Mill Creek Golf Club, Mebane, NC

Great course! Very nice and competent staff. The Golf Pro Ron is great to work with. Our Company has had golf tournaments here over the years, and this is one of my favorite courses in Alamance County. The weekday rate is a good deal, and the weekend rate is not too high.

If you are an above-average golfer who desires a 'fast' round of golf at a well-conditioned course, Mill Creek may well be the course for you. But, if not, you probably want to play elsewhere since the course takes its pace-of-play policy (enforced by meters on the cart and rangers) VERY seriously (2:10 alloted for front, 2:10 for back with 10-minute break in between, 90-degree cart days no exception).

According to Ron Lambert, the course based the policy and the considerable investment in technology and training on research showing golfers' three main beefs against courses were slow pace of play, overbooked tee times and bad conditioning. They set out to do someting about it, he said in response to my sharing my experience last Saturday.

For our threesome of average Joes, the pace of play policy meant being asked by the ranger to pick up our balls in the fairway of No. 12 and move to No. 14 to get back to 'where you should be' according to the devices on the steering wheel of our carts. Our other option: leaving which "is your choice." The ranger added that the members which got on the fairway of our same hole ONCE (on No. 9) also were complaining even though I had told the pro shop at the turn we'd gladly let them play through if need be which never turned out to be an issue.

As he was giving us the bad news, the member threesome (which had some water issues from the splashes we could see in the distance walking off the green of No. 10) weren't even on the No. 11 tee! Then, to add the final insult to injury, the aforementioned threesome proceeded to insult my friend and I when, after finishing, we realized we left our wedges on a hole.

We pulled up to the green, and, after I explained why we were there, this guy pointed to the two clubs in his cart, which I retrieved, but had to add sarcastically, "I'm surprised you have any left."

Obviously, we're not Mill Creek material. After I e-mailed Ron our story and after he explained the research and origins of the pace of play policy, he did offer to have us back as his guests and note that all handicaps are welcome to play provided, of course, that they keep time with the pace of play clock.

I politely declined the offer and won't be going back ever unless my partner is Jim Furyk and he's paying which is too bad because Mill Creek IS a nice course--particularly the front nine which has no houses unlike the back--and the starter and folks inside the pro shoop ARE/WERE nice.

Even the ranger was polite as he delivered what basically amounted to a more gentlemanly (than the member threesome) version of the 'your kind/ability/money not welcome here' message. So that's the fair scoop on Mill Creek (goods and bads) from a golfer who doesn't play very regularly and whose score can average from anywhere in the high 80s to the high 90s BUT who also loses few balls and mostly keeps it in the fairway and out of trouble.

If it's such a huge selling point, Mill Creek should heavily promote and advertise its pace of play policy on its own website and everywhere else which it curiously--at this point, anyway--doesn't.

One last note: unlike we nonmembers, the complaining members sadly didn't oblige by the starter's cartpaths-only rule. Given their reaction even to the sight of us two holes or so ahead, one can only wonder what they'll do if their balls wind up in their own tire tracks.

Mill Creek is the gem of region. They lost their greens last June and rebuilt them and they are perfect. It was hard to believe the staff could get it back into shape that quickly. Ron and Adam are two of great people to operate a golf course. If you are in the area make sure Mill Creek is played. It is not easy so bring extra balls.