Starting a Golf Society - Advice?

ShriekingSheet

Myself and a friend of mine are considering setting up a golf society. Having thought about it, there really doesn't seem much to it. Looking for a steer from anyone who organises one that knows the pitfalls.

What we have no problem with is booking courses, filling the timesheet, making up suitable groups, running the basic comp and arranging the après-golf.

I assume there's elements that are more difficult than it seems. Any thoughts from those with experience welcome.

PARlance

I set up one with a mate a couple of years ago. Was fairly confident we would get the numbers for it (was a large group of ex football/school mates).

First few outings went great, got good attendance but after that the interest died down. The group was mainly casual golfers and once the novelty was gone it was a struggle.

There is a fair bit of work to it, nothing crazy but when you add up the time spent booking, emailing, emailing, emailing again, collecting money, putting people into groups, hanging around before the event to make sure everything/everyone is in order, that nearest pin and long drive markers are ready.... It adds up.

That's before you deal with any complaints... There are always a few. Trivial as the may be, they are important to someone.

I would do it again but but there was more work to it than I had expected.

ShriekingSheet

PARlance wrote: »

I set up one with a mate a couple of years ago. Was fairly confident we would get the numbers for it (was a large group of ex football/school mates).

First few outings went great, got good attendance but after that the interest died down. The group was mainly casual golfers and once the novelty was gone it was a struggle.

There is a fair bit of work to it, nothing crazy but when you add up the time spent booking, emailing, emailing, emailing again, collecting money, putting people into groups, hanging around before the event to make sure everything/everyone is in order, that nearest pin and long drive markers are ready.... It adds up.

That's before you deal with any complaints... There are always a few.

I would do it again but but there was more work to it than I had expected.

Yeah, I expect there'll be more work than I'm expecting... if that makes sense.

charlieIRL

give us a buzz any time if you want to have a chat about it

PARlance

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Yeah, I expect there'll be more work than I'm expecting... if that makes sense.

Actually, I don't think I would do it all again

Confirming numbers, people dropping out last minute, acting as a travel agent for lads... We were dealing with a high % of casual - new golfers and it was just a mate and I organising.
Maybe we needed to hold hands with more than normal with new golfers. But it did strike me how useless (or how much fuss it was to get)
a group of 20 lads are.

One of the outings was in our home town and I got an email of one lad wondering if I could arrange a lift for him..., think it was a two worded response and the end of it for me

Oh ya, you've to organise prizes for Mick who can't organise to get to the club where he lives 5 mins from too.

Dr_Colossus

Second all that PARlance has to say above. I run a small society with a couple of others in work for the past few years. The biggest difficulty experienced is getting people to respond and filling the timesheet.

One piece of advise is to collect payment a couple of days in advance and any cancellations with less than 24hrs notice forfeits their entry fee. Otherwise you'll have a number of people just not show up with no word of warning on the day if the weather is in any way inclement or they decide to sleep in after the night before.

It's worth having pretty aggressive handicap shifts after each outing to spread the wealth in the prize givings or you'll loose a lot of the social players. We cut the winner a min 3 shots, 2nd 2 shots and each category winner 1 shot with everyone else gaining 1 shot up to a max of 28.

As said there's a lot of work and hassle with it both prior to and on the day itself and often for little or no thanks but the outing themselves are enjoyable and if you don't organise the events they're never likely to happen.

stockdam

Get a good core bunch of organisers who are reliable and all prepared to do their little bit. Somebody to book the courses, somebody to collect money. Somebody to get the four balls on the tee and away efficiently, somebody to buy prizes, somebody to look after handicaps etc. None of it is difficult but don't try to do it all yourself as it's not worth the effort. Get a feel for the preferences of your regulars; some may not like difficult courses and some won't like travelling too far.

Make sure you have handicap rules. How do you assess new members, do you use society handicaps or GUI ones (if applicable). How do you penalise winners as people like to think they have a reasonable chance of winning.

Draw up a list of etiquette (it's surprising the number of people who don't repair pitchmarks or rake bunkers). Let people know where to get a copy of the rules. Maybe tell them the basic rules such as the options for dropping etc. Give people some advice on how to speed up play. Ensure you know what you will do if somebody complains (poor organisation, cheating, state of the course)

Dossy

Just on the topic of penalising Winners,
In my society each person who doesnt win a prize gets a "Bonus Point" , a maximum of 5 Bonus Points to each player, anyone who wins a prize loses all their Bonus Points and they go back to Zero, in some cases you may go to -1 which means if you get a Bonus Point the next outing your then at 0 or even

Really helps people out and keeps them interested with the chance of a prize

FixdePitchmark

Ok,

We have had a 3 year roller-coaster setting up a small society. We made some good moves and some poor ones.

Unusual society in that it was going to be friends and college friends. So very small. Max it will be is 20. Maybe more when kids come into equation - the intention is to have the trophy perpetual - I'm sure many were set out in such naievity.

The Good

We got a trophy - a real trophy, for year end / golfer of year - not cheap we spent 300 euro on it.
This made it something worth playing for.
Also most male friends are somewhat competitive - whilst not an interest for the casual golfers the golfers want to get one over each other.
For the first few years use the good skill sets in your group to take on responsibility - not a one man show -2 to 3 people pushing.
We have an annual AGM that is called a DGM - (D) = drinking. In this meeting every member of the society gets to input into the rules - the flaws - the "me" wife don't like this part chat.
We set the upper limit of handicaps at 36 - (mad) but as a result we have 4 lads who never played golf now addicted.
One is off 31 (lol) the long term plan is to have all in 20s.
We used the skill sets in the group - some are good at cooking a big meal , some are good at excel and maths and scorecards, some are good at society rules and regulations. This all sounds crazy for such a small society - but ownership was key to the success of keeping everybody interested and involved.
One lad - who never played golf designed the society logo.

The Bad/The hard

Dates and changes of dates. Plenty of notice - change, by mad exception - long term planing not a strength of the Irish and groups that are friends.
Put up the dates - build it and they will come.
Have rules written down - explain how the society rules work on drops etc.
Have rules in place on handicaps before it all starts - have them written down and approved by all.
Circulate the captain - we made it the top finisher who was never captain.
BUT - not everybody has the skills to organise stuff as they should - some will need a push / help.
Pick sensible courses - society golf is not as serious as most golf - the handicaps are higher , they are not like the Boards Golf Society
Lads on the piss are a disaster - they will forget about cards - go on the piss.
Have the spreadsheet - have the lad with a first in maths or can go 5-1 = 4 = 2pts

Have the spreadsheet - get it right.

Have sensible tee times - the tight bastard who loves Ryainair is not the lad who will make the best week end. Sort him out.

Send the ladies on a weekend away - everybody happy.

Have a general 5 year plan - the sun in Portugal is always a nice long term keeper.

billy3sheets

I'm a treasurer for a society which has now shrunk to about 16 members.

It's my first year doing it or indeed holding any kind of role on a society committee.
I've learned quite a bit from my year though.

1. Keep the finances organised in a spreadsheet & reconcile it as soon as you can after each outing.
2. Try to avoid handling any money outside of outings or occasions where you're not planning to handle money, such as some fella offering you his membership in the pub.
3. Write everything down.
4. Be on time to collect the money at each outing. This might mean you have to be there first. If you can't, arrange for someone else to collect & record it.

Financing the society can be tricky these days. The pub we're based out of puts up some funds for Captains Day but it's reduced from previous amounts. Getting external sponsorship is hard and you may be competing with the local football or GAA club in fundraising raffles & lottos.
However, having said all theabove, it's not all that hard and doesn't take all that much time. The days out are very enjoyable and if you have about 4 competent committee members, then you'll manage fine.