Stonebridge

[stevek]

Ok, drop Stonebridge & Pineview (won't mention Poplar Grove as I haven't and likely won't play it) and pick up Emerald Links, Loch March, Greensmere, And/Or Canadian.

[jvincent]

Don't hold your breath on Loch March.

[stevek]

Don't hold your breath on Loch March.

A guy can dream can't he? (I never thought they would get Marshes!!)

[Hacker]

Don't hold your breath on Loch March.

Or EL

[jvincent]

A guy can dream can't he? (I never thought they would get Marshes!!)

Given that LM doesn't even have a twilight rate, I doubt discount rounds from EG is high on their list.

[cobra]

I've lived in Stonebridge for 5 yrs and have always enjoyed the course. I've played there once this year and the course was in terrible condition, hardly any green on the fairways.

It's so convenient for me to play here, but I'd rather drive out to Loch March or Le Sorcier as these courses are in great shape.

[stevek]

I've lived in Stonebridge for 5 yrs and have always enjoyed the course. I've played there once this year and the course was in terrible condition, hardly any green on the fairways.

It's so convenient for me to play here, but I'd rather drive out to Loch March or Le Sorcier as these courses are in great shape.

Good to know! just got a couple of passes for Loch March for my birthday!

[grunner]

The management of the course has been on a continual decline the past two seasons. Today to my SURPRISE when our group walked to hole #3, there were 5 groups on this hole - on the green, fairway, and 3 waiting to tee off. It was not lack of marshalling - but the desire to generate maximum revenues for the day; the marshals were doing their best and keeping us informed of the situation. There was an 11 hole shotgun tournament with no ample buffer of tee times blocked off to accommodate slow play by the tournament groups. Also the tournament groups started late by a half hour. On subsequent holes our group was the fourth group waiting to tee it up. It took more than 20 minutes to play each hole. It is disappointing to see this course which prided itself on pace of play and golfing experience decline to such a state.

[Kilroy]

grunner, as inconvenient as that may have been, that could happen anywhere. A partial shotgun starting 30 minutes late is going to cause problems. It could have happened for a lot of reasons.

[Colby]

I played the course on Tuesday, and although there were a number of brown patches in the fairways and some of the teeboxes are being worked on, it did not detract from the playability of the course. The greens, for the most part, were in excellent shape. There had been some top dressing, but for the most part they rolled well. It is unfortunate that Stonebridge is not in the condition that we are all used to, the driving range is gone, etc. I am not a big fan of the course, I lost about 6 balls on my way to an 85 and a thrashing by Mike in the NCGT Match Play, but it was still fun to play.

[rancherJ]

played SB yesterday. Found a few tee boxes still a bit rough many re-sodded and perfect. Fairways filling in nicely and greens running true. Was surprised at the turnaround!

[mjf]

Played Stonebridge again yesterday... No additional re-sodding effort is underway. The only tees that have had any re-sodding are numbers 10 and 11 (I'm pretty sure they did these ones purely for optics because they are so visible from the road). The tee on #6 is starting to show signs of life after being re-seeded.

I still believe that large portions of MANY fairways will need to be re-sodded. It doesn't appear to me that any effort is even being made to even re-seed the sections of fairway that are in bad shape.

To top it all off, I've been noticing some sections on the greens are even getting a bit iffy.

It really is sad to see the conditions of my favorite course in the city deteriorate so much. I'm curious who they're getting to pay $75 for rounds on the weekends? Maybe it's just members.

I don't know what they're going to do for Round 2 of the Citizen tournament to be played at SB on July 16th... I wonder if the tournament organizers could arrange an alternate site on short notice.

[maximus]

Ok, drop Stonebridge & Pineview (won't mention Poplar Grove as I haven't and likely won't play it) and pick up Emerald Links, Loch March, Greensmere, And/Or Canadian.

Don't tell them to get rid of my precious Pineview. I still hold out hope that my "home course" will see better days this summer.

The writing was on the wall with the new restrictions at Stonebridge. They got a little greedy with CG and are begging for a trade.

[Dunny]

With the conditions of Stonebridge right now I'd rather play Pineview

[Ruskie]

Well, let's not get silly now. If you're talking about bang for the buck, sure Pineview wins. But if you're talking purely about course quality, Stonebridge is still miles ahead of Pineview, even though Pineview is recovering nicely (played it yesterday). Dead grass at Stonebridge is still better turf than grass-on-clay at Pineview.

That said, I wouldn't pay more than $30 to play SB now.

With the conditions of Stonebridge right now I'd rather play Pineview

[byerxa]

Stonebridge used to be my "go to" course because of the good conditions and pace of play. However I am no longer going there as a rule. I realize this winter has been very tough on a lot of courses, but there are other issues like the bunkers. Most greenside bunkers do not have much sand at the bottom of them (I hit the black tarp lining on one). And don't get me started on the removal of the range...

[jeffc]

I played today and I don't think it is as bad as everyone says. The greens were excellent, a few tee boxes were iffy and there are definitely some bare spots in some of the fairways but to be honest, a lot of them didn't come into play and if they did, it wasn't difficult to find a spot close by to move your ball. That being said, it might be tough to have a tournament there due to the amount of GUR that would have to be marked. I found it quite playable and would go back without hesitation. And I would like to think I am one of the more critical people out there.

[mjf]

And I would like to think I am one of the more critical people out there.

We've obviously never met.

Certainly if you're a casual player and you don't mind moving your ball a few inches (or feet in some cases) to find a good lie then you'll be fine.

For me though, I try to play strictly by the rules and don't like to ever improve my lie... but I'll admit to doing just that on more than one occasion at SB this year when I've found myself in a particularly terrible lie in the middle of the fairway (never when in a divot though).

The thing is, they're charging a premium price so I think their customers should expect a premium experience. Right now, Stonebridge isn't holding up their end of the bargain. However, it seems like people are still playing there so who's to argue with their business model I suppose? I wonder how long it can hold up though...

[Golfer_Gofer]

Its official that I am going to stop listening to the negativity on this website. So many critical people.

Because of this threat I wasn't really looking forward to a charity golf tournament I was playing in yesterday afternoon thinking that Stonebridge was a big pile of garbage this year. To my surprise the course was beautiful, compared to the conditions at most other courses in the region this year, Stonebridge has done a wonderful job of getting it back into shape after an awful winter. The Tee boxes that were in rough shape were either showing signs of being seeded or were resoded and as a poster above suggested they only resoded Tees in view of the road, FALSE. And what does it matter anyway? You're hitting of a tee people, god get over yourselves, you're not playing on the tour and you never will .

The greens were beautiful, 99% of the fairways were beautiful, and 100% of the drink cart girls were beautiful. I had a wonderful round with some great guys and if anyone asked me if they should play Stonebridge, I wouldn't even hesitate to say "YES".

/Rant

I know this rant wont stop the slammers and complainers, because I'm fairly sure the internet only exists for people to complain, but I needed to vent my frustration and defend this course.

[jeffc]

agreed on everything, including the cart girl. And they have no problems with the fescue let me tell you, it is loooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg.

[mjf]

The Tee boxes that were in rough shape were either showing signs of being seeded or were resoded and as a poster above suggested they only resoded Tees in view of the road, FALSE.

Are you saying they've re-sodded more than just the tee boxes on #10 and #11?

[dbleber]

I think if it was a $40 course no one would complain, but when you are charging premium prices people will expect the course to be darn near perfect. The same thing happens with all of the top courses. Most people can't afford to play them every weekend and when they get their one or two rounds a year at these courses they don't want to be disappointed with average conditions. Just my take.

[3Jack]

Chicken and the egg syndrome really. Revenue mainly comes from green fees, and if you're charging a cut rate because of poor conditions, over time it becomes hard to put money back in the course. In this region and considering our winters, we should all be a bit more understanding, especially since SB was not the only course in the area to winter poorly.

[Golfer_Gofer]

Are you saying they've re-sodded more than just the tee boxes on #10 and #11?

yes, at least half a dozen had been re-sodded very recently. you still see the lines in the sod.

[mjf]

yes, at least half a dozen had been re-sodded very recently. you still see the lines in the sod.

Going through the course in my head again, I was mistaken. I think they've also re-sodded the middle tee box on #13 in addition to the ones on #10 and #11. Perhaps I missed another one as well. So there might be a total of 6 tee boxes that have been re-sodded this year. To be clear though, they certainly haven't re-sodded all of the tee boxes on a half a dozen holes.

I play off the back tees and I can say for certain that, as of Tuesday, only one of those tee boxes (#11 - THE most visible tee box on the course from the road ) have been re-sodded this year. If it was my golf course and I was only going to re-sod one tee box... that'd be the one I'd do too.

You're right though that the condition of the tee boxes doesn't (shouldn't) really matter all that much. As I said in an earlier post... the ball is on a tee!

I still like the golf course, and I hope they can restore it to its former glory. I'll continue to play there... after 4pm... for $40. I won't be paying $75 to play there anytime soon though.

[jeffc]

I think if it was a $40 course no one would complain, but when you are charging premium prices people will expect the course to be darn near perfect. The same thing happens with all of the top courses. Most people can't afford to play them every weekend and when they get their one or two rounds a year at these courses they don't want to be disappointed with average conditions. Just my take.

perhaps, but I don't think it is nearly as bad as the title of this thread would indicate. I paid $60 on Wed and it was definitely worth every penny of that. I would rather play Stonebridge right now for $60 than most courses in the area. BTW, I thought the greens were in exceptional shape, which really is the most important part of any course.

[314314]

Just finished playing SB and greens are excellent. The fairways are different story (reminds me of Metcalfe) and sand traps are hard. Still very playable and worth the money using discount club (i.e. executive club.)

[mjf]

Played Stonebridge again yesterday and there are now roped off sections on several fairways marked as GUR where it appears they are trying to re-seed. Actually, all I could see was sand but presumably there's seed in there too.

[LBH]

Played Stonebridge again yesterday and there are now roped off sections on several fairways marked as GUR where it appears they are trying to re-seed. Actually, all I could see was sand but presumably there's seed in there too.

Most likely for the Citizen round 2

[mjf]

Most likely for the Citizen round 2

Maybe... Unfortunately, there's no way it'll make any difference in time.