Poppy Estate Golf Course — Local services in Township of Langley

Not Kid Friendly! - This looked like a great course to take our 2 boys, 11 and 13. Played between 40 and 50 rounds with them at various courses & have always been treated by friendly staff & service. Both are both pretty good players & have no problem keeping pace. It was $163.00 for the 4 of us with driving carts & this was “triple twilight” rate. Our 13 year is diagnosed with High Functioning Autism and OCD. He absolutely loves golf & has improved each round. We loaded the bags on our carts & my son sat in the drivers seat. My wife and I explained that he was not allowed to drive the cart because of liability. He was understanding and complying & got ready to enjoy his round. However, while we were speaking with him the course Marshall rudely interrupted us & started explaining the same rules to him again like a drill Sargent. He was very abrasive and rude in his tone and didn't let anyone else speak. Once he let us, we told him again we fully understood the rules & liability. We ensured only my wife & I would drive. Still, our son was quite taken back by this & very upset. On the 1st hole he commented how rude the Marshall was to him and he didn’t want to ever come back. By the 4th hole, he was still so bothered, upset & crying he wanted to leave. My wife and I and other son we’re obviously upset now as well and ruining our family time. My son was inconsolable. We decided I would leave with him and take him for a drive while my wife and other son would finish the round and we would pick them back up later. We were at the back of the course, I had to drive all the way back to the club house. I went back to the clubhouse window and explained what happened to the lady working there. I kindly asked that since we’d only played 4 holes and given the unfortunate circumstances if we could please have the green & carts fees refunded back for me and my son only. We were happy for them to keep the fees for my wife and other son since they were going to finish. She just shrugged her shoulders and asked my wife come back and see her after so she could speak with the general manager as she didn’t know if they would give us our money back. I was miffed but gave her the benefit of the doubt & just wanted to leave with my son who was still very upset. I asked her if my wife should come back after 9 holes or 18 because as she likely wouldn’t be in until around 9pm. She said after 18 was fine as she was staying late to close up. I relayed the message to my wife. While I was out with my son he was able to calm down and re-iterated to me how upset he was at the way he was spoken to by the Marshall & if had he not said anything and at let my wife and I speak to him all would have been good…or at the very least been much more kind and not cut us off. I picked my wife and other son back up at 8:45pm (they had finished about 8:30pm) my wife told me the lady had gone locked up and wasn’t able to speak to her as she had requested. It was obvious she didn’t care so she just left. Next morning, I called & left a message for the General Manager. He called me back & I explained the situation to him. Told him this is the 1st time this has ever happened & had to leave a course. I asked again, for a refund for me & my sons green/cart fees. He lectured me again the rules & I explained once again that my wife and I explained them to our son. Our issue was the rude/abrasive way my son was talked to which upset him so much it forced us to leave. He explained they don’t give refunds if the player chooses to leave after hole 1. He wasn’t understanding of the situation, nor offered an apology or asked how my son was doing. Told me the marshall was off but would call him that day & call me back. Been 4 weeks & still no call back or, refund / rain check. Assume he never spoke with the marshall or could care less & lines up how we were treated by all the staff. Obvious, ownership, management & staff don't care about treating customers the right way especially junior golfers who are future of golf. We absolutely, will NEVER play this...

We’ve golfed this course previously and knew it would be slow but……..

Unbelievably slow round. Started late (no starter on site but we were told on checking in that they were running late). The wait started on hole 2. By the 5th hole there were 5 groups waiting. We hadn’t seen a marshal so called the clubhouse receiving a voice message that they were too busy to answer the call. Two holes later we saw the marshal who was incredibly rude to us; basically telling us that regardless of where we golfed on a weekend we should expect slow play…..after he told one of us to stop talking. He also incorrectly tried to blame the slow play on the group ahead of us. He was not interested in hearing anyone’s frustration or trying to have any kind of conflict resolution. We never saw him again and thought it was odd he didn’t swing by to see if things got any better.

One of our group was so frustrated and thrown off by the start stop and rudeness of the marshall that she chose to stop playing after 9 holes.

The group ahead of us was headed to the clubhouse after the 9th hole to get hotdogs and the marshal apparently told them they couldn’t because they were behind. They never did get anything to eat.

Never saw the cart girl once.

Eventually finished in over 5 hours and although we would usually have stayed afterwards for drinks and food we chose to spend our money elsewhere.

We spoke to a ‘manager?’ as we left and he genuinely seemed to hear what we were saying and said that someone would follow up with us. At least we left feeling heard.

Did get a follow up email the next day but felt that it was more about throwing the marshal under the bus than satisfying four unhappy guests.

(We had never met the group ahead of us until yesterday...

I golf at Poppy quite often and I have to say I was deeply disappointed with the unprofessionalism and poor etiquette of the Marshal on duty today.

Once my group reached hole #6 the Marshal had started to closely follow our group, driving his cart through a good handful of my group members shots. - At this point not a word had been said to our group from the Marshal about anything.

A couple holes later a member of my group began to wait for the Marshal to stop his cart so he could take his shot, The Marshal proceeded to tell him to “hurry up” and “shoot” and that there was “No need to be waiting”. The Marshal was less than 15 feet from my friend at that time. If I was in that situation I would have waited also as having a running golf cart beside you can be rather annoying mid shot.

As we finished the #8th hole, The Marshal then states to us “This is your final warning” after saying nothing at all to our group prior. I understand we might have been 1/2 - 3/4 of a hole behind, but we were a complete hole ahead of the group behind us. After that he didn’t say much to our group but I was extremely disappointed with how he handled slow play. I understand that the Marshal has a job to do, but there is absolutely no reason for the lack of professionalism and politeness.

Having speak with members of multiple other groups throughout the round I found that our group was not the only one dealing...