Of the surveys completed, 272 were from men and 104 were from women. Eight individuals did not provide age and/or gender information. Of those responding, 60% of men and 51% of women were age 61-70. Thirty-two percent (32%) of men and 25% of women were over 70 years old.
Handicaps (18 hole) for men ranged from less than 10 (10.2%) to more than 40 (1%) with the majority falling in the handicap range of 10-25 (69%). Of the 73 women reporting an 18 hole handicap, 13% had a handicap of 10-17 and 4% had a handicap greater than 40. The majority of women reporting had a handicap range of 18-33 (55%). Six men and 32 women reported only a 9 hole handicap.
Course conditions including, tee boxes, fairways, greens, rough, sand traps and practice areas were rated for both Legacy Hills and White Wing. With few exceptions, the conditions at both courses were rated as good or excellent by more than 50% of survey respondents. The exceptions were the tee boxes on Legacy Hills and the sand traps on both courses which were rated as fair or poor by more than 50% of respondents. Players with lower handicaps tended to rate the course conditions less favorably than those with higher handicaps.
In addition to rating course conditions, a number of survey forms returned included comments about current course conditions. Many indicated that the tee boxes need leveling and the greens at Legacy Hills need repair and/or replacement. Others suggested that the condition of both courses has deteriorated over the past few years.
More than 60% of respondents indicated that they use the practice facilities often (more than 5 times/month). These facilities (driving ranges, putting greens and short practice area) were rated as good or excellent by more than 75% of those responding.
The expected pace of play (4 hours and 10 minutes) was rated for both courses as “Adequate” by more than 75% of those responding. For Legacy Hills, 4% of respondents indicated they felt that pace was too fast and 19% felt it was too slow. For White Wing, 7.2% indicated that pace was too fast and 17% indicated it was too slow. There is some concern about whether all survey respondents interpreted this question as intended. The question referred to the “EXPECTED” pace of play. It is possible that some individuals rating the pace of play as “too slow” were referring to the ACTUAL pace of play rather than the expected pace.
Based on survey results, the Chelsea Tee Time system is used by approximately 88% of players to request tee times. Of those indicating use of the Chelsea system, 67% request tee times through the internet and 33% request tee times by telephone. Less than 15% of players responding make tee times directly through the pro shop either by telephone or in person. Of 363 responses 154 (42.4%) indicated that they regularly link two or more tee times. Forty-two respondents (27.3% ) regularly would like to link 4 or more tee times. 20.8% of 154 responding said they want to link 4 tee times. 32 people or 20.8% of 154 responding said they want to link 4 tee times and 20 people or 13% of those responding said they want to link 5 or more tee times.
More than half of the respondents indicated that the availability of merchandise in the pro shop is important to them. Of those answering “YES” to whether or not merchandise was important, the following merchandise preferences were indicated:
Equipment (clubs, bags, etc) 61.3%
Clothes with course logo 63.5%
Clothes without logo 35.7%
Gift items (glasses, cups with logo) 25.0%
Balls, gloves, shoes, etc 76.8%
Miscellaneous (sun screen, etc) 27.6%
The type of merchandise currently available in the pro shops was rated as fair or poor by more than 60% of respondents. The quality of merchandise regularly available in the pro shops was rated as good or excellent by 70% of those responding, but the quantity of merchandise was rated as fair or poor by 63%. Comments included requests for more women’s apparel, a wider range of sizes and styles and lower priced merchandise.
Approximately 83% of people responding rated the availability and assistance of pro shop personnel as good or excellent. Several people included comments stating how friendly and helpful pro shop staff have been.