LPGA International — Local services in Daytona Beach

I'd give it 3.5 stars, but the tragic state of my old favorite course is still too vivid, so I'm giving it 3. This course has long been my favorite in the area because it decidedly did NOT feel like I was "playing through a Florida neighborhood". I was literally heartbroken to see that huge swaths of the Florida Wild along the course have been cleared for construction, such that the entire flavor of the course has been changed, and in my view, borderline destroyed. Places where it seems like there could easily have been a buffer of trees left to maintain the sanctity of the course were clear cut right up to the fairways and greens(!). Of course, people who never played the course before won't know what they missed. Then there was the business of the course itself. When I arrived before my tee time I was informed that "there were no carts". Excuse me? The young gentleman by the bag drop shrugged and said he "guessed" he could give me a cart three minutes before my tee time that would have a partial battery charge. Um... That wouldn't help me much to give me any time to warm up on the range before my round! Credit where its due, the young gentleman in the pro shop was very helpful, kindly comping me range balls which I had scant time left to hit. He did scour around outside to find me a just returned cart that had only been used to go to the driving range and back, so I was pleased and thanked him, even though I later discovered that the cart had no sand and no rake, at least he had tried to do his job well. There were at least three places on the course where carts were stranded or abandoned that had batteries that had run empty. One was from a cart in our group. Sigh... This created chaos on the course, as groups waiting for replacement carts were stranded, being jumped around by other foursomes. There was no starter on the Hills course, so groups were in some cases going out with several carts that only had one golfer in each - obviously exacerbating the problem. Lastly, the greens somehow went from top tier a season or two ago to a barely recognizable version of their prior selves. In summary, I don't know what happened, but something major changed with this course - and it's not just the scores and scores of acres of dirt and heavy equipment moving earth in the background as I lined up some of my tee shots. So much natural carnage that I couldn't help thinking of Joni Mitchell's famous song, "Paved Paradise, Put up a Parking Lot". Management chaos and fixable greens aside, for me at least, I feel indescribably sad to have lost this one of very few remaning Florida golfing...

Played the Jones course on 1/18. Course was in good condition and playable. The customer service was terrible and I will never go back.

First, we asked for a handicap placard for our golf cart for my 86 year-old father in law with a bad hip. Was told in the pro shop to ask one of the bag boys. Bag Boys said they didn't have any and to just go to where we needed to.

Got to the first tee about 15 minutes before our tee time. Was told they were 40 minutes behind schedule. What!?! There was no frost delay! Asked the starter what tee times were ahead of us and some of them were 3 minutes apart. What!?! Sure sounded like they squeezed in some members so they could get done before dark. No apologies!

Back to the cart and handicap placard. We went where we needed to as directed and were locked out because the GPS on the cart was too close (50 yards). Followed the instructions to back out the cart and it wouldn't work. Called the pro shop and the first thing they RUDELY said was "you are too close to the green". They went through the instructions to back it out, which I had already attempted and agreed to send someone out. Starter comes out and the first thing he RUDELY said "was you are too close to the green". He couldn't get it to back out of the restricted area and called for someone else to bring a different cart. That person's first RUDE words were, "you are too close to the green". When he couldn't get it to back out of the restricted area, he gave he the replacement cart which did not have the GPS restrictions. No apologies!

Well, we get to the 11th hole and that cart died and we had to call for them to bring a new cart. Unfortunately, that cart had the same GPS restrictions the first cart had, which caused unnecessary walking for my father-in-law. No apologies!

But, after 3 golf carts and some rude customer service, we did putt out on the 18th green as the sun was setting (about 5:50pm) for a 12:07 tee time. ...

The course we played (Jones) itself was nice and the the price is fair.

But, we had a 1:00 tee time and we arrived at about noon and were told that they were running an hour behind because “they had no carts”. That just seems impossible to me that a golf course would not have the right amount of carts to support their tee times.

We were told at the bag drop that the range is free so we packed up a couple clubs each and walked the medium distance to the range only the find out it’s in fact not free and the card reader at the ball machine wasn’t working so we had to walk back and get cash and then walk back. I don’t have problems with walking but it was 90 and humid and not super pleasant to be milling around outside.

We finally got out on the course at about 2:20 but because it was dependent on carts, a bunch had come in at once so they sent five foursomes all out within 6-8 minutes of each other so that just caused a massive traffic jam and long wait on the first few holes, and with no starter, it was a nightmare trying to find out who’s tee time was what to figure out the order.

Because of the hour and a half delay, we didn’t even get to finish our round. We played the 16th hole in mostly darkness and then had to skip hole 17 and 18. And one of the carts we had was dying by then so we had to use one to push the other one back. And at this point the clubhouse was closed so had the other one died as well, (as they were having multiple issues with dead carts) we would’ve had to pack our stuff up and walk in.

Again the course was fine, but I would NEVER book a tee time here again. The equipment, planning and execution couldn’t be any worse at...