Top Golfer Tour - One Year Later

ShriekingSheet

http://www.topgolfer.ie/

There was a lot of talk on the board here last Jan/Feb about the Top Golfer circuit of Senior and Junior Scratch Cups. A year down the line, I'd be interested to know what people made of it. I see from the site they are already confirming events for 2011, which says something.

Personally, I played about 5 of the events. I play a fair amount of scratch cups anyway every season, so it wasn't much of a stretch for me to do so. I probably would have went to 3 or 4 of those events anyway, and maybe got interested in 1 or 2 of them because they were on the TG list.

The events themselves were all impressive, I thought. Plenty of TG staff there, as well as host-club people to ensure everything ran smoothly. Prizes were excellent - definitely a step up from what's been on offer in the previous couple of years.

I liked that while some of the events would have always gotten a full timesheet, other courses that wouldn't always have such support for their scratch cup were also packed, which I could only put down to TG involvement.

The photographer thing is a nice touch, though it does encourage the shades & white trousers brigade to look extra-gay on game days. (aside: it seems the only way to stand-out at a scratch cup these days would be to wear a normal pair of slacks and a golf t-shirt and jumper). The sponsors boards and starters tent made it all look very important and official looking too.

Being able to see the top 10 or 20 posted on the site is cool too, for getting to know who's who. The forum on the site is pretty quiet, but that's likely due to the fact that irish golfers use this one.

TG do charge clubs, as far as I can gather, for organising a scratch cup on their course. The fee is for website promotion etc. I could be wrong but a figure of €300 or so springs to mind. It's hard to know if this is affecting competition fees. One thing is for sure, scratch cup fees are on the rise, so the improvements don't come for free to you or I.


All in all, I reckon it's made scratch cups more competitive, better supported and generated a lot of interest and awareness for a circuit of events that was pretty much already there - it just needed someone to join the dots. Interested to hear other people's opinions. For me, I say fair play to them.

I have no affiliation with TG, other than playing at events. But you knew that already.

AGC

Think most people would feel the same as you. Well run events and always a good number on the time sheet.

I would look out for a TG event over any other scratch cup(bar the 3 or 4 big ones) as you know the time sheet should have decent numbers.

Sionnachster

Hey sheet, apologies for the bone idle lazy lack of a google search but may as well ask those in the know. What are the costs involved outside of a topgolfer membership fee or whatever? Are the individual events good value and you basically pay as you play right? I'm tempted to get more involved this year but don't know anyone on it so have to ask the silly questions out loud.... cheers

ShriekingSheet

Sionnachster wrote: »

Hey sheet, apologies for the bone idle lazy lack of a google search but may as well ask those in the know. What are the costs involved outside of a topgolfer membership fee or whatever? Are the individual events good value and you basically pay as you play right? I'm tempted to get more involved this year but don't know anyone on it so have to ask the silly questions out loud.... cheers

Not a bother.

There's no tour membership fee or anything like that. You don't "join" per se, you can play one event, or all the events - it's just a matter of booking yourself onto the timesheet, as you would any other open day.

Events cost between 25 and 50 quid, some are 18 holes, some are 36 holes in one day. It's not bad value for what are mostly decent courses. Some people give understandably negative feedback, as traditionally scratch cups were dirt cheap, and now they're pretty much green-fee prices. Still grand value, but not so much when you look at what it used to be.

soundsham

Poor number held down south

Mister Sifter

Didn't play in any last year, but heard mostly good things from mates who did.

One thing I'd like to see them do is come up with some kind of order of merit or points system for the events.

ShriekingSheet

Mister Sifter wrote: »

Didn't play in any last year, but heard mostly good things from mates who did.

One thing I'd like to see them do is come up with some kind of order of merit or points system for the events.

Yeah, totally. I said it to them before it kicked off last year. Even just a Winter League style points system would to fine, and you could start with a low number of "best cards".

Say the top 20 at each event get points, 20 points for the winner, 1 point for 20th place and all that's in between. Ties can be treated as they do the money on Tour, with addition and then equal division.

Limit it to say, your best four cards to count, so someone can't win just by playing loads of events, and you can compete for the order of merit just by playing in a handful of events.

Feck it, I'll just write it on their forum.

Jasonw

I tend to play loads of scratch cups during the summer. I probably played in around 20 of them last year. As Soundsham has said, very few down south. IIRC there was a senior scratch at Fota and the only one I played in, Lee valley. All I'd say is that there was very little difference between a TG event and a normal scratch cup other than I thought it was a little pricey (35 euro I think) but offset against that was I got a box of balls that went straight into my practice bag and there was a guy taking photos that he wanted to charge me for as well as disturbing my concentration.
Don't get me wrong, in principle I think it's a good idea. But there has to be loads more events spread out around the country and then have a order of merit based on say the best 5 or 10 cards or finishes.

jimmystars

Played in 2 myself. Both were enjoyable and added a bit more excitement to the comps. Would like to see more events down south alright.

Mister Sifter

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

The photographer thing is a nice touch, though it does encourage the shades & white trousers brigade to look extra-gay on game days. (aside: it seems the only way to stand-out at a scratch cup these days would be to wear a normal pair of slacks and a golf t-shirt and jumper).

The white slacks are attrocious... but what's the deal with the baby blue numbers. Criminal. Anyone spotted wearing those at a scratch cup in 2011 deserves to be the physical target of a 5 handicapper throwing a mid-round tantrum.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

jimmystars

Get rid of the flags that are made out of plastic. Those things are all over the shop in the wind.

sector

The new site with full schedule is up

ht*p://www.topgolfer.ie/

goodgolfer64

why not play the trilby tour event if into winning some nonsense topgolfer thingy???? at least in the trilby you might get on TV.get some clothes n qualify to play in london club (tho i think tribly too is gay)...i think topgolfer would get a bit of notice if i got in with big scratch cups such as dundalk, mullingar or carlow say n have ALL the scratch cups around the country....how is a senior scratch player competing against junior scratch cup competitor????
To be honest the only golf league people are into is the GUI one....

J6P

goodgolfer64 wrote: »

why not play the trilby tour event

Where is that on?