Tanglewood Golf Course

Now I remember why I stopped golfing here… When you go out to eat, the food and the taste/​quality of the food are paramount (65% of experience). But the overall experience includes the wait time, the waiter/​waitress (service) and the atmosphere.
I fancied a round of golf this morning and as my typical courses had outings, I decided I would try Tanglewood. I hadn’t golfed here in about 3 years. I called from home prior to making the drive over, but couldn’t get through to or connect with anyone. What… you can’t talk to a live person at a golf course? Despite «not knowing» if there were tee times available, I drove over. I called a few more times on the drive over but once again couldn’t get through. When I pulled up, there was major construction going on at the course itself but there did not appear to be any outings (promising). The Manager who was clearly on auto-​pilot didn’t acknowledge the fact that he was not picking up the phone NOR did he apologize. Hmmmmm, I was a bit cheesed off about that fact and debated whether I wanted to support this club with a Manager who just didn’t give a rats ass. I decided to focus on the (65% piece, the golf) and proceeded with the $ 49 investment for the round. The course was pretty torn up with construction and the 30% of the greens still had not recovered from the harsh winter we had and were damaged. The bathroom on the #5 North course was unusable and I walked out of it literally gagging from the raw sewage odor. At the turn I was hoping to get a quick sandwich or hamburger, no hamburger, only hotdogs and the sandwich bun was so stahl that I basically threw the bread away and just ate the turkey and one piece of lettuce.
I would summarize this experience with giving the golf course a 5 out of 10 and 1 out of 10 for the Service (deer in headlight Manager, bathroom on course, terrible sandwich) aspect of the trip. I won’t be going back anytime soon and I hope the owners of this course take note that they have a person who should be leading but instead is setting the worst example and is losing local residents confidence.

We golfed here tonight… were very disappointed. First, there was no quality food. Due to renovations, everything was shut down. The patio had hot dogs, but they were burned to a crisp and disgusting.
Next, we golfed… but the greens were a mess. Most were half dried mud. No grass at all on 30−50% of the green surface.
There were no rangers. So we had groups skipping around the course, jumping in front of us. One group even had a boombox playing extremely loud. No one did anything about it.
The beer cart was good… thanks for that at least. They were everywhere.
We’ve played this course for quite a few years… it’s very disappointing to see it managed so poorly.

Ahhh the glorious days of golf are right around the corner, and already I’m daydreaming about being out on Tanglewood. Just my buddies, my clubs, perfectly trimmed greens and fairways, the sounds of nature, the mosquito’s, and for some reason I can’t stop thinking about Tiger Woods after all the scandal publicity!
When my golf buddies and I head out for the links we are usually drawn to Tanglewood, even though there are about 100 other golf courses in between us. I think its the whole package, perfectly kept greens and fairways, friendly staff, and the golf carts aren’t all hoopty. My favorite hole is west 8, it’s shaped like the Michigan glove, and has the mini Mackinac bridge to get to the green. It’s kinda cool, not to mention I usually par or birdie it so quite naturally I’ll like it the most.
My philosophy is, if the course is top notch the green fee shouldn’t matter. It’s $ 49 for 18 with a cart… hold on, hold on… yeah it’s a little pricey but trust me it’s worth every penny. They do have spring and fall rates like all the other clubs do, and is priced the same as them. Which means… if your gonna spend the duckets to play, you might as well go to a nice course.
The club house is really nice and often times they have some sort of wedding or banquet going on, which tells you how nice it really is. After you have failed to achieve par for the course, take a load off in the Tanglewood restaurant and have some cocktails and some great food. Try one of their burgers or the ribs. Really good!