Have Golf Resorts Been Ruined?

Yes, that is a bit of a click-bait type title, but is a thought that ran through my head on the flight back from my recent trip to the Pinehurst area.

I went to the Pinehurst resort on a work boondoggle back in 2011 when I first started playing golf, so my memories and impressions are very different than if I went to the resort for the first time today. And while I didn't play any golf at the resort on this trip, we did go over to get dinner on our arrival day. I recognize that the 2hours I spent on property is not a fair judgement, but it struck me as more of an obnoxious party boy crowd than I remembered.

We did play golf at mid pines/southern pines/pine needles, and also had dinner at Pine Needles on our last night. The atmosphere couldn't be more different, and I couldn't have loved it any more. Maybe that's also not a fair judgement since the mid-pines hotel is closed for renovations.

That's not to say I didn't encounter any idiots at these properties. One particular fellow was trying to find a path to the green on #10 at Southern Pines from down by #11 tee, hit at least his 3rd tree of the hole with his half-orange-half-green ball, and was having a full mental breakdown while walking towards his ball now located in front of 12 tee. The only words out of his mouth I understood were "I PAID $300 FOR DIRT AND PINE STRAW!"

But I've head this type of observation before, particularly about Sand Valley, and as I work on planning the next group trip I have to wonder if golf has become so popular in the last 5 years that all the big golf resorts that make golf trips easy have been overrun by the backwards hat, untucked bad-birdie shirt, transfusion drinking putz?

Do I now have to look overseas to avoid all the riff-raff? Am I being a gatekeeping elitist putz myself?