Jump to content
IGNORED

Golf etiquette and "company" scrambles


mkrolewski
Note: This thread is 5686 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Recommended Posts

Today, I was playing behind a small company/group having a scramble event consisting of 3 or 4 foursomes. The individuals ranged in ability down to complete novices. They played extremely slowly, left balls all over the course, and engaged in various horseplay with and without carts.

At another course, I recall similar slow play with the "class of '58" who we were guess had not played since '56, being one hole and 10 minutes behind the group in front of them at the turn. That course even change the rules on pace of play the next day due complaints about this particular group.

I have played in scrambles and company events with and without the rowdy element, and even organized them. And I understand the desire to include everyone. Scramble format are almost always slow.

Question - Does your courses have any bans or any standards or minimum training/experience prior to people signing up or participating in these events? Is there any good set of rules to give to participants, sponsors or even the course management to address this?

Question - Does your course have any rules on who can play? I am wondering if there is a need to validate/check that any particular player understands the rules of golf and golf etiquette, pace of play prior to allowing anyone onto a course? Maybe an equivalent to a drivers license?
Michael Krolewski

In the Bag Boy Revolver Pro on a Clicgear 2.0 cart:
Acer Mantara XL Driver 10.5
Acer Mantara S.S 3 Wood; 3DX DC 15* Hybrid (3w/1h); 3DX DC 17* Hybrid (4w/2h); Acer XP905 Ti Hollow Core WS 4-9i; cg14 48* 2dot; cg14 54* 1dot; cg14 60* 1dot
Link to comment
Share on other sites


No, I think you will see pretty much everywhere in these scrambles varying levels of experience. The scrambles are for team-building / customer / fund-raising, and I doubt any course would try to "police" them as they are big money makers for them....

JMHO

--
Driver: R7 460 9.5 Stiff Shaft
Fairway Woods: Steelhead 3 and 5 Stiff Shaft
Irons: :: R7 CGB Stiff Shaft Steel
Wedges: Vokey 56 / 52 Stiff ShaftPutter: Oddysey White HotBag: R7 Stand bagRangeFinder: (Nikon) LR550Ball Prefer Pro-V1, but usually play what you just lostâ¦..

Link to comment
Share on other sites


As a novice I understand some of your complaints, and my big thing is pace of play. You will never see me searching for a ball for 10 mins holding the world up. I never take more than 3 putts, I also never take more than 4 shots to get to the green. I do take exception to your attitude. Your issue is with barbaric behaviour and foul mouth thugs taking to the fairways. Please do not confuse the newly initiated to the game with the rowdy idiots you witnessed out there.

If I ever get placed with you in a foursome on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I hope that you will be polite and encourage me to enjoy the game. And realize that I'm a nice guy that is getting frustrated by a little white ball. I'm sure you were there once.

Like anywhere in the world, there are fools that should not be allowed to roam around whether it be in a shopping mall or in a car park.
Link to comment
Share on other sites


As a novice I understand some of your complaints, and my big thing is pace of play. You will never see me searching for a ball for 10 mins holding the world up. I never take more than 3 putts, I also never take more than 4 shots to get to the green. I do take exception to your attitude. Your issue is with barbaric behaviour and foul mouth thugs taking to the fairways. Please do not confuse the newly initiated to the game with the rowdy idiots you witnessed out there.

Real golfers, even novices, are concerned with etiquette and improvement. No one here would ever stick up their noses at that player, cause we were once him/her.

Anyone who is only interested in getting drunk and messing around on the course - and granted they don't need a company event to do it - is just obnoxious and a waste. Golf courses embrace and encourage this behavior (esp the drink cart) soon as companies hand over some green, so they should be avoided those days. Just IMO.
Link to comment
Share on other sites


Question - Does your courses have any bans or any standards or minimum training/experience prior to people signing up or participating in these events? Is there any good set of rules to give to participants, sponsors or even the course management to address this?

Firstly, I'd like to say... I feel your pain!

I was lucky enough to play in a 2 person scramble just this week-end(if you wanna call me lucky). My partner and I were grouped with other serious golfers and the day was hell to say the least(for all of us). There was a group ahead of us that spent at least 30-40min in a creek looking for balls while we waited to tee off(they were on our hole). It was so bad that a guy in the other group tee of anyway... and hit over their heads(he flew the creek). Only 1 golf cart was rolled and the roof tore off... even after this is posted in the clubhouse: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_arti...storyid=517141 Wish they would police some of them or at least give them some simple rules to follow.

X-460 9.5* tour Driver/Fujikura stiff
X-15* tour 3 wood/Fujikura stiff
3DX 18.5* Hybrid/Aldila stiff
681 3-PW/Project X 6.0 (now in bag)
X-16 Pro Series Irons/Dynamic Gold S300 54* and 58* wedges Anser Sn putter

Link to comment
Share on other sites


To me, there's a difference between slow players, and playing slowly. Slow players are the ones who take their time and more, such as taking like 6435763 practice swings between each shot, but playing slowly, to me, is doing something such as hitting mulligans, duffing/hacking, looking for every other shot, etc. yet both bother the hell out of me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not one to burn through a round of golf, but I'm not one to hold everyone else up either.

-Rich

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I organized a small scramble tournament for work recently and the pace of play was painfully slow. It took us six hours to play 18! The course has three nines and they shot us off of the closed one, but then they started regular customers behind us. I felt bad for them.

The other problem I had was last minute additions and people that showed up with absolutely no clue about golf. One guy showed up in full basketball gear! He had the shoes, shorts, and the armless shirt. The course doesn't enforce clothing rules and they let him play, but it still looked funny having him out there.
In my bag:

Driver: FT-5, 9° stiff
Wood: Big Bertha 3W/5W
Irons: X-20 TourWedges: X Tour 52°/56°Hybrids: Idea Pro 2/3/4Putter: Black Series #2Ball: NXT Extreme/NXT Tour
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Everybody under the sun will play in a scramble of the kind you mentioned. The casual golfer all the way down to those who have not previously set foot on a grass fairway.

At the end of the day, maybe some of the extreme 'other-enders' might find out that golf is something they'd like to persue. OTOH, most of the casual and never-played's were probably just there for the beer and free food.

Getting back to your original question: Most of the courses in NE Ohio will literally close during the time a corporate or fund-raiser scramble is being played. Reminds me of the 'naked-open' sponsored by a local course. The course was closed for obvious reasons during the outing. Due to the PC nature of our country, the event is (sadly) no longer played!

dave

The ultimate "old man" setup:

Ping G30 driver
Ping G Fairway woods - 5 and 7 woods
Callaway X-Hot #5 hybrid; Old school secret weapon
Ping G #6-9 irons; W and U wedges
Vokey 54 and 58* Wedges
Odyssey Versa Putter
Golf Balls

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

As a novice I understand some of your complaints, and my big thing is pace of play. You will never see me searching for a ball for 10 mins holding the world up. I never take more than 3 putts, I also never take more than 4 shots to get to the green. I do take exception to your attitude. Your issue is with barbaric behaviour and foul mouth thugs taking to the fairways. Please do not confuse the newly initiated to the game with the rowdy idiots you witnessed out there.

A big misconception is that you have to be a good golfer to play at a decent pace...untrue! It helps, sure, for the obvious reasons.

I was able to cut out of work early on Friday and headed over to a course close to my office. The parking lot was not overly busy, so I was excited to get a round of golf in and still be home by 5:30. Also, no "WELCOME ________!" banners anywhere. When I went in to pay, the pro just said, "First tee is open, have fun." Well, after about 5 holes, I ran into the logjam. There was a company scramble going on. On one particular hole, I sat on the tee and watched a member of the group ahead of me give another teammate about a 15-minute lesson in the middle of the fairway. The green ahead of them had been clear for awhile. I drove around trying to skip ahead, but the course is jammed with people in the scramble. Eventually, I was able to get about 12 holes in before giving up. I went into the pro shop and asked about getting a rain check since I was never informed of an outing when I paid, and my request was quickly dismissed. My opinion is that a club should have a responsibility (for lack of a better word) to let customers know there is an outing...especially when that customer is a single.

In the bag:
Ping G5 Driver 9 degree, Ping G10 3-wood, Nike 3 hybrid, TaylorMade R9 Irons 4-AW, Cleveland CG15 56 and 60 degree wedges, Odyssey 2-ball blade putter

Link to comment
Share on other sites


To me, responsibility for organized outings in general fall back on the pro shop. They certainly need a ranger with a watchful eye to keep things moving at a reasonable pace. I also find that many courses book tee times way too close to these outings. This causes the log jam and gets everyone upset. When these events are booked, they should get a feel for what kind of golfer is coming.

Kevin

-------
In the Bag
Driver: G15 9.0*3 & 5 Wood: BurnerHybrid: Pro Gold 20*; 23*Irons: MP-58 (5-PW)Wedges: Vokey Spin Milled 52*8; 56*14Putter: Newport 2.0 33"Balls: NXT

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Today, I was playing behind a small company/group having a scramble event consisting of 3 or 4 foursomes. The individuals ranged in ability down to complete novices. They played extremely slowly, left balls all over the course, and engaged in various horseplay with and without carts.

These scrambles take 5 to 6 hours to play 18 holes. The BASIC RULE IS THIS: DO NOT PLAY BETTER THAN YOUR BOSS---Give him or her any putt within 8' of the hole, so they feel like they are a REAL GOLFER although they have NO CLUE how to play the game.

Mitch Pezdek------Dash Aficionado and Legend in My Own Mind

Link to comment
Share on other sites


This is why events get played on Monday!

If the event is too small for that, it would certainly make sense for the course to insist that the group pay for an hour's worth of tee times in addition to the ones they intend to use. Maybe even insist that the registration form include some sort of signed acknowledgment of responsibility for knowing and following rules of golf, pace of play, etc.
WITB
Driver--PING Rhapsody, 16*
Fairway Wood--PING Rhapsody 22*
Hybrids--Cobra Bafflers, 3 (23*), 6 (32*)
Irons--Callaway X-20, 7-AW SW--Wilson ProstaffLW--Nancy LopezPutter--Bettinardi HawkBalls--Pinnacle Gold DistanceBags--Datrek IDS (cart), Sun Mountain 3.5 (carry)
Link to comment
Share on other sites


Note: This thread is 5686 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Want to join this community?

    We'd love to have you!

    Sign Up
  • TST Partners

    TourStriker PlaneMate
    Golfer's Journal
    ShotScope
    The Stack System
    FlightScope Mevo
    Direct: Mevo, Mevo+, and Pro Package.

    Coupon Codes (save 10-15%): "IACAS" for Mevo/Stack, "IACASPLUS" for Mevo+/Pro Package, and "THESANDTRAP" for ShotScope.
  • Posts

    • Agree. The next omission needs to be that ridiculous team concept. Nobody cares about a team when they really don’t represent anything except being a group of diminished morality and/or washed up pro golfers. Or wait, we’ve also got total nobodies who’ve accomplished nothing who now get a participation trophy! Doesn’t that sound invigorating!
    • LIV moving to 72 holes is a subtle admission that 54 holes was nothing but a joke all along. 
    • I was going to start a thread, but this seems like the place.  Yesterday I played my matchplay match at my local club.  My opponent is a notorious sandbagger by reputation.  The pro once pulled his tournament rounds from the past several years and said that it is impossible his tournament rounds are legit based on his handicap. here is what happened last night.  I am getting 4 shots from him.  His current handicap index is 15.3 i shot 45 on the front.   Was down 4 after nine, he had three birdies and shot even par. I was closed out on thirteen, we halved with a bogey.  That bogey put him one over par for his round.   He then took a triple on 14 and then left. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he lied about his score.   I wrote down on my scorecard what the score was.  He put higher values that didn’t affect the outcome of the match to pad his score and apparently make it not look as obvious.   He shot 36 on the front, but claimed 40.  The higher values for his score were in the online scoring app our club uses.  He did it this way: I won #7. He had a 2 foot putt for par that if he made would still lose the hole.   He picked up and said it didn’t matter since I won.  He took a 5 instead of a 4 after picking up a gimme. on #8 his approach shot on this par 4 was 8 inches.  I verbally conceded the putt but I had hit into a hazard.  I finished the hole with a 6.  Instead of birdie he put in for par. on #9, another par 4, his approach was to 18 inches.  I missed my par putt and then knowing how close I verbally conceded the putt.  I missed my bogey putt, he never conceded mine.  Instead of birdie he put down a bogey. He padded his score by 4 shots on the front.  And then did again on 10.  I rinsed one and made 6 on a par 4.  I putted out and he was fishing balls out of the lake so I drove off to the next tee.  He had 15 feet laying two but claimed a 5.     love to know the odds of a 15 handicap being even thru 12 holes on a round of golf. 
    • They've been chuckling since they hooked the shark. I think Greg doesn't realize the jokes on him.
    • to confirm, I'll need a hotel for Friday and Saturday, planning to share with you
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to TST! Signing up is free, and you'll see fewer ads and can talk with fellow golf enthusiasts! By using TST, you agree to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, and our Guidelines.

The popup will be closed in 10 seconds...