Does Your Club Have Age Limits on Club Championships?

[Sandy Lie]

So let’s discuss age of participants for your Club Championship.  At our Club we have 3 Divisions based on age. The Open Division, the Senior Division and the Super Senior Division.  The winner of the Open Division is recognized as the years Club Champion.

Each Division is Flighted. The low Gross from the Open Division is the winner of the Club Championship. There are a Flight winners in each Division. There is a Senior Division winner and a Super Senior Division winner. They are unofficially the Champions of their Divisions. Those Divisions also have Flight winners. There are no NET winners.

Here is the age breakouts:

Open Division – Men 15 years of age or older (Blue Tees)
Senior Division – Men 55 years of age or older (White Tees)
Super Senior Division – Men 65 years of age or older (Green Tees)
The winner of the Open division will be acknowledged as the “Club Champion”

Ok, long winded intro. Question is should a 15 year old be allowed to play?  This question comes up every year. Arguments range that the minimum age should be 18, there are other tournaments for kids.  A 15 year old is a minor. A 15 year old is only a Member because his parents are Members.  So on and so on.  From a legal standpoint he can’t vote, join the military, buy liquor or enter into a legal contract on his own.  Some Members feel that the 15 year old is simply building a resume.  
In my time at the Club there hasn’t been a 15 year old winner, yet.  The other side of the coin is that some Members also have kids in College that come in and play and that is generally accepted but there are a few that think that shouldn’t be allowed either. Essentially if your not writing the check for the dues you shouldn’t be able to play. (Old school members).

Does this happen at your Club?  I could care less, but it comes up every year I’m told.  And one more point, it also lessens the amount of people who sign up.  The two Senior Divisions were added to appease the Members who grumbled about it.

 

[deadon500]

Ours has a  men  to 54  blue tees seniors 55 and up white tees  and 70 and up super seniors with 10 handicap or higher  yellow tees. 70 to 75 with under 10 handicap white tees.........

[Double Mocha Man]

It looks like it really has nothing to do with age.  Looks more like some of the members don't want a hotshot 15 year old winning the Championship.  They should just come out and say it... it's the Age of Majority Club Championship.  Can women enter?  If not, then it's the Age of Majority Male Club Championship for Grumpy and Anti-Inclusive Men.  I would not want to have that engraved on my trophy!

[Sandy Lie]

17 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

It looks like it really has nothing to do with age.  Looks more like some of the members don't want a hotshot 15 year old winning the Championship.  They should just come out and say it... it's the Age of Majority Club Championship.  Can women enter?  If not, then it's the Age of Majority Male Club Championship for Grumpy and Anti-Inclusive Men.  I would not want to have that engraved on my trophy!

LOL!  The Ladies have their own event. They to allow 15 years and up.  But they only have one Division.  

[colin007]

If you could care less, why bring it up? 😉

Anyways, I don't come from "Club" stock. But if I did, I would be all for the kids playing. Make the game more inclusive. Make it more fun. Kids are great. Old guys aren't.

[DaveP043]

At my club, if you have full playing privileges, you can play in just about all tournaments, the exceptions being tournaments only for women, or for seniors.  A child of a member can play under his (or her) parent's membership until the age of 25, I think.  Of course every entrant in the tournament pays.  We've never had a 15-year old win, but I'm pretty certain we've had a 17 or 18-year old, as both Men's overall champion and as Women's champ..  I've got no problem with it, if that's the best player at a club, good for him or her.

[Sandy Lie]

5 minutes ago, colin007 said:

If you could care less, why bring it up? 😉

Anyways, I don't come from "Club" stock. But if I did, I would be all for the kids playing. Make the game more inclusive. Make it more fun. Kids are great. Old guys aren't.

It was something some Members brought up today that’s all.

[DaveP043]

6 minutes ago, Sandy Lie said:

It was something some Members brought up today that’s all.

We've had those discussions at my club too.  Its usually when some young whippersnapper starts stomping on the couple of guys who used to win the Club Champ regularly.  They hate being stomped by some kid, and their solution wasn't to get better, it was to ban the kid.

[Papa Steve 55]

We sign up ahead of time. The pro might 'fine tune' the age flights to get a reasonably balanced number in each group. Usually we play stroke for overall, net for the aged flights.  

[Beastie]

Club championship is flighted, but not by age. Single figure’s to enter,  It’s a 36H qualifier and then knockout match play for top 16. For 10 cap and above there is a Mid Cap (18 H qualifier, then knock out). Seniors is 55 and over. 
On the point of kids playing, my old club championship was frequently won by juniors, and juniors frequently made up up large parts of the men’s teams. Golf (competitive) is by and large a meritocracy in Scotland. 

[Sandy Lie]

10 minutes ago, Beastie said:

Club championship is flighted, but not by age. Single figure’s to enter,  It’s a 36H qualifier and then knockout match play for top 16. For 10 cap and above there is a Mid Cap (18 H qualifier, then knock out). Seniors is 55 and over. 
On the point of kids playing, my old club championship was frequently won by juniors, and juniors frequently made up up large parts of the men’s teams. Golf (competitive) is by and large a meritocracy in Scotland. 

That actually would be a better format, I like it!

[easyjay39402]

The club championship at my home course is typical - lots of  flights, as well as gender and senior categories. Everyone gets a trophy, more or less. Which is similar to the tournaments held every other month, except that the player with the lowest total score is named club champion. I would like to see a unique event with the sole purpose of identifying the club champion. Any member could play and there would be only one trophy, given to the player with the lowest total score over n rounds played from the tips with the tournament pin placements.

[Patch]

Our club is almost the same as the OP's. Open, senior, and super senior divisions.  That said, any member, regardless of age, and in good standing can enter the open division. In fact a senior golfer, 61 years old is our current club champion.  

[phan52]

The only Member event Junior players or children of full members can play in at our club is the Club Championship. No age limit, if they can qualify they can compete.

[Tepi90]

Imagine you being 15, really good at golf, ambitious and practising hard day after day. You have club championship marked in calender and are dreaming of winning it. Then they announce you have to wait 3 more years to give it a shot, at that moment, how would you feel about the decision and the whole sport?

Besides that, to get better at something, you should always try to play with/against people who are better than you, it really speeds up the progress.

[dagolfer18]

4 minutes ago, Tepi90 said:

Imagine you being 15, really good at golf, ambitious and practising hard day after day. You have club championship marked in calender and are dreaming of winning it. Then they announce you have to wait 3 more years to give it a shot

Yep. That’s how I feel. I was told last summer that I could play in the club championship this year, so I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. But last week, I found out that you’ve gotta be 18 to play. I’m 16 now. That means I have to wait two more summers to play. You can imagine I was pretty upset about that. I love playing in tournaments.

Edited August 13, 2020 by dagolfer18