A Tour For Amatuers

[AlchemyGolf]

You will like this 1
Thought I would let you know that there is a tour you guys can play on.
Its the Prestige Tour and its run by the pro at my old club Southport and Ainsdale.

It has a list of events all played on championship golf courses and an order of merit.Im pretty sure the scoring is nett stableford but it is definitely some form of nett competition.

You become a member then enter the tournaments and pay an entrance fee.

The entrance fee for each event will vary, but will always include:
• Bacon Roll and Coffee/Tea on arrival
• Full Reception Desk and Scorecard Management
• 18 Holes of the Championship Course
• Light Lunch either before or after your round
• Excellent Prize Table Sponsored by Nike Golf
• Computerised Scoring and Leaderboard System
• Live Order of Merit Updates

As a member there are also golf schools at home and abroad and lots of other stuff!!!

It really allows mere mortals to live the dream!!!!!
Check It Out At
http://www.theprestigetour.com/index.php

 

[Andy]

£600 sheets to play Turnberry, bollocks to that. I'd rather play in a bounce game on either course for nothing.

Andy

 

[bobmac]

Alchemy, as a 2 handicapper you are eligible to play on the Europro Tour. Providing you you get through the qualifying rounds to get on the tour and you pay the £375 joining fee and £275 entry fee per tournament, .The good news is you get to keep your amateur status and you cant win any money.
How rich are you?

 

[AlchemyGolf]

Andy your best 3 scores count towards the order of merit so you can leave the expensive Turnberry leg out.

Bobmac im not lookiing to play on any tour but I didnt realise that with the europro.That ship has sailed for me I Played full time in my early 20s for 2 years getting down to -.03 at my lowest.
Quickly realised when I competed against the likes of Howell,webster & Westwood to name a few that -.03 was no where near good enough.

Now I have 3 year old and 4 month old daughters and just want to enjoy getting out of the house for 6 hours and enjoy myself on the golf course,a good score is regarded as a bonus.
Strangely I have now realised with age that that attitude would have served me far better in my early twentys when it was club throwing life and death.

 

[bobmac]

2 daughters under 5? My sympathies. Enjoy your golf while you can.
As for your other point, an old head on young shoulders is a rare thing indeed. I see young guys with so much talent but not an ounce of course management between them.
Do you think Rory Mcllroy will fulfill his potential, bearing in mind he was + 6 when he turned pro?

 

[Macster]

I think with the results McIlroy's had in recent months, he just needed that 1st win to really settle him, and I think he'll have a fabulous season.
Ok, he did wobble on sunday, but then again, who wouldnt !!

Awesome swing, super natural talent, I wish him much success.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I couldn't justify the costs and all the events are way too north. Add in the cost of travel and accommodation it makes it a mockery unless you are mega rich in which case the Europro tour would be a better gig.

Now if there was a GM order of merit.....

 

[007chappie]

Alchemy,

Any idea of the tour itinerary for 2009?

 

[Herbie]

A wonderful thought, but a bit expensive for the average person to justify the time and money with lifes commitments many amateurs have.

I often wondered why more cannot be done by Golf as a whole to put on affordable tournaments like the one you mention for us mere mortals on the big courses, after all golf makes enough money from us one way or another.

 

[AlchemyGolf]

Homer you should know that the more north you go the better the courses get...LOL
seriously though there are more championship courses in northern england and scotland.
Turnberry aside the entrance fees are around what you would pay for a green fee on those top courses anyway and your getting a lot extra.
Understand the travelling argument of course..

007 chappie im sure the 2009 itinery will be posted on the website soon or ask for the free information pack in the post.
I played in an event in 2007 and it was really good.
The electronic markers and constantly updated leaderboard is great if your sat in the clubhouse on a good score and you can see how everybody else is doing as it happens.
I payed a £90 entrance fee and won a nike Sumo driver which i sold on ebay for £170 for finishing 3rd.
The prizes are excellent and if you get in the top 3 of a small field your prize will be worth more than your entrance fee.
How confident are you???????????

You guys could organise your own GM forum order of merit.
Use courses around the middle of the country so travel is fair for everyone.On a large party many courses will do a corporate/society discount on the green fees

Top 15 places get points towards the order of merit
Top 5 in order of merit get prizes
Entrance fees cover cost of green fees and prizes.
Put results and current order of merit on forum.
Good Times are had!!!
Maybe worth asking the powers that be running the forum the question!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jeffc]

Alchemy

when I first looked at this I thought that it was abit rich but to put it in perspective, you are competing at what seems to be an excellent amatuer level against players you've never met at some of the best courses in the country.
Compare this to competing in motorsport at the lowest cost and also at an amatuer level and this is peanuts.( Believe me I know)

If you are really serious about being competative and not just playing the same course against the same members every week then I think it is a pretty good set up.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I totally agree with the argument about the majority of top courses being up north or over the border but my wife just won't listen when I say I want to put the house on the market and move north to join better and cheaper courses.

It seems that if you are going to be competitive enough to feature in the top 10 regularly then it would work out as a breakeven financially if you sell on any prizes so perhaps not as financially restrictive as it originally seemed.

I did discuss the idea of a GM order of merit with Mike Harris (GM editor) when I went up there last month. He was quite keen on the concept but there are lots of problems that would need ironing out etc to make it viable. One point being that some guys are flexible enough to play all or most of the events whereas some would only get to one or two. It was suggested some sort of average score (e.g. total nett points divided by number of rounds played etc).

As I say I think it is something that GM may come back to at some point, especially if the forum continues to grow.

 

[AlchemyGolf]

Jeff C
I have played all the courses on this tour in other events in the past and they are all TOP DRAW and in the top 100 list in the country.

Turnberry is expensive but the rest are great value for what your getting offered as a package.

I have not got the time due to family commitments to be able to play in them,I purely put it on the forum for others to have a butchers.

 

[jeffc]

Alchemy I think it's an excellent post for those players who really want to be truely competitive and not expect too much in prizes or prize money. It is the competition which I believe people are looking for.

If GM also put something similar together I am sure there would be a lot of interest from the forum especially if it was regional with perhaps national finals.If a major manuafctuer was also involved then that would be interesting!!!

Homer perhaps put up a survey to see how many people would be interested in taking part.

 

[bobmac]

If this takes off, please, please, please, dont give out fabulous prizes. The cynic in me would suspect you know what.
I played in a comp called the Raffles Classic many years ago when the first gross prize was a carriage clock and the first net prize was a weeks holiday for 2 in the Raffles hotel in SINGAPORE. ALL INCLUSIVE
Incidently the winning score was 43 stablford pts on a windy day off 15 h/cap
Several years before I played in the usual monthly medal and shot 16 pars and 2 birdies playing off 1 and won nothing. There was no gross prize.
Any wonder I turned pro.
My apologies to the vast amount of golfers who do play off the correct handicap.

 

[007chappie]

Homer perhaps put up a survey to see how many people would be interested in taking part.

Seeing as though Homer hasn't had the time to reply, I thought I'd grab the bull by the horns, so to speak.

 

[SammmeBee]

I believe this to be much better and perhaps a little cheaper http://www.vmat.co.uk/volvotour/volvointro.aspx.....

 

[thecraw]

I played a work competition Grand Final at Blairgowrie one year where it was windy and we had a couple of showers. I played out of my skin, hit the ball really, holed a few decent putts and shot a gross 75, net 70.

I was sitting in the clubhouse leading by 5 shots when a guy came in with a 74 gross minus his alledged 16 handicap for a net 58!!!!!!!!

I swear to God I would never ever call anybody a cheat but I couldnt eat my diner afterwards, I was spitting chips!!!! Might sound like sour grapes but I couldnt have played any better that day and no disrespect to any 16 handicappers but there was no way in the word a 16 handicapper could have shot 74 on that day in the conditions.

I suppose its quite funny now looking back but I was raging.

 

[tincup]

007chappie
might be a good idea to change the dates of your poll, we cant vote till next month

 

[SammmeBee]

The problem with these things (and the reason why I won't play in any magazine or newspaper knockout or one-day competitions) is el bandito's chasing pots....

And unfortunately, there are people out there who want to have false handicaps to win such things as craw mentioned and the one that I played in where 2 chaps who had already qualified for the National Final in a previous competition, walked off the course after 15 holes with 43 points because they didn't want to post too good a score!!

The other problem is that whoever (me, Homer, GM, Volvo) runs such an event has to make a buck out of it as they have to run a website, find/buy prizes, partners - basically pay someone to do all the organising - now Mike if GM wants to run one then you can by all means pay me and I'll do a bloody good job of it for you.....but despite what deals the clubs will give you (and they are all so short sighted they won't be that good) then you have to factor in all the other deals....