Amateur Prizes

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Ive come to the conclusion that alot of Opens, Board Comps, etc etc which we seem to be very protective of have become too big!

Ive had what I would describe as an average season, my playing handicap has never changed since the first comp. I always pay about £5 to enter weekend comps, and the 2's.

I've had Zero wins, 5 or 6 '2's' prizes which are normally worth about £6. And never placed in any of the club 'majors'.

I checked my account with the pro shop and I've got nearly £200 in it!!

It makes me wonder how the seasons big winners are doing and just how much money is sloshing around in amateur comps.

Anyway, the point of the thread. Would drastically limiting the prizes reduce the percieves pot hunter attitudes? Would everyone still enter if entry and prizes were massively reduced? How much has everyone won this season?? Would we be more inclusive of people with handicaps but not course memberships?
 
A number of decades ago I played in a comp and shot one under par off 2
Came nowhere of course.
1st gross prize......a carriage clock
1st net prize....a weeks holiday for 2 in the Raffles hotel in Singapore.
So it's been going on for a while
 
Yeah, my thoughts are, if first prize is £20 then surely nobody is sandbagging for 3 months to steal that.

I suppose the down side is in the bold new WHS world, what would be the point in playing comps? I would though, its the only chance at our club to play off the whites....

But less people playing in comps, means more casual rounds, which i suppose means less accurate handicaps, given how it seems to work in the US!

I just know my occasional top 5 finish shouldn't be worth what I've won!
 
I've had £250 from opens without a win. I don't enter for the money, it was at courses I wanted to play. I would be nice to take a title just to say you have won such and such. I'd agree with the cutting of prize funds, we have had a few incidents of pot hunters cheating and being richly rewarded for doing so. Some opens have decent prize money. The ones with the biggest prizes are the 4 and 5 day opens, but they stop chance of cheating as you still have to win 3 rounds of match play.
 
I enter the competition, sweep & 2's every time I play, I occasionally get a two but rarely pick up anything in the sweep, I have absolutely no idea what the winner gets and never even consider it, my only thought going out is to play as well as I can and try and beat my PP's
 
Got £40 for a "2" recently .... I think the first prize was a £300 voucher for the comp. Way too much, encourages the sort of stuff we all know goes on.

I got a flier for an commercial event where the prize was a overseas holiday and goodness knows what else. Funny how the winning score increases in line with the value of the prizes (in handicap events.)

Playing Senior Open at Pennard soon. Entry fee is about 30% of the green fee. I couldn't care what the prizes are... that's what Opens should be about. "Proper" Scratch Opens, different kettle o'fish!
 
Yet clubs cant wait to ban non club members who have handicaps under the new scheme as they are likely to be cheats. Definitely time to change the focus to the hosting clubs and remove the incentive imho
 
fundy said:
Yet clubs cant wait to ban non club members who have handicaps under the new scheme as they are likely to be cheats. Definitely time to change the focus to the hosting clubs and remove the incentive imho
Click to expand...

I get your point, the difference being that the new scheme has less scrutiny than the club handicaps. So if we agree that folk sandbag now, this will (potentially) make it worse, not better.

In the other thread I muted that the reduced green fee element of Opens is a reciprocal agreement between clubs. If you don't subscribe to a club, should you get one of the benefits of club membership? (ie cheap Opens?)

But I completely agree that the scale of prizes is daft!
 
IanM said:
I get your point, the difference being that the new scheme has less scrutiny than the club handicaps. So if we agree that folk sandbag now, this will (potentially) make it worse, not better.

In the other thread I muted that the reduced green fee element of Opens is a reciprocal agreement between clubs. If you don't subscribe to a club, should you get one of the benefits of club membership? (ie cheap Opens?)

But I completely agree that the scale of prizes is daft!
Click to expand...


So were now saying that existing members sandbag but we'll do nothing about them, but keep increasing prizes, and ban non club members because we assume they will be worse? Surely be better to address the actual issue and its cause rather than brush all non members with the same label before theyve even had a chance to prove it wrong?

As for the reciprocal agreement, never ever heard this as a reason for Opens (especially the non cheap ones in the south east!), just seems another convenient reason thats been found to try and justify banning non members. Was it ever given as a reason before this scheme came about as cant say I ever heard it (advertising the club to potential new members and/or making a few quid the main reasons Ive seen)

Lets see how clubs feel in a few years time post pandemic when theyre complaining about falling membership numbers again and realise how many prospective members theyve already hacked off
 
We had a big discussion a couple of years ago about the top prize for our open and agree to limit it to £100.

This year that changed when it was discussed again. £100 would not buy a club in the proshop such has been the increase in the cost of equipment.

We set our prize money so that will know we will attract a good entry (we had a waiting list this year) and we still make a small profit from running the event.

On a personal level I had accumulated well over £200 and still had to add to it to buy the 3 wood I wanted.

I have played in Opens where the prize money was so low that I spent nearly as much on fuel going back to redeem the prize that I seriously debated about bothering. One year we won there and the first prize was worth it (£50 first prize) but the came third the following year and hence my comment.

I have always previously looked at entry fee verses value for playing course. Having won a couple of times it does make you start looking at the prizes. One course one year we were best visitor team and got nothing which left a sour taste.
 
Last edited:
jim8flog said:
We had a big discussion a couple of years ago about the top prize for our open and agree to limit it to £100.

This year that changed when it was discussed again. £100 would net buy a club in the proshop such has been the increase in the cost of equipment.

We set our prize money so that will know we will attract a good entry (we had a waiting list this year) and we still make a small profit from running the event.

On a personal level I had accumulated well over £200 and still had to add to it to buy the 3 wood I wanted.

I have played in Opens where the prize money was so low that I spent nearly as much on fuel going back to redeem the prize that I seriously debated about bothering. One year we won there and the first prize was worth it (£50 first prize) but the came third the following year and hence my comment.

I have always previously looked at entry fee verses value for playing course. Having won a couple of times it does make you start looking at the prizes. One course one year we were best visitor team and got nothing which left a sour taste.
Click to expand...

and there in a nutshell is your problem..........................

but its far easier to ban non members haha
 
No Fundy, I do think prizes should be more sensible, secs should pass round names of folk who get bonkers scores especially "pairs events" etc etc etc . You are completely correct in that it needs addressing.

Reciprocal cheaper fees are a big thing in this region... not all clubs participate though! :-)

I don't disagree with you, but maybe you could see some validity in the parts of the other objections
 
I've played in one Open comp this year in Scotland.

My entry fee was £120. Total prize fund by my reckoning was around £7,500 (didn't know this when I entered). I paid £320 in travelling costs (flights and parking) but had no accommodation costs to pay as I stayed with a friend.

I won £25 for a 5th placed finish (out of 67 in my division) in one of the consolation events after failing to qualify for the main matchplay comp after the first two strokeplay rounds. Also picked up around a tenner for a 2 and 2 birdies during the qualifying rounds.

The competition had in excess of 300 entrants...the majority being from the host club and the majority of the rest being from other Scottish clubs and then a smattering of English raiders like myself from over the border. It appeared to me that most competitors felt like participating in the competition was the main motivation and taking part and enjoying the collective experience of the entire week, rather than any desire to bag large prizes.

I'm left wondering whether the perceived "pot hunting" that is often talked about with regards to opens (especially seemingly pairs opens) is an "English Problem" and that perhaps the culture of open competitions in Scotland is totally different (my general perception is that Open comps seem to be a much more regular common occurrence...almost a way of life if you like...in Scotland) ???
 
nickjdavis said:
I've played in one Open comp this year in Scotland.

My entry fee was £120. Total prize fund by my reckoning was around £7,500 (didn't know this when I entered). I paid £320 in travelling costs (flights and parking) but had no accommodation costs to pay as I stayed with a friend.

I won £25 for a 5th placed finish (out of 67 in my division) in one of the consolation events after failing to qualify for the main matchplay comp after the first two strokeplay rounds. Also picked up around a tenner for a 2 and 2 birdies during the qualifying rounds.

The competition had in excess of 300 entrants...the majority being from the host club and the majority of the rest being from other Scottish clubs and then a smattering of English raiders like myself from over the border. It appeared to me that most competitors felt like participating in the competition was the main motivation and taking part and enjoying the collective experience of the entire week, rather than any desire to bag large prizes.

I'm left wondering whether the perceived "pot hunting" that is often talked about with regards to opens (especially seemingly pairs opens) is an "English Problem" and that perhaps the culture of open competitions in Scotland is totally different (my general perception is that Open comps seem to be a much more regular common occurrence...almost a way of life if you like...in Scotland) ???
Click to expand...

I think that there have been a few well documented examples on here of a few people that have racked up thousands of pounds worth of prizes, holidays etc that have tainted people's opinions on opens. I actaully think that many would be happy with a small prize and an invitation to defend their title at the event the following year would be enough.
 
nickjdavis said:
I've played in one Open comp this year in Scotland.

My entry fee was £120. Total prize fund by my reckoning was around £7,500 (didn't know this when I entered). I paid £320 in travelling costs (flights and parking) but had no accommodation costs to pay as I stayed with a friend.

I won £25 for a 5th placed finish (out of 67 in my division) in one of the consolation events after failing to qualify for the main matchplay comp after the first two strokeplay rounds. Also picked up around a tenner for a 2 and 2 birdies during the qualifying rounds.

The competition had in excess of 300 entrants...the majority being from the host club and the majority of the rest being from other Scottish clubs and then a smattering of English raiders like myself from over the border. It appeared to me that most competitors felt like participating in the competition was the main motivation and taking part and enjoying the collective experience of the entire week, rather than any desire to bag large prizes.

I'm left wondering whether the perceived "pot hunting" that is often talked about with regards to opens (especially seemingly pairs opens) is an "English Problem" and that perhaps the culture of open competitions in Scotland is totally different (my general perception is that Open comps seem to be a much more regular common occurrence...almost a way of life if you like...in Scotland) ???
Click to expand...

No, it goes on in Scotland. Not so much but then England has almost 10 times the population.
 
nickjdavis said:
I've played in one Open comp this year in Scotland.

My entry fee was £120. Total prize fund by my reckoning was around £7,500 (didn't know this when I entered). I paid £320 in travelling costs (flights and parking) but had no accommodation costs to pay as I stayed with a friend.

I won £25 for a 5th placed finish (out of 67 in my division) in one of the consolation events after failing to qualify for the main matchplay comp after the first two strokeplay rounds. Also picked up around a tenner for a 2 and 2 birdies during the qualifying rounds.

The competition had in excess of 300 entrants...the majority being from the host club and the majority of the rest being from other Scottish clubs and then a smattering of English raiders like myself from over the border. It appeared to me that most competitors felt like participating in the competition was the main motivation and taking part and enjoying the collective experience of the entire week, rather than any desire to bag large prizes.

I'm left wondering whether the perceived "pot hunting" that is often talked about with regards to opens (especially seemingly pairs opens) is an "English Problem" and that perhaps the culture of open competitions in Scotland is totally different (my general perception is that Open comps seem to be a much more regular common occurrence...almost a way of life if you like...in Scotland) ???
Click to expand...
Was that a 4/5 day open?
 
As a slight aside, are there any limits to what prizes can be given that protect the amateur status? I think there used to be but not sure nowadays.
 
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