we went to the clubhouse and demanded our money back. The group in front of us, 2 couples, the ladies were playing from the same tees as the men and were hitting 2-3 shots off the tee and using the best. :tease: . M29

[raymo]

I know Muni's get slow but this was ridiculous. As I watched all these guys whiff on their tee shots from the blues I should have known it was going to be ugly.

 

Really just any kind of acknowledgment that they were screwing up would have went a long way. To ignore us and act like there is nothing they can do about it was really what upset me.

 

Now I remember why I never play there...

[pcl586]

Understand the rant...only thing good about cherry (recently) was the drink cart-girl; hope she came around a couple times for ya. ok, maybe the greens are pretty smooth too.

[ballzo]

Ancil Hoffman and Cherry always the same on busy days. They let anyone go out however they want. Go somewhere else. Its just not worth the torture. Another thing I hate about Cherry Island as I was starting to play there in the evenings last month. They yank all the pins out of the greens at about an hour to an hour and half before sundown. Lame!

[Trendsetter916]

That sucks I went their with a tee time and they let 3 groups of walk ons on before us. LOL at the cart girl you guys got low standards they all look butt ugly to me. Sorry to hear about your bad experience though. I am stunned about the lady with a stroller. I have a one year old that loves golf and can actually putt and hit the ball but still would never bring him on the course way to dangerous. Thats what putting greens and little 9 hole courses are for a lot less risk their.

[pcl586]

Yeah we were out on Empire this past sunday...and this lady in front of us (with husband and ~6 year boy) decides to drive back toward us asking if we saw her hat/visor that she apparently lost just as my friend was getting ready to tee off! I could tell she was clueless on how dangerous a golf ball could be! she then proceeds to turn around and drives over and thru the forward tee box...haha

 

That sucks I went their with a tee time and they let 3 groups of walk ons on before us. LOL at the cart girl you guys got low standards they all look butt ugly to me. Sorry to hear about your bad experience though. I am stunned about the lady with a stroller. I have a one year old that loves golf and can actually putt and hit the ball but still would never bring him on the course way to dangerous. Thats what putting greens and little 9 hole courses are for a lot less risk their.