Growling Frog Golf Course — Attraction in Melbourne

I'm sad to write this review because it's a good course with good facilities and I spent about $200 there over the last month. But Beware about passing on feedback no matter how reasonable your feedback or how polite you try to be. This public access course closes on dark....well that's what I believed until tonight. I drove 35 minutes to use their range yet at 5.15 the abrupt manager strutted out and shouted, "I'm closing in 10 minutes!" I had been doing some putting and chipping and was about to hit my range balls, structuring my practice around normal opening times. On my way out I thought it was the right thing to politely raise the matter with him, as I was baffled by this early closure. His response was, "there is no one here". Well I was here and I tried to explain that I had been caught out by his early closure and was trying to find out if this was a regular thing as it was not advertised as closing early. But I didn't get the chance - he bristled and piled on an astonishing list of accusations at my feet in response and eventually said that I was not welcome.(I thought it was a public access venue?) Among my offences was that I had stayed until dark on a previous occasion. He clearly couldn't care less that I had made a 70 min round trip based on the "we are open until dark" that staff had always told me when I had played or practice at the Frog. Their website also says it closes at 6.pm.Reading a few other comments here, it would seem that the manager has a track record for rudeness, defensiveness and aggression. I'm also not the first to be rushed off the course by staff in a hurry to get home. It would appear that the main priority for staff at The Frog is to get out of there as soon as possible. Frankly if they are running an open- according 'to -demand model, fine, but communicate this to people up front and add this to advertising and messaging delivered by staff. At the moment, customers who believe the Frogs advertised opening hours or who complain about these not being followed find themselves in the cross hairs of a vindictive manager who holds a grudge. Seriously I felt like I had stepped onto the set of...

I recently visited Growling frog, and while the course itself might offer a decent play, the security situation is a joke. Despite the presence of security cameras around the clubhouse, I was dismayed to find they were non-operational. My visit took an unfortunate turn when my truck, parked in the car park outside the club house was broken into. The thieves made off with tools valued between $15,000 and $20,000. This incident was not only distressing due to the significant loss but also because of the lackluster response from the management.

Upon reporting the incident, the manager's response was cold and unhelpful, indicating such occurrences are COMMON at growling frog. There was no offer of assistance or any assurance of steps being taken to improve security for the future.

For a venue that charges premium rates, the lack of secure parking and passive response to serious incidents is unacceptable. I strongly urge potential visitors to consider these issues seriously before deciding to play here. The negligence towards patron safety and security...

The one star is for the lovely girls behind the counter in the cafe.

The course looks like it would be beautiful however it was in a bad state when we played. We were not notified that the greens were being airated when we booked. They were topped with rough sand that made it like putting on exposed aggregate concrete. The bunkers had not been maintained at all and nobody playing seemed to clean up after their shots. It was extremely busy even though we were told it was quiet, there there was nobody marshalling, it took us 3 hours to play 6 and a half holes. We called it a day at the 11th hole after skipping 3, 7 and 9 to try and get a clear spot.

The woman serving in the pro shop was rude, unwelcoming and very unprofessional. When we checked she was loud, barely acknowledged us and made a comment that was quite insulting.

My partner and I have played many courses in Melbourne and surrounds looking for a course to join, we had heard great things about Growling Frog but unfortunately our experience was...