Links At Union Vale, The

$46 (cart included), played on Wednesday, September 2013 at 6am

PLAY THIS COURSE OFTEN. IT IS A GOOD SETUP WITH FAST BUT TRUE GREENS. SOME ROOM TO SPRAY SHOTS. #2 TEE ARE THE WHITE TEES BUT MUST MEN PLAY #3TEES I PLAY #2 TEES LONG ENOUGH FOR ME. CAN BE WINDY

$61 (cart included), played on Saturday, August 2012 at 2pm

Scenic, challenging, and in good condition. A bit out of the way, which can cut down on 19th hole festivities. Always have a good time there.

$61 (cart included), played on Friday, July 2008 at 10am

My problems are with the staff not the golf course. First off, I took 2 practice swings while standing on the tee box on the very first hole while waiting for the group on the first hole ahead of us to clear the fairway and head to the green. I am an 8 handicap and took 2 driver swings that barely brushed the grass. No divot, no mark to the teeing ground at all. The starter looks at me and says, "watch the turf". I look at him and say "excuse me?" He says we don't allow practice swings on the tees. I informed him that I have played all over this country and in other countries and nobody has ever said that to me. He says, "well, that's the rule here." I let it go. He then says a few minutes later: "you know you would have been thrown off the course if this was Bethpage." So, now I'm really aggravated. I look over at the sign with all the course rules and it does not say anything about practice swings being prohibited. So, I point to it and say to the starter, "if that's the rule here you need to put on the sign over there. How else would anybody know about your weird rule."

Problem #2: my foursome is out in the fairway on the 17th hole. We have a threesome in front of us that is maybe a hole ahead of us. The group behind us has not waited for us to hit a shot since the 2nd hole. A Ranger comes up to us and tells us we need to pick up the pace. We tell him that the group ahead of is a threesome and the group behind us hasn't even been close to waiting for us since the very beginning of the round. He says in a nasty way that the rule here is you have to keep up with the group ahead of you no matter what. When I again say the group ahead is a threesome he says that they are playing at a foursome's pace. My group was not playing slowly at all. We were on pace for a 4 hour and 10 minute round and nobody was behind us! The worst part is he says it to us when we are in the 17th fairway. There's no way any time could have been made up at that point.

We go into the clubhouse and tell the Pro who was at the counter about our 2 incidents. He says in a somewhat confrontational way that the rule is you have to keep up with the group ahead of you. But, after I told him that we were told this on the 17th fairway, he begrudgingly said that was way too late to change anything and that the ranger should have never said anything. Then he also begrudgingly said that there is no such rule about taking practice swings on the tee. The point here is if he was at least sincerely apologetic I would have been OK with it. But, he admitted in a very nonchalant, like too bad you were lucky to get to play here way that we were mishandled.

We left and didn't stop for a drink like we were going to, because we didn't want to give them another dime of our money.

The course is nice. Nice layout and in pretty good condition overall. I would have played there again at some point in the future (would not have rushed back for the course itself), but now I would never go back there because of the way the staff treated us. The course gets 3 stars and the staff gets 0 stars.

The funny thing is I read other reviews before I played there that had negative things to say about the staff there too. So, there is definitely a problem with the staff there.

Guest (cart included), played on Tuesday, July 2009 at noon

Good condition, nice layout.

$46 (cart included), played on Thursday, August 2008 at 10am

Very diverse course.