Gillette Ridge Golf Club — Restaurant in Bloomfield

I recently played at Gillette and have the following criticism and things to make golfers aware of.

It does not seem they fill divots or repair much during the season. It is now July, and you will find tee boxes dried out and unrepaired, fairways littered with divots, and greens that are also, filled with ball marks and ground that needs repair.

I have now had 2 experiences with an unflexible pro shop. I scheduled 9 holes, was surprised to be charged for 18. Went to the pro shop and they stated they remembered me calling to play 18. I stated we only played 9, only intended to play 9. Despite not playing 18, having evidence of intending to play 9, they shrugged me off and said sorry nothing we can do. Another example was purchasing a round for my friend and them paying for them selves. The pro shop told me to eat the cost...

This has happened with the same pro shop person so maybe its the person and not the policy but 2nd time around has left me with a total distaste for this course.

Sadly, the course makes it apparent they care more about cash flow than golfers or golf quality. If this was a one off or one season occurrence I could understand. Having this kind of experience several years in a row has made my group move our league. Play knowing you will pay for mediocre conditions at a relative high cost.

Just go down the street and...

Course was in great shape but had a very disrespectful (and somewhat dangerous) 4 foursome behind us for most of the round. Pace was slow in general (2 foursomes directly in front of us) and I guess this got the group behind us frustrated. Around 8th hole, they began to hit into us, first one ball flying by us just as we got back into the cart to go to the next hole. On the 9th hole, we had just finished and gotten into the cart when the cart roof was struck by a ball. Starter was there, as the 9th tee ends right near the 1st tee. Asked him to speak with the group behind us, detailing the above and our concerns, and he gave us a halfhearted, lackluster "Ok". On 11th hole we finished putting, were still on the green when one of the people in the group hit in from about 150 yards out, ball landing 10-15 feet from us on the green. After this, we confronted them, (they were clearly drinking (we were not), words were said that I won't repeat and we told them to just go ahead of us. Very disappointed that the starter did not take our concerns more seriously. Truly ruined most of the game for us...not sure if we will be coming back. There are a lot of very nice public courses in our area where that type of behavior isn't tolerated and the staff would have put a stop to it...

I've played this course a lot the past couple of years. The twilight rates make it a really good value. However, they really need to figure out their management here. It'd be a 4-5 star review if they had the right people.

Conditions wise, it's pretty good. Green were recently aerated. No idea how recently, looks to be weeks ago now, but they were pretty bumpy. Putts did not roll true. Fairways were in good shape. Soft but not wet. Moderate roll out on your drives. Rough was up pretty good as well as the fescue just outside the rough. With that up so high, it's pretty easy to lose a ball being only slightly off line.

Biggest issue however is how the place is managed. There's never a starter, probably 99% of the time, or a ranger for that matter. The one time there was a starter, he was pretty rude immediately on the first tee and put a sour taste in my mouth going into the round.

We played here this past Wednesday. Pay $65 each to play on a weekday, mid day. We were a foursome. No starters out there or rangers spacing out groups and pacing people. The round ended up being 5:15 long and they didn't seem to care. Instead of hurrying some groups up that backed up pace of play, they were handing out rain checks after 9 holes.

I'll be sticking to twilight...