When Buenaventura Golf Course reopened in 2005 after a 10-month, $6.5 million renovation, Greg Gilmer, Ventura's golf services director, heard lots of praise from local golfers.

But in the last three or four months the words that Gilmer has received about the condition of Buenaventura have been far from positive.

Lee Harlow, general manager of Eagl Golf Management, the company that manages Buenaventura and Olivas Links, has heard the same complaints.

Golfers are upset about what they are calling the deteriorating condition of the fairways around Buenaventura, and to a smaller degree, at Olivas Links. People are also upset the grass at Olivas Links has gone dormant.

Pat Fairchild, president of the Olivas Weekend Women's Golf Club, and her club members have voiced their complaints to Harlow, Gilmer and members of the city council.

"Our club played all our tournaments at Buenaventura after they closed Olivas (for renovations)," Fairchild said. "Every month the course condition deteriorated and they started the resodding process.

"Last year we played winter rules all year, not only in the fairways, but in the rough. It is very rare to get a decent lie in the fairways. When this project was started, it was (designed) to bring our two substandard courses up to current standards. So what do what have now? Two substandard golf courses."

Bobbie Johnson and Julie Hartman are two longtime members of the Buenaventura Women's Golf Club. Like Fairchild and her golf club, they are not happy with the current conditions at Buenaventura.

Hartman said the poor conditions have forced them to play winter rules because there are so many spots on fairways where lies are difficult.

"It's our home club and want to play every week regardless of the condition, but our membership has gone down badly since the new course opened," Hartman said. "We used to have 40 to 50 members and now we're between 15 to 20 players.

"We complain more to ourselves than we do to Greg or the city council. Lee listens to us, but he doesn't have control. Bobbie and I like the new course, but a lot of people wish they didn't change it."

Gilmer, Harlow and everyone else involved with the two Ventura golf courses are quick to acknowledge there are problems with the fairways at Buenaventura.

"There is validity to some of their concerns," Gilmer said. "... We're taking steps to try and solve the problem, but it's going to take time."

Gilmer said the problems at Buenaventura stem from a combination of three factors.

One is the rye grass that was used for the renovation.

Two is the high salt content in the reclaimed water used to irrigate the golf course.

Another is the high volume of traffic at Buenaventura.

Gilmer said in a perfect world, they would have put down paspalum grass at Buenaventura.

It is the same type used at Olivas, is very hearty and handles high amounts of sodium much better than rye grass does.

The problem was when the renovations at Buenaventura were done, this variety of paspalum was not yet invented. So the two best options were rye or kikuya grass. Gilmer said kikuya was much more expensive, so they went with the rye.

Gilmer said the rye is the least of the problems. It's more to do with the salt content of the water. Buena has less acreage than most golf courses, so the heavy traffic areas get a lot more traffic than at larger courses where they traffic can be spread out.

"Buenaventura is 85 acres of turf, while a typical course is abut 125 acres of turf," Gilmer said. "Our fairways are getting pounded by a lot of traffic because we don't have the ability to spread it out, so we have a lot of compacted areas. All three factors have created the problems we have."

Gilmer believes there is no sense in dwelling over how they arrived at this situation, but rather focusing on what can be done to correct the situation.

The ultimate solution is to transition Buenaventura to paspalum turf, although some players don't like paspalum because it goes dormant in the winter.

It will cost about $400,000 to redo all the fairways at Buenaventura in paspalum. Gilmer said if the city can find the money, it can be done in one shot by next spring.

If they don't find the money, the project would have to be spread out over several years. If that is the case, Gilmer said they will follow a plan of putting the pasaplum in the heavy areas of use first, such as around the greens.

That process has already started.

"We're taking steps to try and solve the problem, but it's going to take time," Harlow said.

Unhappy golfers say they are willing to be patient, but if things don't change, the complaints figure only to get louder and more angry.