# Starting a golf society?



## huttonline (Jan 15, 2011)

Hi,

There are about a dozen of us in my church who play golf occasionally. Last year I organised a meet up for all of us, and everyone else has come out with me for round or two at other times. 

Do you think it is worth me setting up a small society and taking things further? Or just stick to arranging informal meets as and when? 

Any advice appreciated.


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## goldenbare (Jan 15, 2011)

Hi,

There are about a dozen of us in my church who play golf occasionally. Last year I organised a meet up for all of us, and everyone else has come out with me for round or two at other times. 

Do you think it is worth me setting up a small society and taking things further? Or just stick to arranging informal meets as and when? 

Any advice appreciated.
		
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 looks like you've already done it mate, don't think you have to be regulated.


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## HomerJSimpson (Jan 15, 2011)

If you can get a society organised it makes booking somewhere easier than trying to get individual tee times.


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## Leftie (Jan 15, 2011)

A friend of mine (yes, I do have one  ) runs 4 or 5 ad-hoc meetings a year.  There are about 12 - 14 of us and usually we get between 8 to 12 turning up.

He will do a bit of homework as to reasonable courses with very reasonable green fees, even at times managing to get 2 for 1 deals, and then just email everyone with a suggested date and venue.  A breakfast, bacon sarnie, or lunch may/may not be included or get a meal afterwards if you want one and pay for it separately.

Cost is usually somewhere between Â£20 and Â£30.  For instance, in a couple of weeks we are playing Ashdown Forest West Course (OK not the greatest course in the world but the golf is an excuse to have a good time with mates you only see a few times a year).  Bacon or sausage sarnie before the golf, 18 holes, a curry with all the trimmings, and as much ice cream as you can manage, all for Â£29.  

The beauty is that he will book 2 or 3 tee times (pay on the day) dependant on anticipated numbers and that will cover for anywhere between 6 and 12 people.  If it were booked as a society then they would want a minimum number, want to know exact numbers a week before the day, and charge for that number whether or not they all turn up.

Seems to work well.


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## Smiffy (Jan 16, 2011)

In a couple of weeks we are playing Ashdown Forest West Course. Bacon or sausage sarnie before the golf, 18 holes, a curry with all the trimmings, and as much ice cream as you can manage, all for Â£29.
		
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And if you don't want to play golf, you can still get the meal deal for Â£28.00.


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## funkyfred (Jan 17, 2011)

Our society started with a bunch of mates (about 6) going away for a guys 40th birthday bash. It was so successful that we decided to hold a meet every year. 13 years on and we now have a 4 day competition away down in Devon, (Ashbury, ok i know many of you dont like it but it does us proud)plus a spring and Autumn meeting with as many as 24 players taking part. 

These are really great meetings, with as you can expect plenty of banter, and if you cant take a joke its best you dont come. 

As it just so happens, i am just organising our Spring meeting for the first Monday in April, and our devon meeting in June was booked last July.

So my advice would be, go for it......good luck.


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## Oddsocks (Jan 17, 2011)

I was a member of a good sized society, around 40 of us with a common turn up once a month being 30+, we played some good courses but after 2 years of being messed around the guy dropped it as it was taking to much time to arrange.

When it died i started my own, with 20 members and without doubt it was the most stressfull thing i ever done, in the end i closed mine after 7 months. i used to make Â£3.00 per event which went towards trophies and and every event ended up running at a loss.

I would say if there is a dozen of you all take turns to arrange a day. this way people will appreciate teh work and effort that goes in and respect you for it.


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## Smiffy (Jan 17, 2011)

I inherited and ran a "largish" Society for about 10 years. Biggest turnout we had was during the Millenium when 108 players enjoyed a days golf at East Sussex National GC.
Average turnout was usually about 45-50 and we had two meetings a year (Spring and Autumn).
As Oddsocks points out, it is very stressful and I'm so glad I gave it up.
Despite constant reminders asking for the players to respond to match invites, you inevitably ended up making phone call after phone call trying to get the numbers up.
Nobody wanted to help mark the scorecards, so it was left to me. People were always turning up late, depsite you making another large number of calls letting them know their tee times and asking them to be there with plenty of time.
If you tried to "mix it up a bit" you got no end of players moaning and whinging 'cos they wanted to be paired with somebody else.
Despite constant reminders about slow play, and asking players to pick up if they couldn't score on a hole to help speed things along, you still ended up marking cards with 10's on them. If you said anything, you were met with "I've paid my money, I'll take my shots".....
I don't mind playing in society days...but I'm buggered if I'll organise anymore.

By the way, who's coming to Blackmoor and Cooden?


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## Golfmmad (Jan 17, 2011)

I fully understand what you're saying Rob having been a member of a society for over 6 years. Always thinking what a hassle it must be trying to organise for exactly the reasons you describe.

However, it must be a hell of a lot easier doing it on line, rather than having to make all those bloody phone calls!


But I have to say Rob, you do a fantastic job of trying to organise all of us herberts -  seriously!

Look forward to meeting up on the 26th mate.  

Golfmmad.


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## Oddsocks (Jan 17, 2011)

Golfmmad,

I run mine in what I beleive was the easiest and most simple way.

- no joining fee

-  Â£20 refundable deposit used agains each booking you confirmed to

- if you confirmed by the 15th of each month, you gad until the Monday before the event to cancel wIthout penalty, anything after you were liable
 for the green fee as mist clubs stated confirmed numbers needed by the 

We always played on the last Sunday of each monthto avoid clashes with own club comps, and on each event I would always advise everyone there what the next event was. Then I would email all details of the next event with the results that same evening. I was forced to send reminders every week and even then end up making calls the Monday before because people apparently dont check their emails for 3 weeks

I'm a strong beleiver that a society should be shared amongst each member, that way they get to experience the stress and head aches of running a event and appreciate the effort it's taken


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## Golfmmad (Jan 17, 2011)

Golfmmad,

I run mine in what I beleive was the easiest and most simple way.

- no joining fee

-  Â£20 refundable deposit used agains each booking you confirmed to

- if you confirmed by the 15th of each month, you gad until the Monday before the event to cancel wIthout penalty, anything after you were liable
 for the green fee as mist clubs stated confirmed numbers needed by the 

We always played on the last Sunday of each monthto avoid clashes with own club comps, and on each event I would always advise everyone there what the next event was. Then I would email all details of the next event with the results that same evening. I was forced to send reminders every week and even then end up making calls the Monday before because people apparently dont check their emails for 3 weeks

I'm a strong beleiver that a society should be shared amongst each member, that way they get to experience the stress and head aches of running a event and appreciate the effort it's taken
		
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Sounds like a well organised system you have there Oddsocks, and I like the Â£20 deposit which surely sorts out the serious and time wasters.

What I didn't mention when replying to Smiffy was that a "Forum" event must be a lot easier to organise. 

Golfmmad.


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## Oddsocks (Jan 17, 2011)

Golfmmad. The principle of ghd deposit was more so that if soneone blew out an event leaving me Â£30-Â£40 out of pocket I hadn't lost all the money, but they had to pay the fee lost to reactivate their deposit before they were able to play the next round.

It was a simple system yet so many time wasting muppets abused it and messed around do I jacked it, what was funny is the amount of people that then said " oh cone on don't cancel it " and they were the biggest messers. It averaged Â£33-35 max for a full breakfast with a round of golf and  trophies


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