Golf Club of Houston — Local services in Fall Creek

I’m writing on behalf of a colleague who joined us for a round of golf at The Golf Club of Houston last Wednesday, May 9th, 2018. After an enjoyable round, we returned to the parking lot to find a Harris County Sherriff’s Deputy parked beside his Ford Explorer. The rear driver’s-side window of the car had been smashed and his backpack, laptop and a $5,000.00 Omega Limited Edition wristwatch had been stolen. His front door lock was damaged where they attempted to break in and as a result of that effort, his front driver’s side window was also cracked. His was one of two or three vehicles broken into at the same time that day. Our caddy informed us that his vehicle and another caddy’s had been broken into a few weeks earlier. Police reports were filed and after some time, my colleague headed home to deal with the window replacements. The most troubling part to us was that there was no management on duty to speak with about the incident. One of the members was with us and he also expressed deep disappointment that no one was there to help your customers in their time of need. At $159.00/player green fees after 3:00 pm and several groups still on the course in the early evening hours, I would expect that an operation of this size and notoriety would have at least one manager on duty until the last guest on the course or in the dining room has gone. I/we make several trips every year to play the course, usually right before/after the Houston Open as well as in the fall and have done so for the past seven or eight years. I am also a former member of Blackhorse Golf Club and continue to play there more frequently than any other course I play. The staff there knows several of our group by name. It was really a shame to have such a nice afternoon end with such a frustrating experience which completely overshadowed the good time on the course. Some of us have had similar experiences with break-ins around town and due to lack of management response or concern have discontinued our patronage of these places. Many establishments have added a security guard to patrol the parking lot and I think that would be a wise investment on your part and greatly appreciated by your customers. My colleague’s property insurance only covered 20% of his loss. I am hoping to hear back from you with an offer to help offset the remainder of his loss and the corrective actions to be taken to prevent this from recurring. I look forward to your reply.

Update

Management reply was also disappointing:

Home office passed along your email to me. I am the General Manager of Golf Club of Houston. I was made aware of the incident the next morning. I do not know the gentleman who was driving the Ford Explorer (you had said it was a Jeep but I am assuming it was the Explorer). My understanding is that Reese McCall, the Assistant General Manager and Director of Golf has spoken to your friend the day after it happened. Beyond that I am not comfortable speaking about that particular situation with anybody besides the owner. However, I do agree that a better job of communication is needed. Julie was working that evening in the restaurant and was the Manager on Duty. Reese had left at approximately 7:15 after he spoke to the police. It doesn’t help to have a Manager on Duty if everybody is not aware of that and we will rectify the situation. As far as break ins, it is the first break in that we have had that took anything of value (the other break in you spoke of had club, tools, etc but nothing was taken) since I have been here for almost two years. We are looking into better cameras that can detect license plates and are also looking at security pricing for various shifts. Unfortunately, all parking lots are targets so we need to do a better job of protecting ours. Unfortunately, our insurance does not cover theft in parking lots or of personal belongings. I am sorry this happened to your friend and I apologize we did not handle the situation better. We won't be back and if you value your vehicle and possessions, I suggest you...

CliffNotes for those just checking reviews: Car was broken into (smashed window) during an afternoon round. Staff was apologetic about the situation, but otherwise not helpful. This has happened before, and security cameras are not installed to cover the Guest Parking Lot. Other than the smash & grab, a nice course that was fun to play.

I played this course while in Houston visiting my in-laws for a few days. I’ll start with the positives: the twilight rate of $45 was a steal compared to some of the other courses. The course was in great shape despite the amount of rain. The marshal allowed me to play as a single since it was pretty open, and good pace of play allowed me to complete the round in under 3 hours.

Now for the negative: During the round, someone smashed the middle window on the driver’s side of my car and took a backpack. This happened in broad daylight sometime between 2:00 (when I arrived) and 4:30 (when my bank’s fraud dept called me about some attempted charges.) Upon getting back to my car, I called the pro shop to let them know about what had happened. The person in the pro shop was apologetic for what had happened, but that was about it; no one came out to check on the situation, see if they could do anything to assist, etc... After filing a report with a police officer, I went in to let someone know that there was a ton of glass in the parking lot. They were closing up, and I was helped a lot by a woman whose name I can’t remember. She took my name and info, and said she’d pass it along to the GM who would call in the morning after checking the security cameras. She was the most helpful person in all of this. I called him (Repeat: I. Called. Him.) at 2pm the next day, left a message, and he called back. He was also apologetic, said there was nothing on the cameras, and that was that.

During this process, I was told “we haven’t had a break-in in months... for a while, an officer would do patrols through the parking lot.” I read a review about a break-in a year ago in what sounds like a similar situation. Overall, everyone I dealt with was nice and apologetic about the situation, but that was about it. It’s easy to be nice to someone who has just had their car’s window smashed in and stolen from while on your property. However, playing on a course with such a good reputation, I expected more. More assistance, more communication — anything that could have helped take the bad taste out of my mouth. This is a course that plays host to a PGA Tour event, not the local muni. Had this happened to a member, naturally, more assistance would have been given. I’m not naïve enough to expect the same treatment as a member who pays thousands per year, but some attempt to remedy the situation given the circumstances would have been nice.

Last thing: if this has happened multiple times, put some cameras on the light poles that would cover the entire...

Played in JULY 2015:

WARNING: Right now the course is in terrible condition! I recently played in a foursome with 2 people that have played here in the past and they could not believe how bad it was. All of us got a tee time special on golf now for $125 per person, this was supposed to be a good deal but it did not feel like it when we were playing. We park and a employee shows up to pick up our clubs, we go inside and after signing in (with golf now you pay online) and we start walking out to our carts and the pro shop employee walks us out and says the course is going through a grass transition in the fairways. Ok? We go to the practice green and find out all the greens have recently been aerated. So you can imagine how frustrating it was when your putting and your ball is bouncing on the green in different directions when you are going for a birdie. Now for the fairways I am honestly speechless on what to say. For up to 30 yards on some fairways there is nothing but dirt. We all stopped and asked the caddie what was up with the course and he said they were recovering from a flood. (That's not what they told us at the proshop?) After playing, we all go to the bar and I guess the bartender already knew we were disappointed because he just started talking about the poor condition of the course, apologized and said it was because they allowed to many tournaments to play this season and it tore up the course and they should close it down because in his opinion it is unplayable at this point, but the management doesn't care because it's a business that needs to make money and they throw out some cheaper tee times that require a fore caddie and we unfortunately found them. We wanted to turn around and get a refund, but with Golf Now you can't get a refund unless it's bad weather, it felt like we were robbed and trapped somewhere we didn't want to be. And the forecaddie was required, he didn't know the correct distance half the time. Why is this a requirement when the course is in this poor condition right now? I especially felt bad knowing that this was my dads 60th birthday.

So we all heard three different reasons from the staff why the course is in this condition; transition of different grass, flood, and to many tournaments. This is supposed to be one of the best golf courses in Houston and after playing many of them, I would honestly rate this one as the worst for its CURRENT condition and for the extremely poor management who needs to inform everyone of the condition before they set a tee time. The green fee should be $40 for the condition of this dog track right now. Having a returning customer is better than hiding the poor condition from someones first time playing who will never return now. ANY course in Houston right now is better...