Franklin Bridge Golf Club

I’ve played this course and it’s former self many times over the past 30 years. Until today I had not played the course in over a year. I love the layout of the course, but the greens today were below average. There was Poa Growing on all of the greens and some greens were almost unputtable today. The putts bounced and there were large patches of poa on the greens. I like the improvements over the past 3/4 years since the course has been under new ownership and the staff attitudes are far superior to those of 4 years ago, but the greens are a disappointment! Franklin Bridge, you can do better, especially for the prices being charged today!!

Honestly for spending $72.00 for 18, I would have expected better. The best fairways were the ones that were flooded recently. Anywhere else on the course is like hitting off of the parking lot concrete. I’m sure I’ll be silly enough to come back and play it again but boy I hope they put the sprinklers on.

This was my first time playing this course. I loved the layout! The course was very clean. The greens were fast. There were not only challenging long holes, but challenging short holes also. I was quite impressed with the course overall and will definitely be playing it again soon.

Very nice course and very organized, Marshalls did their jobs well and the staff was great.

Short version:

1. Charged full price for aerated greens.

2. Poor pace of play.

3. Starter is unqualified. Lol, How is that possible. Easiest job there is.

4. Food is not good judging from the cheeseburger I had.

5. Unusual fairway grass(thin and tall)

6. Friendly staff.

7. Poor management.

In-depth:

1. Charged full price for aerated and sanded greens. There was no warning of this on Golf Now, the course website, and nor did the golf shop warn us. For anyone new to golf that’s reading this, that should NEVER happen. I’m intentionally warning new golfers because it seems as though this golf course is geared towards newcomers.

2. On their website they talk about the importance pace of play is but it’s obviously not a priority. Our tee time 12:33. At 12:30 the 12:24 group had yet to arrive to tee box so we asked the starter if our twosome could go ahead of them and he said we’ll just give them a few more minutes. The group already on the first hole was approaching the green at that time. The 12:24 group arrives a couple minutes later, 4 tee off including a 8-10 junior golfer at 12:37-12:39 in front of an experienced twosome while the group on the first hole are nearly done putting.

3. As we’re about to tee off around 12:45 a member pulls up, doesn’t introduce himself, nor does the starter introduce us, the member walks straight to the box and tees up his ball. The starter doesn’t say anything to him. The member hits his ball then the starter and member have 4-5 minute conversation on the tee box I would like to tee off from. Has I’m standing there the starter looks at me and says you can go ahead and hit. I politely told him I was waiting on them to move even though I was not really wanting to be polite at the time. I bit my tongue and teed off.

So pace of play is obviously not a priority.

4. The only tee time they offer is one with a lunch included. So even though I’ve already eaten lunch, I had to pay more for my green fee to cover the meal. I grabbed a cheeseburger to taste it just because I paid for it I guess. I think it was a frozen patty you would buy from a warehouse. I ate 3 bites of it. The lunch I paid for in the green fee lowered the overall value I was getting for my money at the course in my opinion. I’ll share what I would currently value a round of golf at this facility later.

5. We only played 3 holes so I can’t speak much about the layout. Fairways had thin tall grass. They look good from a distance but ball sits down on the dirt because their grass is too thin.

6. Before my round I inquired about a membership there because it’s close to where live. The guy at the pro shop was nice and went over everything, answering all my questions. The bartender was nice and pleasant to interact with when I picked up my food.

7. Manager never called. I wanted to share my experience with the manager so I left a message with the pro shop. No one called back.

Conclusion: To experienced golfers I HIGHLY RECOMMEND PLAYING SOMEWHERE ELSE. I’ve played probably at least 150 different courses all over the country ranging from $20-$500. This is a $25 golf course on the weekdays and a $35-$40 course on the weekends even in Middle TN where the avg cost of a round is about $40-$60. This by far the closest course to my house(10min). I’ll drive 4-5 times the distance to play an avg ranked course before playing this course. I do it a couple times a week.

We played almost 3 holes and decided to leave. The course was in rough shape and we were not happy being charged full price, Our experience with starter and member were unpleasant. So we decided to leave and play somewhere else. There was nothing enjoyable about our experience there.

The website boasts about the course being serious about pace of play. Played by myself w/ a cart and finished 10 holes in almost 3hrs. Didn’t even finish 18 because of the waiting. Incredible slow.

The course is ok but they keep canceling our tee-times due to tournaments booked at the last minute. It's tough to plan an outing if they're going to keep canceling tee-times with little notice.

Very poorly managed club! If you have a certain time to play, I would recommend going elsewhere.