Appetite for Comps at Your Course?

[tallpaul]

My home course has approximately 550 members, 375 of which are Men. For the full-time Men's section (which will comprise significantly less than 375), during summer, it is possible to play about four qualifying competitions per month:

- 1 x Monthly Medal
- 1 x Mid-Week Medal
- 1 x Monthly Stableford
- 1 x Board/Trophy competition (usually Stableford, except Club Championships).

From reading others posts, this appears to be significantly fewer than 'typical'. However, it appears there is very little demand for Comps, and those signing up are dwindling e.g. this year's Club Champs had 42 entries, last weeks Monthly Stableford only attracted 15 entries (sign up on the day) and September's Medal has 12 people in the draw!

I appreciate it is Holiday season, but even our Comp Secretary has openly stated that entries are falling (he said this back in April).

What is the issue here; lack of Competitions, Member apathy, poor organisation/publicity for Comps? Or is this fairly typical for a club of our size?

Has anyone's Course successfully boosted Comp entries? If so, what was key?

 

[patricks148]

My club has over 1200 members of which 750 have there handicaps held there and we get about 40 for medal at most

 

[DCB]

More people seem to just want to play social golf nowadays. Entry sheets are never filled up completely. Not even the Club Championship draws a full field nowadays. I remember when you had to be there the day the sheet went up to get a time for that. Changed days.

Could be due to the transient nature of a lot of golf club members nowadays. there for a year or two and then off elsewhere.

 

[Birchy]

Seems like your numbers are a bit low. I cant understand for the life of me why people join a club and don't play comps, its just pointless imo.

My handicap is blah blah but I hardly ever play comps as I go to pieces with a card in my hand one bloke once said to me.

We have a comp every Saturday through the main season bar one or two weeks. All medal too, none of this stableford cop out. The regularity seems to work as its always rammed unless you wanna play at 4pm.

 

[Curls]

Wow, I'm surprised by those numbers, we have similar (~600 of which 400 are men) and a midweek stableford/weekend medal/board comp regularly attracts 150 entries in the spring/summer. Yesterday was a board comp on a very windy and chilly day and we still had 93.

Edit you asked for tips, this is my second year there so I don't know if they did things differently but the way they do it now is:

1. Sign up on the day
2. Any group size, Juniors to play with at least one adult in the group
3. Entry £2.50, 50p in the twos, prizes are usually around £25 for a win with places up to 5 in each division. They give out pretty much what they take in, bar about £40 per comp, which goes in the comp fund, which pays for engraving, prize ceremony etc.

Only Club champs have per-determined tee off times.

What's your club doing differently (if anything)?

 

[Deleted member 18121]

My appetite for comps dwindled after playing two comps with real jobs worth/stickler for the rules types..... one of which reduced a 14 year old boy to tears.

Personally I'd rather spend my 4hours (or so) with 3 friends playing a decent, friendly, but competitive round of golf and chewing the fat on life.

 

[backwoodsman]

We've got about 630 men although some are 5dayers. The monthly medal gets about 100 to 120 as do the various board comps. If there is no official club comp on any weekend, then there's always a"Pro-shop" comp. These regularly get 60 or so. For the medals and the "boards", you need to get your name on the sheet darn quick.

I'd say comps at ours are thriving.

 

[gdc]

Our comp sheets come out 2 weeks prior to comp and are nearly always full - between 150-200 playing in summer.
We have 10 weekday comps per year which will normally have 60-100 playing.
Club champs usually only see the low players enter and will get about 60 entries max.

 

[USER1999]

Our comp sheets come out 2 weeks prior to comp and are nearly always full - between 150-200 playing in summer.
We have 10 weekday comps per year which will normally have 60-100 playing.
Club champs usually only see the low players enter and will get about 60 entries max.

This is pretty much how my place works too.

 

[HickoryShaft]

Our comp sheets come out 2 weeks prior to comp and are nearly always full - between 150-200 playing in summer.
We have 10 weekday comps per year which will normally have 60-100 playing.
Club champs usually only see the low players enter and will get about 60 entries max.

Yep similar here also - normal entry is about 150 people.

Saturady medals are once a month but other comps most saturdays during the season a lot of which are medal format but with some social , team and stablefords in the mix to play for board honors etc.

Saturday medals are drawn where you put your name in a tee off slot usually 1& 1/2 hours and get drwan with someone else in that slot. Rest are sign up sheets that come out at least 2 - 3 weeks in advance and you can choose a time and sign up as a pair, 3 or 4 depending on format

Personally i would like a few more qualifiers but struggle to fit them in with the other formats so I guess its fair the way it is.

 

[tallpaul]

Regular 18 hole competition is £4 entry inc. £1 for 2's pot.

Monthly Medal is drawn in the AM, free-format in the PM
Monthly Stableford & Mid-Week Medal both free-format.
Board Comps/Trophies drawn only.

Sign-up is always by a sheet on the competition board in the Clubhouse for draws or a list in the Pro-Shop on the day.

 

[pbrown7582]

Our comp sheets come out 2 weeks prior to comp and are nearly always full - between 150-200 playing in summer.
We have 10 weekday comps per year which will normally have 60-100 playing.
Club champs usually only see the low players enter and will get about 60 entries max.

these are the sort of numbers we get, although start sheet is online 3 weeks before @ 4.30 friday afternoon a bit manic for early times you need to be a keyboard warrior to get early start regular.
Numbers have been down a touch through august but had record entry for captains day in june.

 

[richart]

Our competitions are usual full, so you have to get your name down on the computer pretty quickly if you want to play.

 

[the smiling assassin]

our clubs most recent mid-week medal fields were 148 and 156. yet there are only 6 per year. ridiculous...
weekends we used to get in excess of 180, but since the online booking system came into use last year the numbers have been slightly down to a max of around 165.