Extremely disappointing experience -- rules are one thing, but how you treat people matters…read more
We drove in from South Dakota to spend time with family in Kearney, while another family members drove in from Texas. Since we were all together over the holiday weekend, we decided to play a round of golf. Unfortunately, what should have been a fun family outing ended with us leaving after the fourth hole because of the unacceptable behavior of one employee.
Before arriving, our family member in Kearney called and explained that there would be six of us. We were told that groups of six were not allowed, so we booked two separate tee times for groups of three. When we arrived, we were again told that groups of six were not permitted, although we were told a group of five would be acceptable.
We initially split into a group of two and a group of four. We played the first two holes that way. On the third hole, two people stopped playing--one was recovering from shoulder surgery and the other from ankle surgery. At that point, only four of us were actually playing, so we combined.
We also had our 1 1/2-year-old daughter with us. The two women who stopped playing stayed together in the cart and watched her. One of them got out one time and hit one ball.
We continued through the fourth hole. We were scrambling, so we weren't taking an unreasonable amount of time, and there was no group in front of us or behind us. We were not slowing anyone down or affecting the pace of play.
A gentleman driving a Gator approached us and told us we couldn't play as a group of six. He was polite, and we explained that two people had stopped playing and only four of us were actually playing. He said, "Okay, I will go tell them." We thought the situation had been resolved.
It wasn't.
A short time later, a group of three golf carts came by. One of the men yelled at us, "YOU CAN'T PLAY FUCKING SIX-SOMES."
The leader of our group responded, "We aren't fucking playing six," and we parked our carts.
The man began aggressively calling us liars and repeatedly complained that we had six golf bags. He said he was going to call the clubhouse and have us kicked off the course. We told him to do so because we were following the rules and had already explained the situation to the other employee.
He continued cussing at us and behaving aggressively. He insisted that he had seen someone else swing a club and accused us of lying. Apparently, the fact that there were still five people with golf clubs was more important than the fact that only four people were actually playing.
The leader of our group's wife explained that she had only swung her club once. Instead of simply listening or explaining the course policy professionally, he got in her face and mocked her.
She told him that if having six golf bags was the issue, she would take hers to the car. She walked back, took her clubs and the other woman's clubs to the car, and removed them from the situation entirely.
The four people actually playing finished the hole, but by then we had had enough. We decided we no longer wanted to spend our family day there.
Two of the men and the woman who took the clubs back to the car went into the clubhouse and explained what happened. The manager told us it was a "miscommunication."
A miscommunication is one thing. An employee screaming profanity at paying customers, calling them liars, aggressively confronting them, and getting in a woman's face is something entirely different.
We would have had no problem being told to separate back into our original groups. We were never unwilling to follow the rules. The issue was how this employee chose to enforce them.
The gentleman in the Gator had already spoken with us. We calmly explained the situation, and he said he would communicate it to the appropriate people. If the other employee had simply approached us and said, "Hey, we need you to remain separated," this would have ended right there.
Instead, he chose to drive by yelling and cussing at us in front of three women and a 1 1/2-year-old child, then escalated the situation when we tried to explain ourselves.
To be fair, all of the other staff members we interacted with were friendly and professional. This review is specifically about the behavior of this one employee. Unfortunately, one employee can completely ruin an otherwise enjoyable experience--and that is exactly what happened.
We came from different states to spend time with our family over a holiday weekend. We paid to play golf, had two tee times, were not holding up the course, and were simply trying to enjoy the day together. We left after the fourth hole and did not finish our round.
Rules can be enforced without disrespect. We expected better.
No round of golf, no group size, and no number of golf bags is worth an employee treating customers this way.
We will not be returning, and unfortunately, this experience is what our family will remember about this course--not the golf.
