Society Rules

stockdam

It's Groundhog day again.......

Our work society contains a lot of beginners who are obviously playing for fun.

A lot don't know the rules and tend to make up their own. I've pointed this out and the reaction is that the rules are too complicated and they take the fun out.
My reaction is that the rules have been developed over many years and the aim is to have one common set that is fair to everyone; if we all make up our own rules then we're not competing equally.
Yes there are some rules that seem unfair but they tend to be the extreme ones that don't occur often.
The ones for lost balls or unplayable lies are simple and aren't hard to understand.
What are your views?
Educate people to follow the rules or let them decide what to do (based on their views of fairness......which will change from player to player)?
In my opinion, the rules aren't that hard to learn and certainly don't detract from the fun.

WHIP IT!

stockdam wrote: »

It's Groundhog day again.......

Our work society contains a lot of beginners who are obviously playing for fun.

A lot don't know the rules and tend to make up their own. I've pointed this out and the reaction is that the rules are too complicated and they take the fun out.
My reaction is that the rules have been developed over many years and the aim is to have one common set that is fair to everyone; if we all make up our own rules then we're not competing equally.
Yes there are some rules that seem unfair but they tend to be the extreme ones that don't occur often.
The ones for lost balls or unplayable lies are simple and aren't hard to understand.
What are your views?
Educate people to follow the rules or let them decide what to do (based on their views of fairness......which will change from player to player)?
In my opinion, the rules aren't that hard to learn and certainly don't detract from the fun.

Honestly Stock, if you're trying to change the culture of Society Golfers, you'll end up banging your head off a brick wall. I've grudgingly resigned myself to accepting that the society I play in is best approached for a casual, fun angle - and to keep my "somewhat serious" golf for club comps, Opens, Scratch Cups etc...

I've had more than one member of my Society - many of them notorious ball-dropping-in-rough "found it" merchants - take me to task for not wearing a tie to dinner.

F*ck. And indeed. Off.

Dtoffee

I would start with the basics ... all shots must be recorded on the card and no marking your own card. All cards to be signed off by player and marker ..... at this stage, you will have an idea who's marking the cards and all handwriting should differ.

As for the playing rules, if they are only out for a piss up then fine let them at it, BUT if they are chasing prizes and coming in with great scores.... then I would look at how they are going out as groups and try and split up the rule benders.

Are you on your own running the show? if so, I think just let it slide as its impossible to monitor on course behaviour if you have no support out there. Alternatively, you can write out a list of basic playing rules and organise a set of society rules ... no matter what you do in a golf society, there will always be a moan or a gripe. The question you need to ask yourself is ... is it worth all the hassle or would you be better off just going out and enjoying your fair share of mulligans !

stockdam

It's like herding cats.
I'm not particularly worried as we just play for a small trophy.
Most of the members don't know the rules and so I wrote out some that I saw them "breaking". That didn't go down well as they said that it's meant to be fun. However they are starting to realise that they should all play to the same set of rules to make things "fair". They then started coming up with rules and I pointed out that they didn't need to as the rules are already documented.....just read them and follow them.

The most common one broken is dropping a ball when they have lost one or the ball is out of bounds. They just don't get the notion of hitting a provisional.

All I do now is to gently remind them of a rule and to show them that the rules are not as hard to follow as they think. It sounds like I'm trying to push a pea up a hill but it's not that bad. I think some of them regonise that I'm just trying to educate them; I also give them some advice on their swing etc.

One problem that I need to address is handicaps as one person keeps on winning (err I won't say who).

Macker1

stockdam wrote:

One problem that I need to address is handicaps as one person keeps on winning (err I won't say who).

I take it this winner is getting Hcap cut each time he wins or places in the prizes.

stockdam

Macker1 wrote: »

stockdam wrote:

One problem that I need to address is handicaps as one person keeps on winning (err I won't say who).

I take it this winner is getting Hcap cut each time he wins or places in the prizes.

Yes he is.........I'm making sure he does.

Macker1

stockdam wrote: »

Yes he is.........I'm making sure he does.

Does this player have a GUI handicap and if so what is the difference if any between his GUI and Society handicap.

If he is being cut after each win and he still is victorious then the handicap was not right from the start.

stockdam

Macker1 wrote: »

Does this player have a GUI handicap and if so what is the difference if any between his GUI and Society handicap.

If he is being cut after each win and he still is victorious then the handicap was not right from the start.

Yes he has a GUI handicap and plays to it. The problem is that the others can't play to their society handicaps and so I'm trying to introduce a simple way of adjusting them to make things competitive.

Ronney

stockdam wrote: »

Yes he has a GUI handicap and plays to it. The problem is that the others can't play to their society handicaps and so I'm trying to introduce a simple way of adjusting them to make things competitive.

Be standard enough for a solid club player to be cleaning up in the societys. Was a member one where a 5 H/C GUI had to be cut to +3!

Barnaboy

In a fair society, GUI players have an advantage mainly because they tend to play every weekend. Regular golf critical to score well. Currently I play off 8 in my work society but my GUI is 14. This is following recent success on my part.