Advanced Member
Posted 07 January 2020 - 03:18 PM
Several attempts to lease or sell the property have been thwarted by the Chinese owners.
Eastern stole a lot of the Asian members from the Heritage when they started up and gave them some super deals to swap clubs.
The simple truth will be that it's become a tax right off for the Asian billionaire owners !
Jon...
Inaugural Member
Posted 08 January 2020 - 06:49 AM
I played the St Johns course just before Xmas. Whilst the layout remains great the conditioning of course and the clubhouse are miles off what you’d want for a club of that (former???) ilk. It’s the 4th time I’ve played at Heritage and easily the sorriest state i've seen things
Some of the greens were so far from what they could or should be, and even if they got the cash investment they need (which I’m tipping they won’t), I think it’d take 12 months or more to get them back to where they need to be. Most of the fairways on the St Johns appear to have been mowed too short and were feeling the effects of the heat from the days prior. I don’t know if this was intentional (I'm no expect on fairway maintenance practices) or simply further evidence of the level of “care” being displayed by a grounds crew that I’m lead to believe continue to be paid late and sometimes not in full. FWIW, I don’t ‘blame’ the ground crew. I think they’re doing what they can with a shoestring budget that results in less experienced supers and staff and low levels engagement driven by Club management.
The club house is looking pretty weathered- downlights hanging out of their sockets on the patio overlooking 18 green, the wood panelling/shingles on the top level need to be replaced.
The proshop was looking pretty sparse and was selling Woolworths brand water (tipping their commercial arrangements with Coca-Cola are not going well, as the fridge was looking pretty empty). I'm not a water snob, I BYO from the tap, but it just caught my eye
Some other things I noticed that, in isolation you wouldn’t blink at- the little plastic ball the some clubs put midway up their pins had broken on one of the holes and was sitting on top of the cup, even the council run courses would take the 2 seconds of discretionary effort to rectify that. On multiple holes, the distance markers on sprinkler heads (when their were some) were all over the place, out of numerical sequence and not accurate. Flooding on/near some of the cart paths from broken irrigation pipes. The esky in the cart was jammed full of rubbish (we tee’d off at 730am so hadn’t been checked overnight). The whole place just screams of being uncared for. I overheard a member in the bar telling my “host” that he’d received an e-mail asking if they’d like to “adopt a green” to help keep it watered as if its some sort of volunteer managed country public course
The whole place has the feel of someone’s personal playground that likes the prestige of owning a Country Club (koi in some of the lakes), but has minimal interest in maintaining it.
Anyway, the club has two terrific courses that I really hope can be returned to their former glory and I sincerely hope the members that are brave enough to stick around get some value for money and can fully maximise their enjoyment
I played with one of our members on Monday and he said played there between Christmas and New Year. He was pretty happy with it (I think he said he played St. Johns) and said the owner was very pro to have people playing there. He thought the price for the course was good and we play on a lot of the better courses in Melbourne......just another opinion.
Edited by Francie, 08 January 2020 - 06:50 AM.
Advanced Member
Posted 08 January 2020 - 09:51 AM
I played with one of our members on Monday and he said played there between Christmas and New Year. He was pretty happy with it (I think he said he played St. Johns) and said the owner was very pro to have people playing there. He thought the price for the course was good and we play on a lot of the better courses in Melbourne......just another opinion.
I think as a casual attendee you walk off feeling satisfied- St Johns is still a great design and fun to play but its obvious the standards and quality of course and the club have really slipped and based on what I saw and what I heard, the current owner isn't showing too much interest in returning Heritage to something like its former glory.
Advanced Member
Posted 08 January 2020 - 10:01 AM
Several attempts to lease or sell the property have been thwarted by the Chinese owners.
Eastern stole a lot of the Asian members from the Heritage when they started up and gave them some super deals to swap clubs.
The simple truth will be that it's become a tax right off for the Asian billionaire owners !
Jon...
On the day I played, I would say 75% of players were Asian. So many groups were stopping to take photos of the kangaroos and one lass got perhaps a little to close to a moderately sized snake that was slithering across a fairway.
Menu in the members lounge had a decidedly Asian flavour to it and was presented in English and what I assume to have been Cantonese or Mandarin. There was little doubt to me Heritage are targetting Asian visitors to come and stay and play there, hence my comment about it seeming to be a playground for the owners.
Hopefully one day the current owner gets bored with his toy and someone with a bit of a clue and some real passion can bring it back to life.
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