Club Competitions

Do your club competitions consist of.....

  • all drawn comps?

    Votes: 13 15.1%
  • mostly drawn comps?

    Votes: 11 12.8%
  • about half and half drawn/not drawn?

    Votes: 8 9.3%
  • just a few drawn comps?

    Votes: 31 36.0%
  • no drawn comps?

    Votes: 23 26.7%

  • Total voters
    86
  • Poll closed .
All board comps and monthly medals are drawn, monthly stablefords and midweek medal/stablefords are free format so just sign in in the shop on the day, works very well as a balance imo albeit less people seem to enter the free format stablefords than the drawn medals
 
All qualifying comps should be drawn imo.I would never suggest that people would bend the rules when you can play with who you like,but its open to abuse.There would also be more opportunity to meet and play with other members,and would soften the blow of new members playing there first comp.
My last club had a first come first served system regarding tee times in comps,and i mean literally ! Those who had been members from the day the course opened in 1991 still had the same tee time,and new members were forced to play very early morning or afternoon !!!
My present club put entry sheets up on the wednesday 10 days before each comp,you can choose your tee time and playing partners.I have suggested to the comp secretary and general secretary that they could allocate one hour slots,people could then play at the time they wanted,but the names for that hour slot would be drawn.Both agreed that this would be a fairer system.
 
Our monthly medals are non drawn all other Saturday comps (3 each month throughout the summer) are drawn. Don't at all understand the argument that golf is social game and therefore people should play with friends only. Seems to me that if you are such a social person you would wish to play with many different people from all walks of life. Drawn comps also have the advantage that members don't get complacent when it comes to the rules. In my view it also leads to a more "together" club.
 
All of our weekend comps are drawn, and the midweek ones (12 through the summer) are roll up.

If they weren't drawn I would seriously look for somewhere else to play.
Part of competition is handling playing with different people imo, not getting too comfortable playing with the same people all the time.
For those that prefer it that way then each to their own, but it's not for me.

It also means that when I go into the bar afterwards I know most of the people instead of only a few of them.
 
We have a few competitions that are drawn in advance and the sheet generally goes up a month before the date of the competiton.

All the others are just roll up and put your name down, you do get some people counting the line out and then moving to make sure they play with someone they want to, bit sad for me.
You can always get a game as the sheet gets filled in order of arrival and once your name is down you play with whoever is beside you, although early in the season you can wait up to an hour before you are due to tee off.

The advantage with this system I suppose is if you get up and it is p***ing down you can choose not to play.

At courses with drawn competitions are there any penalties for failing to turn up ?
 
At courses with drawn competitions are there any penalties for failing to turn up ?

For pairs comps we can withdraw up to the Wednesday before the comp, singles is Friday.

The reason being that there will always be a reserve list of people who forgot to enter before the draw was made, so spare places can be filled but we allow a couple of days more to find pairs replacements.

I'm not sure what the penalty is for not cancelling then not turning up on the day, if at all. You might be severely frowned upon.
 
Ours are all drawn.
I've never understood why any golfer would only ever want to play with their mates. It seems antisocial at best and a cheats charter for the more unscrupulous.
 
We are considering changing to a drawn competitions format for our Saturday comps. In our area the norm seems to be to play in regular groups. Would be interested to hear any views on the subject as well as get a feel for how popular or unpopular this idea is across a broader cross section.

Sorry, but for me being a member of a golf club is all about meeting new friends and playing golf with different people.

Sure, it's nice to play with mates and there are times when you get paired with someone who is a right royal pain in the backside, but I have been a member of clubs where the same 4-balls play together at the same time every Saturday, and at clubs where times are drawn.

Which system is best? No contest. Clubs which allow players to pick their groups every week are the most insular, unfriendly places on God's earth.
 
At courses with drawn competitions are there any penalties for failing to turn up ?

Alan, you were a member of Loudoun, as was I. I know at that time if you didn't turn up you got banned from entring the next competition.
I don't know if its still the same...possibly not.
 
All our comps are drawn and I prefer it that way. I makes for a much friendlier club IMO.

There are 2 weekend comps a month so the other 2 can be played with mates. I don't want to be playing with the same people every week - boring!

I like meeting and playing with other golfers and it has to be more social for new members, and allows them to integrate more quickly.

As for actually playing in comps, I like to have fun but also there should be a serious element to concentrate the mind. Playing with mates leaves me to wonder how many gimmies there would be, and how many rules are............. infringed lets say!
 
All our comps are drawn and I prefer it that way. I makes for a much friendlier club IMO.

There are 2 weekend comps a month so the other 2 can be played with mates. I don't want to be playing with the same people every week - boring!

I agree with Chris, there should be both. If there's a drawn comp the day should vary from week to week.
 
I disagree with the view that drawn competitions make for friendlier clubs. At my club monthly medals and stablefords aren't drawn which means you can have some rounds with your friends, but most other competitions are, so you get to meet new people as well.
 
Alan, you were a member of Loudoun, as was I. I know at that time if you didn't turn up you got banned from entring the next competition.
I don't know if its still the same...possibly not.
Oops Iain, old age, memory is going !!
What I do remember is that there were lots of people who seemed to be ill when the weather was poor and were not suspended.
 
I think the main disadvantages for having the same groups playing comps all the time are that they make it very hard for new members to break in and find a game. It would also concern me how astutely they were applying the rules in these competitions. I'd be pretty confident a lot of rule breaking acutally went on (dropping from the wrong spot) albeit unintentionally "cos we're mates"

It happens a lot when regular partners play in social golf and so I can't see a lot of people making the transition from thinking its ok to let a few thing slide in a friendly (it's not in my book) to being right on the button in a comp. I'm sure there are those on here that do often play in the same groups and are pretty hot on the rules all of the time and will ping a mate if he transgresses (rightly so) and I've no intention of tarring you with the same brush. It would worry me though about the integrity of the competition if I knew there were some not adhering to all of the rules.

Of course it can work both ways. I've played in drawn events where some guys are virtually clueless. I've ended up hitting a guy with 4 penalties in one round before. He plays with his mates on a Saturday and wanted to start playing in more comps. He was grounding clubs in lateral hazards etc because no-one in his group had ever pulled in up and they weren't too fussed about the rules. He was pretty good natured about it and I did feel a little bad for doing it but if you don't learn the hard way then sadly sometimes the lesson doesn't get through. Funnily enough I saw him some time after and he'd found another group to play with who were old boys and much hotter on the rules and he said he was enjoying it more and he learned a lot.
 
Complete mixture at ours. Non Drawns generally on the Saturdays and drawn on the sundays. I like playing in both as its a great way to meet new people and I think it makes the club less clicky.
 
Top