Okay everyone, we’ve got this sorted out the best we can. There are a lot of guidelines that the State of Maine has issued. Most of it pertains to the golf course operators providing a safe environment for people to play golf. There is a link at the bottom of this post that outlines everything. For our customers, we’re going to keep it as simple as possible.
1. Call the clubhouse and make a tee time. Tee times can be made up to seven days in advance. 207-827-4779.
2. Once you have made your tee time, go to our on-line store and pay for your golf. If you need a power cart or pull/push cart, you can purchase those on-line as well. Here’s the link:
3. Please remain in your car until 10 minutes before your tee time.
4. If you are renting a golf cart, it will be ready for you with your name on it. It will be sanitized and clean. Single riders only unless you live under the same roof. Carts may not be taken to the parking lot before or after your round.
5. There will be a ‘starter’ managing the 1st/10th tees. The starter will give you the okay to start/continue your round.
6. Be respectful of the players in your group, and of the other players on the golf course. Maintain social distancing at all times.
7. Flagsticks must remain in the hole and must not be touched.
8. There are no garbage cans on the course, so please pack out your trash. Please remember the golf cart is not a garbage can.
9. Please pick up your own tees after you use them. Do not pick up tees that are not yours.
10. Please return your cart to the designated area when you are done with your round.
11. Please do not congregate in the parking lot when you are done playing.
Remember, the clubhouse, practice range and practice putting green will not be open. The portable restroom between #4 and #7 has been removed. There will be no restroom facilities available. As horrible as this may sound, we have lots of trees, brush and bushes around the perimeter of the course. Keep a roll of toilet paper in your golf bag and just imagine you are on a camping trip. We are truly sorry for this inconvenience.
As questions and situations come up, we will use our best common sense, and we will work within the spirit of the guidelines provided by the State of Maine. And again, this is a small price to pay for having the ability to get the golf course open. Our goal is for everyone to enjoy playing golf and to stay as safe as possible.
Official guidelines from the State of Maine: https://www.maine.gov/decd/sites/maine.gov.decd/files/inline-files/COVID%20Checklist%20for%20ME%20Phase%201%20Golf%20Courses_0.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0JW9fAd79CQgYRzNKcEiTYwJhFZbSG55hRO6AK0DJ506NOXMhLrNa3qqg
As the 2019 golf season winds down here in Maine, it’s a
good time to bring everyone up-to-date about what’s happening at Hidden Meadows
Golf Course.
This coming Saturday we are having our annual season-ending Haunted
Golf Ball 5-Person Yellow Ball Scramble. In this format, four players on the
team play a scramble, one player on the team plays the yellow ball. You combine
the scramble score with the yellow ball score on each hole for the team score.
The yellow ball rotates to a different team member each hole.
The cost is $10 per player for members, $20 per player for
non-members. Carts are $12 per seat. We have room for two more teams. For more
details about this tournament, click on this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/385245698829059/
As I’m sure everyone is painfully aware of, this has been
one of the wettest year’s on record in the greater Bangor area. In August alone
we had 12 inches of rain. Average is less than one inch. As a result, the
course and cart paths have taken a beating this season.
We already had plans to clean out all of our drainage
ditches this fall. While we are doing that, we are going to add some additional
drainage to the course, particularly on the fairways of #1, #5, #6 and #9. We
have also added a cart path on the right side of the 5th fairway,
and are in the process of adding a cart path on the left side of the 6th
fairway as well as to the left of #6 green.
All of this will help to re-direct water and re-direct cart
traffic, which will in turn give us a chance to fill in the low spots and add
drainage to these areas of the course. Weather permitting, we should be able to
get a lot of this done this fall, which in turn will put us in a better
position for the spring of 2020.
This has, unfortunately, pushed back our scheduled opening
of the new tee and green on #4. While the new green is ready to go, the new tee
is only about half way done. Conditions have been so wet that we haven’t been
able to safely move dirt from where we mine it next to #5 fairway without
tearing up the course. Once things get dry enough to be able to start moving fill
again, we’ll get that project finished. We are hoping (and keeping our fingers
crossed) to have it ready to go and open early next summer.
We have acquired 10 new carts this fall, so we now have
several of our 2010 Club Car Precedent gas carts for sale. They are $2,600 plus
tax. As an added value, we will offer free storage for this coming winter, and
will include trail fees and storage for the 2020 season. We have already sold
four out of the 10 we have available, so if you are interested don’t wait too
long. Contact Rob or Joe for more details.
As many of you already know, this past spring we entered
into a 10-year lease agreement with Kitsap County Washington for Village Greens
Golf Course, an 18-hole executive course located in Port Orchard, WA, about an
hour west of Seattle on the Puget Sound. While our initial plans were to only
be involved as a semi-silent partner, it turned out to be quite a bit more than
that. Subsequently, Joe has been splitting time between the two courses this
season.
If you are wondering how in the heck we got involved with a
course out in the state of Washington, here’s the short version:
Joe grew up in Bremerton, WA, which is a 15-minute drive
from Port Orchard. He took his first golf lesson at Village Greens in 1966,
when he was 6-years-old. He got his first job as an assistant golf professional
at Village Greens in 1982, and worked there for 2 ½ years.
Joe’s freshman year of high school at West High School in Bremerton, WA.
Village Greens is owned and operated by Kitsap County. Over
the past several years, the county lost more than $500,000 on the course. Even
though most courses in western Washington stay open year-round, the county had
been closing the course at the end of October the past several years, then
re-opening the first or second week of April, to help reduce expenses. This
past spring, they decided to permanently close the course.
When Joe caught wind of this in late March through social media,
he made some calls to try to hastily form a golf course management group. While
the management group didn’t quite form as hoped, Joe was able to secure a lease
on the course and get it opened back up by Memorial Day weekend.
Initially Joe planned to spend one week per month at Village
Greens, and thee weeks per month at Hidden Meadows. That changed a little bit
because of the weather here in Maine this year, and he ended up being at Hidden
Meadows for the entire months of September and October. Joe will be heading out
to Washington for the month of November and will be splitting time between the
two courses throughout the winter.
It’s difficult enough running one golf course, much less
two, especially since they couldn’t be much further apart geographically. So for
the 2020 season, Andrew McDade will be returning to run the day-to-day business
at Hidden Meadows. Andrew worked for us during the 2016 and 2017 seasons, so he
is familiar with the golf course and many of you.
Chad Armell will remain our Green Superintendent and Jim
Gaouette will remain Chad’s assistant. Garry, Cole, Harrison and Bernard will
continue to work on our grounds maintenance crew. Sue, Kristy, Linda, Jacob,
Sam, Bryce and Willem will continue to work in the clubhouse. Joe and Rob will
be splitting time between the two courses.
If you are wondering how this will affect Hidden Meadows,
outside of seeing Joe and Rob a little bit less, there will be little to no
differences in the day to day operation of the facilities. And you will
continue to see improvements on the golf course, and we will continue to invest
in the property and community just like you have every year.
Additionally, your membership at Hidden Meadows includes a
full membership at Village Greens. Range balls and power cart rentals are
included with the Village Greens portion of your membership. While we
understand that most of you won’t spend a whole lot of time out in Washington,
these benefits are available if you happen to be in the area.
The last thing we need to address is a question, and a rumor, that we’ve been hearing very frequently: Are we planning on selling Hidden Meadows Golf Course? Absolutely not. We’ve just finished our 10th season here and have no intention to sell the course. While everyone has their price for anything and everything, it’s not something we foresee doing in the near or distant future.
If you are interested in learning a little bit more about
Village Greens Golf Course, below is a link to the Facebook page, followed by a
link to a news story that was on a local TV station there last month:
Sunday, November 3rd will be the last day we’re
open for the season, so we’ve still got some great fall golf weather to look
forward to. Make sure to get out for a few more rounds of before the winter
sets in. And make sure to check out some
of the great year-end specials we have going in the pro shop.
The weather has not been kind at all this spring, and course conditions are less than ideal. We’ve decided to postpone both the Monday Night Scramble, and the Senior League for at least one week. We’ll be keeping carts off the course for an additional 3-4 days, but if this week’s weather holds out for us, we might be able to get them out this weekend.
So, while you may see the carts staged in front of the clubhouse, they’re not quite ready to go. But they will be soon. We’ll get there, eventually.
