Lake Mills Golf Course

Our apologies on the warm beer. We don't haven't had a cooler problem in the pro shop in years, so my guess was they had just been stocked. In the future, we always have coolers and ice available to take out on the course with you.

You bought a tee time through Groupon, which was sold by Golf Now... IT WAS NOT SOLD BY THE GOLF COURSE. We informed Golf Now last week that we were walking only, and they told us they would put a notice on our site and inform everyone who booked a Golf Now tee time that the course is currently walking only. They clearly did not.

When you buy a tee time through a 3rd party -- like Golf Now/Groupon -- you are accepting their terms of service. You asked us for a refund, but we are not the people you bought your tee time from. You purchased from Golf Now. We make NO money off of those tee times; therefore, we cannot refund you anything as we didn't collect anything.

We explained this to you repeatedly, but you didn't want to listen to us. We also gave you the number to call Golf Now and talk to them about your refund. I hope they gave you one. Had you actually bought your tee time through the golf course, we would have been happy to refund you and accommodate you in any way possible. When you buy from a third party, you tie our hands because we are unable to help you. You have to accept their conditions and risks. Your issue is with Golf Now, not the golf course. We told you this, and your friends understood it. I am sorry you don't.

I am responding to you as the owner of this course. I am the person our pro shop staff called when you came in, and I listened in the background when he was talking to you.

First off, when you buy a Hot Deal tee time, it is the equivalent of buying a hotel room on Expedia or Hotels.com. You are buying through a 3rd party site, and you are taking the actual business out of the equation. What I mean by this is if something goes wrong, there is nothing the business can do to help you. You have to go back to the site you purchased from (Golf Now) and straighten it out with them.

You came in and told us you had a tee time, but there was no tee time booked on our tee sheets, which is always done automatically by Golf Now when someone books a Hot Deal. We also received no email indication that you booked on our end, which is also done automatically by Golf Now when someone books through them. You may have had a receipt, but many people have booked tee times and then cancelled, and they still have a receipt too from the original transaction, but they aren't on our tee sheets anymore.

The pro shop told you repeatedly to call Golf Now because they were the company you booked through and the only people that could straighten this out for you. As we explained to you over and over, when you book through a 3rd party site, there is unfortunately nothing we can do to help.

You then demanded a refund for golf. As we explained to you, when you book a Hot Deal tee time, you are not booking one of our tee times. We receive $0 from any of those tee times, so there is nothing we can refund to you. We make nothing; therefore, we cannot refund what we don't receive. On a side note: You aren't actually supporting the small business/golf course you are at when you buy Hot Deal times. You are supporting Golf Now, which is owned by NBC.

Unfortunately, when you talk about the "awful precedent" being set, it is being set by Golf Now, not our golf course. When you book an outside tee time like that, one of the risks you take is that Golf Now will send us the information and book the tee time. They did not do ANY of that, so they let you down. We are just the golf course that incurred your wrath for something we had no control over.

If you would like us to explain anything in further detail, please call our pro shop at 920-648-5013. We hope you have a great day.

I am not sure if you were aware of this, but Lake Mills and many of the surrounding communities were under the second year of the most extreme drought we had experienced in decades. This was actually reported on in the news nearly every single day. At the time you posted this review, we were down more than 20 inches of rain from where we should have been. In fact, we only had two significant rainfalls since April. Just. Two. Rainfalls. I hope we can both agree that this would qualify as an extreme drought.

I understand those who are uneducated as to golf course operations would accuse the golf course of poor maintenance as you did and think the solution is just to water more. It is simply not that easy. Irrigation is made to supplement rain, not replace it. It is virtually impossible to keep up with an extended drought like this one. Given the heat, low humidity at times, and wind, the evapotranspiration rates are higher than a course’s irrigation system can put down at night.

We personally put down tens of millions of gallons more water than normal and watered our greens twice a day. Higher end courses that charge more put down wetting agents to help, but those are courses that charge $100 or more a round. We are trying to remain an affordable “mom and pop” small business, so wetting agents are outside of our budget unless we want to double our prices, which we do not.

With this kind of prolonged drought, the soil can also become hydrophobic, which means that no matter how much water is put on it, the soil will not absorb it, creating what are known as isolated dry spots.

Adding to the misery is that fact that many municipalities put water restrictions in place during times like these, which limits your ability to water. This compounds the frustration for golf course owners and maintenance staff alike, as do reviews like these.

The bottom line is all the courses in this situation are doing their best to keep up. The good news is most people were aware of current events and empathized with our situation.

If you would like further education on droughts and golf courses, please feel free to call us. We would be happy to explain it to you!