Locust Hill Golf Course, Golf Shop, and Driving Range — Local services in Charles Town

LOCUST HILL OWNER CAN'T SEPARATE POLITICS FROM BUSINESS

Friday night I helped organize and was the emcee for a roundtable discussion regarding industrial solar compounds in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties.

Delegate Clark (who owns Locust Hill) showed up uninvited, unwelcome, and unannounced.

I politely explained to Delegate Clark that he hadn't RSVP'd to attend and that his presence wasn't welcome. I paid for the room - the final say on who could or couldn't attend fell to me.

As you can imagine, Delegate Clark did not take the news that he was being asked to leave well and he refused to leave. I once again explained the situation and told him that if he didn't leave, he'd be trespassing and that I'd call the police and have him removed.

He said "Call the police" so I started dialing the number. I guess he didn't think I'd call his bluff, but when he saw me dialing he started for the exit and I escorted him out, but not before he accused me and others of "lying about him" and made it known that I was no longer welcome at Locust Hill Golf Course (which he owns) and that my membership was revoked. I said "That's fine, as long as I get a refund." (which as of writing this I haven't received).

This is not the first time I've had a run-in with Delegate Clark related to his golf course. Last year he was caught telling Commissioner Stolipher when I and another local conservative played golf. I guess he thought it was important Stolipher knew when and who we played with.

When he was caught last year I made it clear to Wayne that golf is golf and politics are politics and that as far as I was concerned when it came to him and Locust Hill the two weren't connected. Evidently, Wayne can't separate his politics from his business ventures. I wonder if he will now try to kick out everyone who doesn't vote for him?

Not a particularly good business decision to chase away customers based on their...

Went and played a round with friends this week. The course was ok, many of the tee boxes need work. We were playing and having a good time, not slowing anyone down as we allowed everyone behind us to play through. We get all the way to 16 before we run into the owner, Wayne. He was surprised we were playing in such a large group even though the club house staff knew before we started. One of the guys got ahold of his tee shot and put it over the green (on a par 3) “are you aware you hit the ball on to the 17th hole?!?” snapped Wayne in a very condescending tone. Most of us had never played there and weren’t familiar with the course layout. Was anyone playing in front or behind us? No. Then he fed us some BS about COVID restrictions and number of players allowed on each hole do to CVOID, none of his staff were wearing masks so they must not be too concerned. The employee that checked us in at the club house came up behind us with another employee playing a round, we let them play through and then he went and told the owner our group was too big, “your the one that checked us all in”. They should have been happy they had so many paying customers, not worry about the speed in which your staff could squeeze 18 in during work. Was a great time until we met Wayne. He should focus more on the customer service aspect of owning a golf course. Not sure I will...

Yikes...where do I start....

Had a smooth checking in and payment ($47) for a Monday play early-ish in the morning. The guy behind the desk was swamped but didn't seem agitated which is a plus from what I've read here.

As soon as we rolled up to the first tee, the feeling of dreaded slow play came to the surface. We continued to play through, even getting stacked with two separate groups on one tee box more than once. There was a ranger driving around but play continued to be slow. Finally, at 17 they came out and expressed their apologies for the slow play group that essentially slowed the whole course down. Attempting to mitigate the issue on 17 is useless. We ended up skipping 18 and going home as there were three separate groups on 17 still (including us)

Course conditions...eh. I understand that it's been hot and dry for a solid two months and dry spots on the fairways is understandable, but the amount of crab grass in the fairways was insane. The collars of the greens were the same way, crab grass all the way around on majority of the holes. Tee boxes? You bet, crab grass. I have been playing quite a few courses throughout the region these past few months and they still have maintained clear fairways, collars, and tee boxes.

Paying $47 to play on a course with these conditions just doesn't seem...