Should a group be allowed to decline to be paired with others?

[BuckeyeNut]

Fun side note.... my family went to Indianapolis this summer 2 weeks ago.   (Hardly a resort destination)....   We went to Indy for the Junior gold youth bowling National Championships..... my son was competing.    This is the biggest youth tourney in the country   Yes...the clubs came along!!   This isn't exactly a tourist destination, but this is how it goes whenever or wherever I travel for the most part.   It is a week long tourney and the bowling schedule varied, so I have a few open "early" mornings.   

The 1 course on my radar was "Brickyard Crossing".  It's a fantastic Pete Dye course with 4 holes going inside the indy speedway.   It was on my radar and I wanted to play it!!!!    I called the day before to see what's up......they say "C'mon out"......

I was paired with the first group on the course and played a member..........it was a retired indy-car race driver named SNEVA!  Haha....fun stuff!   I had plans to play a different course the next day, but we had so much fun....they invited me to join them again the next day.   So I did......  I played Brickyard Crossing twice.......fun stuff!!   I played 4 times that week, but the Brickyard Crossing was the highlight.  I carded an 81 first day due to lack of course knowledge......76 the next day.   This is an excellent golf course..... i Highly recommend it to travelers.........

[Sidehatch]

The only time I don't like being paired up is if I'm a single or a double and we're trying to beat sunset. I have had one threesome ahead of me, and I caught up to them after four holes. They allowed me to play through, and invited me to join them but I declined because by declining, I was able to fit in 18 holes. If I had played with them, I think I get through 12 at best. 

But other than that specific situation, I don't care about getting paired up. If I was paying big bucks at a country club, I could see that being annoying.

[RickK]

On 8/4/2016 at 9:03 AM, jetsknicks1 said:

I hate when courses do that. I have no problem at all being paired up with strangers but I'd like some personal space as well.

One of the courses I play often (public facility) requires people to pair up in a cart on busy days.  Courses do not have an unlimited number of carts.  If they allowed people to take a cart by themselves, the chances are on a really busy day...later in the day they may run out of carts and not have carts available for the tee times coming up.  I think people should expect to be paired up in a cart.

[Pretzel]

20 hours ago, RickK said:

One of the courses I play often (public facility) requires people to pair up in a cart on busy days.  Courses do not have an unlimited number of carts.  If they allowed people to take a cart by themselves, the chances are on a really busy day...later in the day they may run out of carts and not have carts available for the tee times coming up.  I think people should expect to be paired up in a cart.

This logic only works on courses where carts are paid per rider. If it was a per cart fee you better bet I'm not budging out of the cart I fully paid for without a full refund of the fee. 

[Hardspoon]

36 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

This logic only works on courses where carts are paid per rider. If it was a per cart fee you better bet I'm not budging out of the cart I fully paid for without a full refund of the fee. 

Are there any courses that have a per cart fee?  I've never seen that before.

[imsys0042]

24 minutes ago, Hardspoon said:

Are there any courses that have a per cart fee?  I've never seen that before.

I've played at several.  Usually there is a rate for walking and a cart fee if someone wants to ride.   So it's say $12 per person to ride a cart.   The muni courses in Mercer County, NJ used to be like that.   Haven't lived there in over ten years so I don't know if it is still like that. 

[Hardspoon]

3 minutes ago, imsys0042 said:

I've played at several.  Usually there is a rate for walking and a cart fee if someone wants to ride.   So it's say $12 per person to ride a cart.   The muni courses in Mercer County, NJ used to be like that.   Haven't lived there in over ten years so I don't know if it is still like that. 

I think you misunderstood me - if it's $12/person, that's not a "per-cart" fee.  I'm talking about a course where if you ride alone, it's $20 for the cart, and if you share that cart with another guy, it costs $10/each for the cart.  I think that's what @Pretzel was referring to.  I'm sure it exists; I just have never played somewhere that had it and I'm wondering if it's common.

[imsys0042]

1 minute ago, Hardspoon said:

I think you misunderstood me - if it's $12/person, that's not a "per-cart" fee.  I'm talking about a course where if you ride alone, it's $20 for the cart, and if you share that cart with another guy, it costs $10/each for the cart.  I think that's what @Pretzel was referring to.  I'm sure it exists; I just have never played somewhere that had it and I'm wondering if it's common.

Ah got it.   Yes that's different.   What would happen with what I describe is that if you started walking and then paired up with a single/threesome on cart and if you hopped on you were supposed to pay for the cart at the end.   It was broken out where the cart fee, per person, was a certain amount. 

however I'm pretty sure I have seen this somewhere in the NJ area.   Not the best IMO because usually you pay a fee for walking and then if you take a cart it's more with a cart rate.  Nothing tied to the number of people in the cart. 

[DaveP043]

11 hours ago, Hardspoon said:

Are there any courses that have a per cart fee?  I've never seen that before.

I've seen it at a number of publicly owned courses, run by a local park authority or similar.  I'm sure they figure that the cost to the course is the same, whether the cart is used by one or by two players, so its a single charge for "a cart."  If the course requires that people pair up in carts after each has paid the full price, the course should be willing to refund the cost of one of those carts, half to each player.  

I also know a couple of courses in NC that charge you a greens fee, which includes the cart.  You can choose to walk, and they'll even loan you a 3-wheel push trolley, but there's no discount for walking.  I still choose to walk most of the time.

[spusa]

When my Dad became too infirm to play golf about 10-12 years ago and the rest of his regular group either passed away or had to give up the game, I started showing up as a single nearly every weekend.

The number of friends I've made and the interesting people I've played with (including a Supreme Court nominee) have made the game more enjoyable for me over the last decade than I could have imagined.  I play with a number of them on a semi-regular basis when their "fourth" can't make it.

Walking on as a single reinforces golf's reputation as "the gentleman's game" because it requires getting along with people you don't know, abiding by the game's rules, and enjoying golf for the experience itself and not just for the score you shoot.

 

 

[CCC]

On 8/7/2016 at 7:20 PM, Aguirre said:

On my final day in Myrtle on Friday, I was supposed to be paired with a twosome who no-showed. So I was sent out alone. I played through three foursomes, and finally caught a twosome on #11. They asked me if I wanted to play through, but I instead asked to join them. I hate playing alone on a course where I'm constantly asked to play through. I don't play well in those situations and I like playing with strangers. You meet the best people on the golf course, politics cast to the side.

EDIT--Wild Wing Avocet, in case anyone is curious.

Aguirre, I've played @Wild Wing. It is a great golf venue. Sounds like you adapted quite well to all of the distractions. Myrtle Beach SC (AKA as the Redneck Riviera).