Banty's Roost Golf and Country Club - Blue/White

I used to play this course for years. The price is not worth it. There is no dress code even though they say their is. The course is in shambles. They are stacking everyone on the course just trying to make a buck. No bunkers no water in the water traps. The course is not evenly cut. Also not COVID ready at all. The Marshall said he cleaned out cart at arrival we found cigarette butts in the cart. The cart also died on us and there was sorry or anything just a ohh well from the staff. Don’t play this course if you like or love golf it’s the worst it is like playing on the Toronto public golf courses except I expect them to be terrible this was disgusting. Never Again and the sad thing is we played twilight hours and it’s still not worth the money at all.

Read the reviews before we went and I was fearing the worst. Overall it was in ok shape, fairways pretty good, but greens need a lot of work.

Considering we paid $25 for 9 holes, I can't complain too much. I'd do that again.

Full price for 18 holes? Zero chance.

This course has a ton of potential and always seems to run into poor management issues. Hopefully one day it'll live up to its potential.

Either they are the worst time management course or are taking advantage of people. Have to apologize to the other comments, we should have listened. We called 3 days ago, and asked about tee times and conditions, lady told us everything was wide open and the course was in great shape, so we gambled. Got there waited in line for 30 minutes to pay (which was 15 past our tee time) to find out it was another hour wait to tee off regardless of cart or walking. Luckily we didn't pay and just left....never to return again. Listen people, only go if you are gonna tee off first thing, otherwise...........

This course has lost its luster. The greens were horrible with many dried out brown patches, there were dried grass clumps all around the course, tee boxes were hacked up and dry too. The signage was awful between holes and many golfers were lost trying to find their way. I was really disappointed as it is close to home and I have played this course many times and previously enjoyed it. It’s not awful, but it could be better.

It's true that this course is not in great condition. The new ownership has a lot to learn but there's potential here. My biggest advice is to temper your expectations and try to be understanding. I was truly disappointed in some other customers behaviour; Staff were being mistreated, passive aggressive comments made and grown men throwing childish tantrums instead of trying to work out a compromise.

Pros:

- You can tell they are really trying their best

- The staff I encountered were kind, helpful and working very hard

- The marshalls were very easy to deal with and understanding of players limitations

- If customers were forced to wait because of limited carts they were given free buckets for the range

- We had beautiful weather and you can tell the course has great potential

Cons:

- There aren't enough carts for the course under normal conditions let alone social distancing

- There were very few staff at the course in the AM, seemed to pick up considerably around 2pm

- There are no fairways; they are cut as long as typical rough

- The greens are long; they are cut as long as typical fairways

- The bunkers haven't seen a rake since at least last year; it would be easier to hit off concrete

- No liquor license

- They did not change their GolfNow listing to limit the booking of carts which cause major issues based on people's expectations and what they paid for

Overall, this course would not be on par with middle of the road public courses. If you are expecting a pristine course with no issues, this is not the place for you. If you can be easy going and willing to compromise you can still have a nice round. We had a "hot deal" so our round was $40, perhaps I'd have different feelings if I paid the full price which I believe was around $65.

To start, our tee time was at 4:32pm and we showed up about 20 minutes early to ensure we could secure carts. There are no twilight rates, so you pay full price to golf 18 holes at 4:30pm. After we made our payments, we were told to wait outside to get a cart where there were about 10 people waiting with absolutely no spacing. Carts are being returned with no one there to provide direction or to wipe/sanitize the carts. Our group took it upon ourselves to grab the clothes and sanitize our own carts because at this point it was alright 15 minutes past our tee time. Not to mention that it seems almost every cart was broken in some manner. The few we had the pleasure of having had smashed windshields which looked like somebody drove a ball right through the plexiglass.

We started our round and in the time of a pandemic, I was under the impression tee times should be spaced out at least 10 minutes or more, but this was not the case here. Pace of play was atrocious. It took us over an hour and a half to golf 4 holes and the entire time we had 2-3 three groups waiting right behind us and in front of us all waiting to complete the same hole.

The course conditions were awful. Fairways were so think and long that it was the equivalent of hitting your ball out of the rough. The greens were cut terribly as well as being super long, yellow and dry.

I would advise saving your money and choosing a different course. It is definitely not worth the $65 to play a twilight round here. I’m thoroughly disappointed.

I have attached a few pictures of how poorly the greens were cut.

The course is in very bad shape. Weeds in every bunker, the greens are all brown and cut like fairways, the fairways are cut like the first cut and dead clumps of grass clippings all over the course, especially around the greens. Half of the pins are leaning on a 40 degree angle and flags are in tatters.I paid $65 including cart and would not pay more than $35 with a cart if I were ever to golf here again, which I won’t. Would not recommend this course to anyone, even beginners.

It was a beautiful day for golf so we tried to look on the bright side. But the golf course needs water and more TLC. There are brown patches on several of the greens.

The staff was working hard to try and serve the long line up of players trying to get a cart but they simply didn't have enough. There was an hour wait to get a cart while players finishing their rounds came in. Players were told not to pay for the cart until they got one. The problem is the single rider rule takes up way more carts than they can have on the course. They should either invest in more carts OR the new physical divider technology I have seen some courses acquire.

We elected to walk given the delay. The starter was nice enough. Overall, a good day. But there were a lot of golfers upset for the disorganized nature of the check-in process. We made the most of it but most players looking for a cart were furious.

There were 2 groups of 6 players in front of us. Marshall did nothing about it. Fairways were like roughs.

Played white to red. White was high cut and long long trimmings left on course making finding your ball ANYWHERE very challenging. Losing bald on a fairway in June is a bit ridiculous. Groups of 5 and 6 were allowed making pace horrible. No LLBO due to change in ownership— Not a good look and obviously disappointing for the round. Overall...not what I remember Banty’s Roost to be like. Will not go back unless I hear it’s greatly improved from today. Could be a really nice spot as it was in the past - with some TLC

I am not sure if this is how it normally is here, but I don't understand how they can allow groups of 6 to play together.

at one point, there were 10 people on a tee box.

Pace of play was horrible and we finished our round in 5hours 35minutes, in spite of riding power carts.

The flags and the holes had normal cups and not adhering to recent covid safety measures. Even ball cleaners were operational.

On the other hand, bunkers had hard sand and full of weed. So not only did you have to play the sand challenge but also the weed challenge from the bunkers.

The grass from the roughs had been mowed but not cleared, resulting in dry cut grass all over the rough, which made finding your ball that much more difficult.

In many fairways, the grass was the same as in the rough and the condition was unacceptable, as it gave you no advantage of being on the fairway at all.

Being a Saturday, the course was crowded as expected, however, I would expect Marshals to be more proactive in herding the slower groups, who were just hacking and playing multiple balls, which was then causing a complete traffic jam.

Don't want to return here. There are so many better courses for the same price.

The course should be in much better shape than it is. Grass hasn’t been cut properly, greens have a lot of brown patches and sand bunkers are no longer sand bunkers. Staff indicated that they were under new ownership - they need to support their staff. No alcohol allowed as new owners didn’t renew licence - not a good sign.