The Links At Fayetteville Golf & Country Club

The Links at Fayetteville Golf and Country Club is an above average golf course, but it's location close to a major university dampens its appeal.

This nine-hole, par-35 course sits adjacent to an apartment complex and residents are offered unlimited free golf. Unfortunately, many of the residents are college students who do not give the course the care it deserves.

The greens and fairways are well maintained but the facility is overrun by college kids at times. Of course, some are respectful of the course, but others are there to party more than they are to play golf. Since there are no tee times, you could get stuck playing behind a large group that arrived five minutes earlier.

The fairways are narrow so the 2,975-yard course does offer some challenges. Bunkers and a few ponds are placed throughout the course, so shots need to be kept on the fairways. Some of the pin placements are tricky and the greens have some fun breaks you will have to properly read.

The staff is friendly enough, except for a few workers who clearly want to be somewhere else. Sometimes the staff will allow groups larger than four play together which slows down play significantly.

The Links at Fayetteville Golf Club certainly has potential to be a great little golf course, but tightening of rules and regulations needs to happen first.

The good, the bad, and the ugly:
For reference: I live in the neighborhood and have played this course 50 times or more in the last few years.
The good:
When the course conditions are good...they are amazing (like right now, with the exception of the sand). Beautiful greens and fairways, and even rough. The course is very narrow and pretty challenging. It is also short with only one par 5, which is good for me as my longer shots arent as good. The greens are a tough read and the pin positions are usually pretty tough too.
The bad:
The course surrounds a heavily occupied college neighborhood (the links & greens at fayetteville), and the residents treat it (and the staff) like sh**. We get to walk the course for free, or get a cart for 18 holes for $14- a steal!! (and part of why my wife and I moved into the neighborhood). They dont fix divots, dont rake sand (even during non-Covid times when rakes were there to use), play their balls into you if you don't play fast enough (even if you are backed up to the group in front of you), drive carts through wet or saturated areas and destroy the grass. Drink heavily on the course (to each their own, but adds to the poor treatment of the course).
They are now in the process of fixing tee boxes at 2 holes, forcing you to hit from the ladies tee. Again that is great that they are trying to improve the course, but people dont care and hit from the usual t boxes anyway...
Dont ever play on Mondays (especially mornings) if you expect the trash cans to be empty, the tee boxes to be played, the water to be filled (in non-covid times)or not to be followed around by the grounds folks. This is when they do most of their mowing. Dont ever expect the sand to be raked over the weekend.
People walk their dogs on the course, and dont pick up after them. Not just on the path to the dog park between the 1st green and 2nd t box, but all around the course.
Lastly, they could really use a drink cart...especially now with covid when the water stations arent filled up (giving them less to do, actually) and they are only allowing one person per cart unless your roommates - it would be nice to know a cold drink would be possible for purchase and would actually benefit them for profits as the greens fees are fairly cheap. Its so freaking hot out there.
Example: I played with an older gentleman and his son yesterday and I thought he was going to pass out because they ran out of carts and he had to carry and walk with his cart bag. Picture it, 100 degree heat index, you were expecting to have a cart and dont, now you've played 6 or 7 holes carrying your heavy bag and are red as a tomato, and I tell him there are no drink carts at this course and all the water stations arent being filled because of Covid. Neither wanted to play the back 9...think they'll give a refund? Doubtful.
The ugly:
The clubhouse is staffed with a bunch of kids (except for one very pleasant older gentleman), which in and of itself isnt bad. The manager, Roger, on the other hand is a complete grumpy fill-in-the-blank. His attitude and poor customer service skills trickles down to the staff, and you can tell they hate him. Even with Covid, they dont clean the carts well enough.
They have no clue (or dont care to or trained to) pair groups up. This morning as I came around to play the back 9, 4 groups of 2 and a single walker were waiting to Tee off. Yesterday, I paired with a group of two just out of consideration but that was never even suggested by the pro shop. That is mind blowing to me. I've never played a course where when it is busy, you dont get paired up. There is hardly ever a marshal (ive seen one twice in 50+ rounds) to move play along. Even when they roll by, they are too young and not empowered to confront people.
The staff and manager have no incentive to provide good customer service as all residents here (which is over 1000 now) pay greens fees in their rent (I know, its in my lease agreement). They don't give a s**t about providing good service. Some of the kids are nice, just poorly trained because if their boss is s**t, why should they be any better. They also don't enforce you to wear a mask when signing in...a Fayetteville ordinance now.
Been meaning to write this review for a while. Hope it helps someone. Ive played other Lindsey Links/Greens courses in the area and they are much better overall. Also know you cannot book a tee time online. First come, first serve.