Whispering Willows

My comrade and I were brazen enough to assume this Saturday morning round of golf at the City of Livonia's finest municipal course would merely take around 4 hours and start our weekend off on a good note, but we were terribly mistaken. After finishing the front 9 in about 2 hours and 43 minutes, we saw the foursome in front of us leave the course after 9 holes because of the pace, they had the right idea. We waited on the 10th tee for about 17 minutes to tee off because the threesome in front of us repeatedly played second, third, and forth shots from the same spot, as they attempted to make the perfect shot from their position 170 yards off the tee on a 440 yard par. This ridiculousness continued till the 13th hole where we finally ran into the "ranger" who we thought had the authority to turn this excruciating slow pace around. This retired union worker I assume, had the audacity to tell us "its a Saturday, what do you expect the pace of play to be at?" Now be aware, we are about to hit the 4 hour mark as we wait on the 13th tee box. Well boss man ranger, WE EXPECT TO BE DONE BEFORE THE SUN GOES DOWN IF WE TEE OFF AT 11AM!

Anyways, the ranger is a bum and did nothing but get frustrated with our complaints. So, we left on the 13th hole to go make sweet love to our women and eat marbleized meat at a temperature between medium rare to rare, like men should. Surely something that ranger and those hacks in front of us never experience. Unless you want to succumb to such peasantry, I would avoid Whispering Willows at all costs. It may cost you your whole day, manhood, and dignity.

Horrible upkeep. If you don’t hit the fairway you will not find your ball. Pace of play is horrible. My first and last time at this course.

Had not played here in 15 years, now I remember why! Over 1 hour to complete the first two holes. Had to stop playing at 12th hole backup, which took us over 4-1/2 hours to play up to that point. One group of men were four holes behind, but the ranger was too busy playing on his phone to say anything to that group, even after receiving numerous complaints. Ridiculous! Never again!!

COURSE HAS GPS LOADED IN CARTS AND HAS CONTROL OF CARTS NEAR PATHS AND ON VARIOUS SPOTS. M ULTIPLE TIMES THE CART SHUT DOWN AND SAID RETIURN TO COURSE WHEN WE WERE ON COURSE AND WE HAD TO push THE DARN CART TO GET IT TO RECOGNIZE A NEW LOCATION THAT IT WOULD THEN START TO DRIVE. TWO 60 + GUYS WITH HEALTH PROBLEMS HAVING TO MANUALLY PUSH A CART? WHERE IS MY LAWYER?

CLUBOUSE KIDS SAID YES SOMETIMES THERE WERE PROBLEMS. LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU FIX CARTS AND i MIGHT COMEBACK; TOO BAD WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE METRO COURSES.

Great public course. Challenging layout. Superb greens.

For a public course, the greens were in very good shape, fair and reasonable speed. The course layout is mostly open with only a few somewhat difficult holes. Nice, playable course

Friendly staff as usual! Fantastic fairways, super fast greens! Pace of play , perfect!! A threesome in front of our foursome played absolutely perfect for our pace! 92+ degrees.. 46 on the front 42 on the back! Play this course, it will test you in all areas! Have fun first and “fore” most!

The course is beautiful, but everything else just aweful! Rude workers! TERRIBLE AND CONDESCENDING! Ive been to courses all over including private clubs and never been harrassed so much by rangers! This is a PUBLIC course and yet they act as if you're a bum off the street trying to play at a high end private course! The holes are too close together that you almost get hit every other hole and no one yells to warn you. Tons of areas regarded as off limits (aside from the obvious getting too close to the green) in carts and if you get too close your cart shuts down without hardly any warning. I've had two terrible experiences and will not be back! First was about year ago when my sister and I played here. We are both slightly better than the average golfer and have played for years. It was a week day and we had let a group pass us after the first hole so we could play at a relaxed pace since no one was behind us. For the next 4-5 holes a ranger was following us and staring at us BUT NEVER SPOKE TO US making us so uncomfortable that we went back to the club house and got our money back with a manager apologizing. Every time we would round a corner and think he was gone, he was hiding somewhere else! The second bad experience was over the past weekend. The four of us had used a voucher from one of the other livonia courses because we had a golf outing get cancelled. The man at the counter had scoffed at us when we gave the vouchers to him like we were dirty for coming to their course, being very rude. We got on the course to play our 9 holes and had another group of 4 behind us who were playing at about the same speed or we would have let them pass. The ranger passed and asked if we were having fun and we said yes. Then starting at the 5th hole the ranger repeatedly kept circling around us telling us that we were falling behind pace (since they have those new tablets on the carts that tell you that now). We were only 11 minutes behind. I saw him say what I can only imagine was the same thing to the group behind us because they kept picking up their balls on the green afterwards without putting. When we were done I complained to the two young kids at the desk and they couldn't understand why we were being rushed at only 11 min behind pace. But no one came to talk to us. STAY AWAY unless you enjoy being harassed by rangers or rushing through a game of golf (which really, who enjoys rushing? It's a relaxing sport)

I will never golf at Whispering Willows again due to the strict cart rules. If you like putting your cart in reverse to get out of a 'no go zone' then play here.

Not worth the money.

PS:

Livonia has the worst Golf Courses.

Charging 30 bucks in November to play there on a Friday is typical of this place. One of the slowest courses around and the pace of play is miserable since the rangers just sit there and watch you golf. I was going to play there this Friday but not for 30 dollars plus golf now fees when its a high of 32 degrees. I will play a really nice course Friday instead that will cost the same.

A good combination of easy, moderate and a challenging holes. I really enjoyed the layout and will play again soon.

Course in good shape pace of play slow . Management needs to pair up twosomes to speed up play . I had 3 twosomes and a threesome in from of me . No rangers on the course . But can't expect all that on a public course . Greens were good . Like playing here just can't stand spending 5-51/2 hour round .

Nice course. Greens were aeriated so they were sandy and bumpy but it has to be done. Good experience.