City Club of Marietta, Georgia represents all that's wrong with golf

If you got all the world’s golfers together and asked them what their pet peeves were, probably 90 percent of them would include a tirade about horrendous green conditions and golf club officials who neither give discounts nor warn golfers.

I played the City Club of Marietta with a threesome recently, and the greens looked like something a Bagdad, Iraq course might resemble after a good strafing by FA-18s. They were bumpy, and that may have been their best quality. Large, bare patches were found on many of them. It was impossible to make a putt, unless it was simply blind luck.

Even one of the cart guys said afterward: “Yeah, they should warn people about it.”

Yes, they should. BEFORE we pay our green fees.

This was a course that does a booming business; at least it was on the day I played it. It’s right beside the ritzy-looking Marietta Conference Center and Resort. You would think they could afford to take care of their greens.

I paid more than $100 for two green fees. I’ve paid much less to play on courses with far better greens.

Only a handful of courses I’ve played – and as a traveling golfer, I’ve played hundreds – have warned me about sub-par greens before I teed off. I need to start keeping a list of those courses to honor them.

Which is a shame, because it should be standard procedure.