Tell me about your Golf Society..

hades

So, i'm a member of a pub golf society, and i really enjoy playing in it. It's always a good laugh, and of course the pints afterwards are always enjoyable. However we have a few problems that i guess most societies face, namely

1: Handicaps, people giving out about the handicaps some players have being much different to their club handicap... This has changed recently, as there is now 3 catagories, cat 1 : 0 - 12, cat 2 : 12+, cat 3 : irregular golfers and beginners. But you still get those who complain about the handicaps.

2: fair weather members, people who only turn up for the big competitions and usually win. Captains and Presidents prize time sheet always full, a random saturday in may, and we're struggling to get 20.

3: poor prizes & competition entry fee's, this is a sort of double barrel problem.. people constantly give out about the quality of the prizes, usually a few bottles of wine,golf balls or holdalls. But then complain about the entry to the competition, usually €5, or when we travel, you just pay your green fee's and the prizes are paid for from the kitty. They don't seem to understand the notion of, more money being paid in, means better prizes.

Now i imagine that most societies have these issue's, but how have you overcome this problem?

One of my personal suggestions was to have an annual membership, (its currently free) open from december to january. Each member pays €50, and for that we buy the members a crested polo shirt or something similar and the rest goes into the kitty for prizes. Those members who refuse to pay the money, can still play in the society outings, but are only eligible for the visitors prize.

But while this may only solve the prize's, fair weather members issues, we'll still have the issues with the handicaps.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Thanks

Trampas

maybe you have to turn out x times to win the majors?

Are handicaps adjusted during the year?

hades

Turning up x amount of times, is a great idea... will make note of that.

Handicaps are not really adjusted, but there is a point deduction on players who have won prizes. -3 for an overall winner, -1 for a catagory winner.

Anto12

For our gold society the membership is €40 - this allows you to compete for the Captains and the presidents prizes .. I think we have 3 outings usually before the Capt prize .. Regarding handicaps - this can be the difficult one - what we do is - if you are a GUI member you play to that handicap - for those that are not I think are given a handicap of 18 .. Hope this helps ... Always great ould craic with the Society !!:D

charlieIRL

I'm not a member of a society but have played as a visitor a few times with a workmates one.

They have an entry of €50 a year and most of that goes to the prizes which are always excellent. If you have a GUI handicap you play to that and if not you are given 18 and its adjusted after each result - there is 50 odd members so i presume this is a bit time consuming but it makes it a small bit fairer. Its always good craic out with them. Would love to join their society but they have rules on who's eligible (have to be from the local area etc.) so will continue to play the odd round with them as a visitor.

ssbob

For us what we do is €30 membership for the pub society, 8 outings a year, 3 then captains, 3 then presidents to finish the year off, then for every round we pay €30 aswell so if the society get's a green fee of €20, there is an extra €10 for the kitty.

Prizes are paid for out of the original €30 and then the two main comps are sponsored by the pub with whatever is left in the kitty.

We usually negotiate rates based on 18 players but have anything up to 40 at times..................................

As for handicaps, for your first outing you should be given a penal handicap if you do not have a GUI handicap, within our society though it is fairly honest.

hades

Membership seems like a runner so, and stick with GUI handicaps.

Thanks for the input guys

barry zx10

In our Society we run as follows:

Membership €25
Green fees usally €25 if we get cheaper rate from club we put into funds.
Anything above €30 we just charge the club fee to keep it reasonable.

To play in Captains and Presidents members must have 2 outings attended to be able to win.

We get some sponsors for around €100 to €200.

If we get complimentary green fees from clubs we raffle them for €2 to each member

Handicaps as per gui, non club members maxium 24 to start, we have meetings after each outing to adjust these based on scores or how someone plays.

At the end of the day it's fun.

I'm running the society 6 years and I have learned to be thick skinned as you always have a bright spark who thinks he can do better but come AGM he wont take a position.

We have 56 members with average of 30 at each outing.

RGS

We run 12 outings a year with the captains day at the end of the season.
We charge an annual membership of €60. Outing costs average €40 which includes food.

Handicaps are always a difficult problem. We handicap all members based on scores returned at the outings.

To win captains prize members must play in eight of the twelve outings.

hades

Thanks again for the info guys.

barry zx10

Main thing is enjoy the golf lad.
It beats being at home putting up shelves or cutting grass. :D

johnnyfardel

Our society has approx 90 members - membership costs 45 per year and
you also have to be a fully paid up member of the GAA club we operate
from. We get anything from 40 to 65 players for each outing.

10 outings a year, singles stableford with a scramble turkey shoot as the
final outing in November.

All new members start with their GUI, if none then they are assigned 18 as
a provisional until 3 cards are handed in. Pluses and minuses handed out
according to form which carries over each year.

You can't win the main captains or presidents prize in your first year or any
outing on a provisional handicap.

Sponsors sought for each outing ranging from 300 to 500

We have a race night each year to help with funding and we try to keep a
running balance of approx 7K in the bank to enable us to book all our
outings the following year.

We have 4 courses that are set in stone and then we vary the rest each
year.

We also have an order of merit and award a golfer of the year (best 7 scores out of 9 stableford outings).

Also with the order of merit we have an annual Ryder Cup between the seniors and the juniors ( < 40 years old !!!! ) and team selection is based
on order of merit performance in the previous year.

We also have a "woodener" for each outing - literally a wooden spoon mounted on a plinth - for the "most golf". Prize is a sleeve of balls. You would be amazed at how many times a recent outing winner pops up with
the woodener next time out. Even single figure handicappers are not
immune.