Rio Pinar Golf

Hello MBJFLA,

Thank you for coming out to play at Rio Pinar Golf and I appreciate all your positive comments about the course and staff. I will address the one comment you had regarding water. Rio Pinar Golf, as did a lot of golf courses, took our water coolers off the golf course during COVID and we have not put them back out due to 3 things:

1. Potential for contamination.

2. Liability due to someone getting ill from contamination

3. The cost for staff to maintain

While the last point may be considered the cost of doing business, the first two issues, given the health concerns as well as our insurance rates, are significant factors in our decision not to put our coolers back out. We do however do a few things to help mitigate this:

1. We have 2 large coolers of ice water located in the clubhouse with cups to take with you on the golf course if you wish

2. Each cart has a small cooler that can carry water or drinks that can be purchase in the golf shop, clubhouse or with our Bev Cart

3. We have a large cooler of ice located between holes 9 and 10 where you can fill the cooler on your cart up with ice before your round or between 9's

While I know all of this is not quite as convenient as having nice ice cold coolers full of water on the golf course, we hope this helps your next round to be a bit more refreshing!

Thank you again for supporting Rio Pinar Golf and hope to see you out soon!

Tom Jackson

General Manager

Good morning Joseph, Regarding your review, I first wish address the fact you brought up a racial aspect of being a "hispanic man and black man trying to enjoy a round of golf" with some inference that race was part of this situation, it was not...what was part of this situation was this. While you may be a 10 handicap, your partner was not and you are playing off the Black tees which you should not have been based upon your partners level of ability. To point we observed on #10 tee balls being hit directly left of the tee into a neighbors yard and your golf cart getting hit by one of the tee shot when it was parked right beside the tee ...you as a 10 handicap should have recognized that these were not the correct tees for him and while you may wish to hit off those tees, he should have moved up. The second point which gets to your comments about not holding up anyone as you were waiting for the groups in front of you. You being a 2-some we would expect you to keep up to a 4-some, what the issue was to the ranger/staff and groups behind you were your constant taking/making of videos, whether for personal enjoyment or for Social Media posting, doesn't matter, when your on the tee and the group is out of range you hit your shots and move to the next shot, you don't spend time taking/making videos as it is frustrating to players behind you to watch this when you should be out at your ball getting ready to hit the next shot. People have no issues with waiting for you to hit your next shot, but do have issues when shown a complete disregard for the etiquette of the game and common courtesy and respect for other players on the course to keep up with the group in front of you. Golf is a welcoming and inclusive game, what is missing today is the respect for others on the course and a sense of decorum and etiquette that is part of the game. All our staff was doing was speaking on behalf of the players behind you who were watching and waiting for you and your partner to keep up with the groups in front and play ready golf, there was no racial bias, there was no golf ability bias there was simply an expectation of respecting others and the golf course. I fully expect you to not return to Rio Pinar because of how you perceived you were treated and that is unfortunate because, as you can read from other reviews, this is a fine golf course, in very good shape with friendly staff and we do provide a very good experience for the money spent...but we do have expectations of our Members and Guests.

Tom Jackson

General Manager

Rio Pinar Golf