Cliquey groups ?

[The_Squire]

There was a space on the tee times for a comp this weekend so I put my name down to play with three others I had not met.

After teeing off two wizzed off in their buggy while the third scuttled off with his electric trolley in the direction of his ball which was not far from mine, not a lot of conversation was going on over the first few holes between them and myself apart from some one sentence answers to questions or comments I was making, although it was obvious to me that they had been playing together for a few years by the banter between them.

I have never wanted to finish a round so quickly.

I think I was just unlucky to play with them as I have played with a few strangers since joining a few months ago and have felt comfortable with their company from the off.

So the question I am asking is, 'Do any of you chaps find this sort of clique at your clubs' ?

 

[bunkered]

Every club has them, what comp was it, at my club we play the medals in three balls.

 

[theeaglehunter]

people like that piss me off, even if they have been playing together for a long time is it so much to ask for a bit of courtesy and good manners, and for them to welcome you into their group just for 1 round.

~I don't know why people are so unfriendly!

 

[The_Squire]

Divot, it was individual stableford and I hit the lowest score ever, 23 pts. I just lost my ambition after four or five holes. Just put it down to bad luck.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We have a number of cliques or "greedies" One of the worst always tee off between 7.30 and 8.00 on a Saturday morning and are made up by some elderly gents and others who frankly are just poor golfers. The problem is they are always there queueing so there is never any chance to get off before them and they then set the pace of play for thos behind.

We have another greedy that is very cliquey and made up of some of the clubs lowest handicappers. They aren't normally too bad for hogging the tee but will never let anyone join them to make up a game.

There is a big midweek and weekend greedy that goes out which is made up of anything between 10 and 30 golfers depending on other competitions and weather. To be fair when they are large in numbers they normally split in two and go off the 1st and 10th so at least they don't hold the tees up. They are a very friendly if competitive bunch and are normally very good at letting new club members join in. If you don't have a game at the weekend this is normally the best way of finding someone to play with.

There is also a senior greedy who as I've mentioned in other posts are a law unto themselves and act as if the clubhouse and the course are their own. You have more chance of Monty winning the grand slam than getting a game with them and heaven help you if you want to play through.

I think all clubs have these little circles. In most cases they are a great way of meeting and playing with new people but in some cases are a burden and nuisance. Its a shame the guys you played with fell into the second category. If it were me I'd have tried to play as well as possible to rub their noses in it.

 

[Marko77]

Every club should have a responsibility to organise the competitions where players enter each competition in their chosen timeslot (7-8,8-9,9-10...etc) and there is a draw 1 or 2 days before the competition. Players don't pick their own 3 or 4 ball.

Its fair to new members and helps reduce cliquey groups forming. Clubs with full time secretaries / administrators have no excuse in my opinion for not offering this service to their members.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

The problem with these cliques is that their games are normally on a roll up basis. They don't form part of any official competitions and usually play from the yellows at their set times and on their set days.

From that point of view there is very little the club can (or want to) do. For official comps they are closed 10 days before the event and drawn for partners.

 

[The_Squire]

I will continue to enter my name alongside people I don't know and to get to know other players or I will end up playing in the in the very clique that I found myself in this past weekend.

The Squire