Golf society at work is dying.(Ideas)

Gin77

Our golf society at work used to be very good and had a lot of interest.
Over the last few years with the austerity etc. naturally our numbers are getting less and less.
Does anyone have any ideas to boost interest?
Has anyone signed up to http://golfleagueireland.com/ for added interest?
Every society is run different so let us know your thoughts.:rolleyes:

slave1

Join up with another local society from a company in the same line of work, that's what we did, gained 4 extra members, not a lot but helps...

poteen

I think every society is struggling from what I hear. Maybe some different formats might mix it up somewhat. Its hard to know but sometimes guys just make excuses up. you cant convince people if they aint interested.

Keano

Are the prizes being shared around? Have the majority of people won a prize? Reason I ask is some societies forget that people do like to win something every now and then. If the prizes are going to the same people then folks will just say no point playing.

PARlance

Read the title and thought you were looking for a hangover cure or something from yesterdays outing

On that, are the outings played at weekends or during work?
More chance of getting people out if it's a half day of work, I'm sure most work soc's do it on company time though.

I can imagine a lot of bosses are allowing less time for this type of thing too.
In terms of team building, a golf society isn't always the best use of company time.
I was in one a few years ago and it was great for us golfers, but you aren't exactly getting to know everyone if you're in a 3 ball and more importantly maybe, I also found that there was a bit of resentment from the non-golfers due to the society getting time off.

That golfleagueireland seems to be an old site, the "How it works" page is saying it runs to "Nov 2011"
Also, the €33 fee seems a bit steep.

I think Slave1's suggestion of teaming up with another company might be the best bet. Not sure about picking on in the same line of work, it could turn out to be a poaching session for one of the companies.

judosean2005

U should do what the boards society do.

Play against another society. That seems to bring big interest into societies.
Ryder cup format.
And as others have said- prizes mean alot- no matter how small.

charlieIRL

what format do ye play on an outing? Maybe introduce some matchplay or other type of scoring. This might bring back some of the members that left.

realgolfgeek

Keano A Legend wrote: »

Are the prizes being shared around? Have the majority of people won a prize? Reason I ask is some societies forget that people do like to win something every now and then. If the prizes are going to the same people then folks will just say no point playing.

I think this is key.
Almost everyone in our society has won something.
If you come first you lose 3 shots on your H/C, come second you lose 2, come third, you lose 1.
It makes it very fair for all involved.

Arsenium

realgolfgeek wrote: »

I think this is key.
Almost everyone in our society has won something.
If you come first you lose 3 shots on your H/C, come second you lose 2, come third, you lose 1.
It makes it very fair for all involved.

We've been doing this for a long time now. What seems to happen in our case though is that the same guys are winning, just with much lower scores. We need to do a bit more study on the handicaps, maybe push the higher guys out a few shots and the lower guys can be pushed out also, but by a smaller amount.

I think a team event is a good idea. Try combining some guys who have never won with some of the guys who are always winning, whatever format you like, scramble, fourball etc. Make it fun but try to get guys who never win, at least competing and into the shake up when the prizes are being given out.

spacecoyote

judosean2005 wrote: »

U should do what the boards society do.

Play against another society. That seems to bring big interest into societies.
Ryder cup format.
And as others have said- prizes mean alot- no matter how small.

This is what I was going suggest.

Do you have more than one office in the company. My own place are running our first ever inter office Ryder Cup this weekend in the Heritage. A ShotGun start, Dublin vs Limerick.

Should be good craic & will hopefully turn into an annual event

Russman

First, try to find out if the drop off is "austerity/recession/additional work pressure" related or if its for golfing reasons.

Not a lot you can do with the first, but if its golfing related then you can come up with new formats, new venues etc. Maybe look at doing a deal golf followed by a meal/social event.

Survey the players who no longer play with ye and ask their reasons.

For Paws

Suggestions :

(1) If your society is all or mainly men, try getting the girls onboard.
More women than ever are playing golf.
Btw if the girls prefer to play in each others company, make it so.

(2) Keep the cost & time involved reasonable by playing courses nearby.
Too many societies get hung up on playing 'top' courses.

(3) Have a Society Dinner or night out at least once a year & invite spouses / partners and possible new members.

(4) Don't make an outing into an excuse for a drinking session.

(5) As others have already said, introduce an inter-office or inter-industry competition.

Gin77

realgolfgeek wrote: »

I think this is key.
Almost everyone in our society has won something.
If you come first you lose 3 shots on your H/C, come second you lose 2, come third, you lose 1.
It makes it very fair for all involved.

That sounds very fair, in our society the winner gets 1 penalty point and second and third get off scott free.

judosean2005 wrote: »

U should do what the boards society do.

Play against another society. That seems to bring big interest into societies.
Ryder cup format.
And as others have said- prizes mean alot- no matter how small.

[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]We do play another factory once a year but this year only 6 of our guys showed up, compared to 20 of theirs.
[/COLOR]

Russman wrote: »

First, try to find out if the drop off is "austerity/recession/additional work pressure" related or if its for golfing reasons.

Not a lot you can do with the first, but if its golfing related then you can come up with new formats, new venues etc. Maybe look at doing a deal golf followed by a meal/social event.

Survey the players who no longer play with ye and ask their reasons.

[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]We have a captains day and a dinner which usually only one or two lads bring a partner.[/COLOR]

For Paws wrote: »

Suggestions :

(1) If your society is all or mainly men, try getting the girls onboard.
More women than ever are playing golf.
Btw if the girls prefer to play in each others company, make it so.

(2) Keep the cost & time involved reasonable by playing courses nearby.
Too many societies get hung up on playing 'top' courses.

(3) Have a Society Dinner or night out at least once a year & invite spouses / partners and possible new members.

(4) Don't make an outing into an excuse for a drinking session.

(5) As others have already said, introduce an inter-office or inter-industry competition.

[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]We operate 4 shifts of 30 people and one woman on each shift to keep PC.
So we are all guys in our society. We average about 10 per outing. [/COLOR]

I think a lot of people pulled out of the society in the past over petty arguments over rules, ie not signing the correct cards, and other minor rules infringements.
Is it the general consensus that society golf is a little more relaxed when it comes to minor rule breaking? After all its social golf. I was thinking our committee could make society rules exceptions and print them out.

Fatswaldo

I think a lot of people pulled out of the society in the past over petty arguments over rules, ie not signing the correct cards, and other minor rules infringements.
Is it the general consensus that society golf is a little more relaxed when it comes to minor rule breaking? After all its social golf. I was thinking our committee could make society rules exceptions and print them out.[/QUOTE]

IMO This, (along with the same winners each time) is the biggest killer of societies. Most societies have players who are not and dont want to be golf club members. they play golf for fun. If the society is seen as being too serious, lads will stay away. So easy nowadays for a group of lads to call a golf course and do a deal for 6 or 8 greenfees so that a society is redundant if they do not offer something else.

Our society has its own set of concessions and although about 75% are golf club members, its really a social thing. All prize winners are cut and end of season handicaps for winners usually bear little resemblance to GUI HCs.

A successful society I was previously a member of got far too serious and almost died until an AGM coup saw the sitting "golf club" committee ejected.