Harrassed by Driving Range Staff

[Phil McGleno]

The apology was nice, but they have nothing to offer me that I can't find somewhere else. We just went there first because they had a decent facility and a number of teaching professionals.

So lemme get this straight.

You went to a course because it has a nice facility and a number of teaching pros, and then you - as a 2.4 index who probably knows a thing or two and could pass without really close inspection as an instructor - proceeded to give a lesson on turf you KNOW has a "number of teaching professionals"? I still think the guy handled it wrong, but so did you, and any perturbedness (or whatever) you felt or continue to feel is completely unjustified. You were WRONG to do what you did, plain and simple. The guy could have handled it better, but YOU WERE WRONG.

Starting with a new hobby by taking $100 lessons is not something everyone take too lightly. For beginners, I don't see the problem in a friend teaching the basics to help get the guy started, when the option could be he never started playing golf.

The beginner can take group lessons. We offer them all the time at my course, year-round. They cover basic etiquette, short game, long game, club selection (where and what to purchase), and some basic rules. $100 for eight hours of time. That's less than my hourly rate and class sizes are small.

If the guy wanted to teach his friend the true fundamentals, his back yard with some wiffle balls would have been fine. Another reason not to give lessons - independent of any pros that may have some claim to lessons on that range - is that it drastically slows down the rate at which balls are hit. It often occupies two stalls (especially if one is filming another) and it makes people who would otherwise be hitting have to wait. And again, it's free lesson month. The beginner could have gone to a free ten-minute starter lesson somewhere.

The course staff should do what they can to help recruit new members. If that is helped by letting one of the members help out a beginner to get him started, then so be it.

The pros may not be "course staff."

I rent my facility - same one for the past 22 years - from the course. I'm not affiliated with them and I have a second place I rent on Mondays only (my course is closed on Mondays) and a bit farther away for some different students. I'm not "course staff." I'm an independent contractor. Maybe things are different in Norway, but don't make assumptions.

[sean_miller]

This thread is embarassing.

[iacas]

This thread is embarassing.

Whatever it is, it's run its course.