Pairing [General, non competition]

Hello.

Last Sunday, 2 friends and myself went to a golf course for 18.  We had an 11 'clock tee-time.  We arrived at 10:40, signed in (paid full price mind you.. no Groupon or discounts) and started warming up.

About 5 minutes before our tee-time, the ranger drives up and tells us that a single has a tee time right after us and he will now be in our group as a 4th.

I found this unacceptable for a number of reasons.

1) I don't know this guy from Gilligan.  He could be much better or much worse than us.  He could also have poor course manners.

2) I want to enjoy the company of my friends, not strangers.

3) I didn't want to feel like I needed to expand my conversations with my friends with a stranger

4) etc etc etc.

When I told the ranger we did not wish to add a 4th into our group, he got angry and said "You dont get to choose who you sit next to on an airplane do you? No, then you can golf with this person."

My reply to that was "I dont play games with the person sitting next to me on an airplane either"

The ranger got angry, walked into the pro-shop and another employee came out to discuss this with us.

The other guy compromised and asked if the single could take our tee time and we go behind him then..  We agree'd, but I still feel the single's tee time should have been moved not ours.

The course was not busy.  There was a 4-some in front of the single, us, then a 4some, then nobody.

Am I in the wrong to be upset at this type of thing o refuse to be paired with a stranger?  I asked a few guys locally here about this experience and they claimed its fairly common to be paired up with other golfers you do not know.

I can understand if it was 1/2 price or was super crowded.  Heck, even of they gave me a heads up when we scheduled out tee-time, I may be more accepting to it,

I'd like to know thoughts.  The whole airplane analogy was so far in right field, if we didn't have a 30 min drive to the next closest nice course I think we would have asked for a refund and left.

thanks

The ranger should have presented this to you in the form of a request.  Would you mind if they filled out your threesome to a foursome.  If you then respectfully declined because your group just wanted to play together, then he should have accepted that and orgainized the tee sheet accordingly.  Filling the tee sheet like this is a common practice and many clubs have it as policy.  In other words if they choose to join you up with someone that is their perogative, but in this economy if I were running a course I would try to be as accomodating of my patron's wishes as possible.  I've never refused to let someone join me or my group, but I understand your desire to just spend time with your friends.

It may vary with geography, but around here I think your anger would be out of line. A foursome fills a tee time, a threesome doesn't, and the course is understood to have the "right" to fill every tee time.  If it's not busy, the courses I play usually just suggest you can go play with the group on the tee or what-not, but if it's at all busy they will assign groups together. If you didn't want to group up, you'd probably have to offer to wait rather than pushing ahead.

I agree that it should have been presented as an option.  That said... I'm a guy who golfs alone frequently.  I play with a group on Sunday's, but the rest of the week... if I get to a course, it's typically as a single because most of my golfing buddies don't have the same flexibility in their schedules as I do.  I'm used to being paired with another group and, around here, it's pretty much common practice.  Typically, golf courses hold blocks of four for a tee time.  If you had paid 'full price', and you wished to NOT be paired with someone else... you should have had to pay the fourth slot, as well.  Then, the golf course doesn't lose out on the ability to fit as many golfers into their day as possible.  Now, I understand that the course was not busy... and because of that, again, it SHOULD have just been a simple request, rather than a statement.  I don't feel that you were necessarily out of line... but I don't think you handled it in the correct manner either.

Just my two cents.

CY

A few thoughts:

The airplane analogy doesn't really hold up, so I'd just chalk that up to a ranger not communicating effectively.

It is very common to pair up groups of 2-3 with 1-2 strangers.  You can always let the starters/attendants know that you want to stay with your group, but some courses will tell you up-front that you have no control over this.  And the last thing I would do is get too belligerent when making this request.  The course is more likely to work with you if you're not too demonstrative and have a reason for it.  For example, a few weeks ago some guy paying before me requested to not be paired up with anybody because he was playing with his girlfriend and for whatever reason they wanted to be by themselves.

Note that most courses do NOT accept tee times for singles.  Therefore the course managers cannot alert you too far ahead of time that you will be paired up with somebody, because they won't know until the hour of the tee time in most cases.

I understand you wanting to play with buddies, but if you're going to request that the course accommodate you in a way they normally don't, you should be flexible to sacrifice your tee time by a few slots to make it happen.  I don't think it was fair of you to request that you not be paired with the single AND that you keep your tee time in front of him.  It's courteous to allow him to go in front instead of having to wait on your group all day.  Just think of it as a single catching up to your 3some out on the course.

I'll summarize by just saying that in general it is common to get paired up at public courses.  That's just a part of the golf culture.  As a guy who plays a ton of rounds as a single, walk-on, I know both sides of this issue.  I usually go out of my way to ask a 2-3some if they mind me joining them, even after the starter pairs me up with them.  I'd be willing to wait for another group that is more receptive to me if it means I'll have a more enjoyable round.  I would suggest that you be more open to playing with strangers, because most courses will attempt to pair you up if a single is around.  But if you insist on not being paired up, be courteous about it and willing to cooperate with the course management if they do try and accommodate you.

Brandon

Thanks everyone for your replies.  The above quote, I was not aware that this was the case.  I guess from now on I'll anticipate the request.

Looking back on it, I don't think I would have been all that upset if the ranger didn't come to me like Samuel L Jackson and shove this single player down my throat, especially since the course was not busy.  And since we paid a good $150+ (total) to golf, I felt we deserved a little more courtesy.

Also, I've played with strangers in the past, typically the player asks if they can join up.  9/10 times I say yes.  Doing so allows for some fun golf (at times) and a free beer as a thank you.

In this particular occurence, I had not seen, let alone golfed with these friends since last summer and I valued our time together.  I wasn't wanting to try to fit someone into our bonding time.  I'm easy going most of the time....

Where do you think I was out of line?  Was it the tee-time part?

Again.. I wasn't trying to be rude, I feel I got defensive because of how I was approached.

I think that the way you posted it, the story read like you felt entitled to play with just three because you paid full price.  Golf is a game played, typically, in a foursome.  The courses anticipate that they will send foursome's out, in full, as often as possible.  I think that you could have been a little more accepting to the idea.

All in all, I think that you probably WOULD have been more accepting to the idea if, as you said, the starter didn't come at you like you stole his wife.  So... the blame, in my opinion, rests squarely on the starter for his attitude.  But, I think that any golfer should be aware that it's kind of an unwritten (written in most places I golf) rule that the course will fill out foursomes whenever possible.  At the local courses out here, you can't expect to get out on a weekend with less than four in your group.

CY

I agree that from your story it seemed like the ranger didn't help the issue much if he was giving you some attitude.  Maybe he was having a bad day? :)

On this past Father's Day I was slightly annoyed with the course that my group of three played at.  They paired us up with a single, with a two-some having a tee time directly behind us.  I asked my brother, "why the hell would they put the single with us instead of with the 2some?"

I never asked the starter, as I felt like his rationalization would only make me more annoyed, as I tend to feel insulted with people argue things that clearly don't make sense.  Instead I just went with it and enjoyed the round.  The twosome behind us sucked pretty bad and never really put any pressure on us.  Maybe management knew what they were doing?

Brandon

This is good to know.  I'm relatively new to golf... just a few years of solid, heavy play.  I wasn't aware of this , from now on I will be scheduling my rounds expecting to be rounded into a 4-some

thanks again for the feedback.

4-somes are the norm, not the exception...especially on the weekend.  Also, don't be surprised it it's really busy to pair up your cart, too (if you're riding).  It can be annoying, but just like sitting next to someone on an airplane or in the movie theater, you don't 'have' to talk to them.  But, you'd be surprised at the great people you can meet with the right attitude.

Much ado about nothing...I think you were being a bit of a baby.

No comment on if you had the right to be annoyed, but just want to say I've met some pretty interesting/likeable people when being paired with "strangers."

more often than not, you won't even be asked.   the single will just show up on the tee box.

I agree that a public course has the right to fill it's tee sheets when you are paying a price per person.  Unless you want to pay the entire four some rate you can be paired with others to complete the max group the course allows.  I have recently read that some courses in Europe use the model where you purchase a tee time and can have up to four players but if you only have one your stuck at the higher rate.  In this instance you would not be paired with someone you don't know as a group of three but the price per person increases.

Someone else mentioned that if you are taking a cart with three people a single may jump in the cart as well, the only way I think you would have an argument to ride alone is if they have a rate for a half a cart and a whole cart and you pay the whole cart rate.  I've often played at places where it's like 20 dollars if you ride as a single and 20 dollars per person if there are two of you.  I wonder what they would do if you said each person wanted their own cart.

You can feel annoyed, but that's common practice everywhere I play.  Look at it this way- a golf course basically leases X number of time slots each day.  They can sell four spots for each time slot, and fill them however they want to.  You bought three of those spaces, and they have every right to sell the fourth.  If you don't like playing with strangers, bring a foursome to the course every time.

The only time I got annoyed with something like this was on a very busy day.  My buddy and I were paired with another twosome.  Right before teeing off, the starter approached us and said they were putting a fifth into our group.  That was the last time I played that course.

That is how it works around here. The clubhouse has an intercom and they will just say "next on the tee, Smith threesome, Williams single". Look around and their is Williams walking down to the tee to join the group. As someone who has played as a single many times, it is nice to get grouped with someone. It just makes the game a little more enjoyable, even if they are strangers. Some day you will want to play and will go out as a singele, and you will be glad you got grouped with others.