Terrible experience at Casselview Sunday Oct 11th

[leftylucas]

First off I have always had a pretty good experience at Casselview and would rate them pretty high for customer service in the area. In fact they post on their website that Casselview is renowned for its superb conditioning and unsurpassed service. I have played there at least 50-60 times and really like the respect they dictate on pace of play and of course the great condition of the course itself. This day was just the opposite. I am not bashing them here, I will state facts as they happened.

I had a tee time of 1:20 and was called out at 1:00 by the starter to go ahead to the tee if we were ready since there was a group that had not showed up and he also grabbed another 2some to join us. I figured they were quite busy so we headed to the tee box. I immediately noticed 6 players who had just teed-off. I inquired with the starter on the tee box about the 6 players and told me it was a 24 man scramble but that they would keep pace and that a marshall would be monitoring it. I told him that was impossible since you have 3 groups of 3-2 man teams playing best ball. I told him you have 6 guys each playing a ball and its a tourny so they will all be taking their time hitting every shot and reading greens like they are in the PGA. I cannot understand the reasoning behind placing a 24 man scramble on a long weekend in the middle of the day. My round took 5:45 minutes as a result and we finished at dusk. The 2-some behind us quit after 9 holes.

The starters assessment could not be further from the truth. I called the clubhouse on the 5th tee with the group behind us there and another just 20 yards behind us on the green. It had taken 1 hour and 10 minutes to play 4 holes (all very short) and informed them that the pace was slow every hole (we were behind the last 6some). I could see there was an entire hole open ahead on the 6th hole as the tee is right beside us and that there were no golfers playing the 11th or 12th holes so obviously there was room somewhere. The fellow I spoke to was dismissive about the situation and then said I should talk to the manager who was not available at the time. When we got to the 5th green a staff member had arrived and I am not sure if he was the manager or not as he did not seem to be a marshall. He told me the 24 players were not holding things up and that it was the group ahead of them that was 1/2 hole behind and he had informed the guilty party to play faster. I was a little insulted and I told him how slow this group was and the one ahead of them as well since they were 6 players. I said what he was saying made no sense that a 4SOME is holding up 6 players x 3 groups??? Then he told me there was a 1.5 hour frost delay in the morning. I said it was 2:20 now and pointed to the 12th hole that was empty. He said he would continue to watch the groups but we never saw him again. I looking at their facebook page today I see that I spoke to Paul Rodgers . I guess he is the manager. We laboured through one of the longest rounds I have ever played in golf aside from a full out tournament. I took another look at the 12th green on the tee box of the 7th hole where a 2some was on the green and no one behind them at all so there was still all kinds of room on the back.

The decision to allow this mini scarmble rests with management and to put money ahead of the playing pleasure of the remaining golfers playing behind them is not what I thought Casselview was all about. . To boot the tournament players were enjoying themselves and were very loud at many times and were not supervised as we were told. I have provided this feedback to the course and told them I would appreciate a phone call about this very negative experience, I paid full price to play and did not enjoy what would have been one of the last really nice golfing days of the season, I also told them I would be happy to post their feedback here once they call me on it or respond to the feedback.

Update, I called them and they insist the frost delay was the reason for the long wait and that the entire course was full. Of course the "marshall" what was telling me this finished his shift at 3:30