Club Team Golf

[HampshireHog]

Our club captain recently stated that “our club teams don’t win enough competitions”. Which I thought was a wired thing to say since according to our newsletters we seem to enjoy regular success across the Men’s, Women’s and Junior teams.

But as someone who isn’t good enough to make the teams that play in the leagues or trophies but might play the odd friendly match I thought I really couldn’t care less whether we win trophies or not. Sure it’s nice to see the teams win but it wouldn’t matter to me if we won nothing. I don’t feel it would ever come into my thinking when looking at club to question how successful the teams are.

Am I unusual do you care how successful your club teams are?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Don't care, have never cared, never will care. I've never followed team results at any club I've been at.

It has no relevance to me as a member

 

[chellie]

I check the Ladies interclub results as I have played for some of the teams in the past and want to see how they are doing. Plus friends play in them.

 

[D-S]

As a regular team player I fully realised that our results didn’t matter to most of the members, but they did to fellow team and squad members as well as team managers and quite frankly that was/is fine by me.
In this area we have a very active scratch 4somes league with 8 divisions of 6 teams ands some clubs having 4 sides in it. It’s not the case at my club but it appears to be very important to some clubs with quite a few spectators/members coming out to watch matches in the evening.

 

[timd77]

I played for the last club I was at, in the handicap league, 17-24. Aside from the captain, who would try to motivate us and get us riled up, the rest of us were there to enjoy playing a different course in a competitive format, with breakfast thrown in. I wanted to win my match but wasn’t that bothered about it.

We did used to play an annual match against a local club, a traditional thing that has gone on for years, there would be 40-50 players from each club, alternating the course each year. That was quite competitive and you wanted to win, bit like a local derby I guess. But again, mainly just enjoyed playing golf at a different course, the result wasn’t too important.

 

[clubchamp98]

Played in the scratch team for 15 yrs and was very happy when we won.

But since I stopped playing I don’t even look how they get on.

 

[srixon 1]

I’ve represented my club in the handicap league for 30 years, and was even the captain for two of them. In all that time we have won the cup, been promoted, relegated and even won the top league a couple of times. I’m also still a regular in both the handicap and scratch teams and this year the scratch team won one of the two scratch inter club comps we play in. We’ve had quite a lot of wins in that over the years. Like the Hog said above, I don’t think members that are not in the teams are too bothered about searching out the results of the various teams.

 

[louise_a]

In our women's section we are very keen to do well in interclub matches and there is generally a lot competitions for places on the teams. That said although we do well in our regional leagues we don't take that success forward into our county finals.

 

[irip]

The last club I was a member at the friendly matches were exactly that.
Good fun but no one cared about the scores. In fact if there was a big difference it sometimes didn’t get announced.
The proper league and cup matches were played more seriously but only those involved ever really cared.

If one team got to a semi final then there was a bit more interest but no more than passing really.

For all I know we may of one every trophy going or none at all, we certainly didn’t win any when I was selected

 

[wjemather]

For many, annual subscriptions are simply a season ticket to play (unlimited) golf for less money than paying green fees; the club membership aspect is largely irrelevant to them but it's also something that lots of clubs do not (or no longer) invest in. As such, it's little surprise that there is limited interest in team results from people who are not involved in them.

We used to get a few members supporting at some matches, particularly county finals or crunch league matches, but that rarely happens now.

 

[SteveJay]

At our club there is not a huge amount of interest from general members in how the league teams are doing, although recent introduction of a weekly newsletter might change that. Also, success brings more interest - our handicap team won the league this year for the first time in decades, and that sparked a lot of discussion on the course and in the clubhouse.

I play for the 2 seniors teams we have and apparently before I joined (5 years ago), seniors' leagues were seen as just an opportunity to play away courses and get a meal. There was a band of oldish guys, mainly higher handicappers, who played.

The guy who was captain the year after I joined changed that and recruited a pool of better golfers who were more competitive and wanted to win. It did upset one or two of the old guard. That has changed the attitude since and now, whilst we haven't won either of the seniors' leagues we enter yet, we are now towards the top instead of languishing at the foot of the table as was the case in the past. Again some other seniors now express and interest in how we are doing, and more want to join the squads.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Some clubs view their teams winning as a status symbol, and we are talking scratch and low hcp teams. Personally, I don't pay any attention to it or them, and it isn't something that would entice me to join a club just because they have won the scratch or county league.

 

[Voyager EMH]

In the 1970s I was captain of the Junior team and a member of the U-35 team and 1st Team scratch.

Now I am an occasional member of senior team friendly matches.

However, I will take a great interest in next year's pair representing the club in the County Seniors Foursomes Knockout, because I am half of it.

I think it is great if one of our teams wins something, but playing in teams is really about taking part far more than about winning.

The captain should emphasise taking part and supporting teammates and the club, rather than "winning".

 

[Mel Smooth]

I've played some team stuff and absolutely loved it - general interest is shown from a lot of members and our club tends to perform reasonably well as our handicaps travel well.
For Jamie, it's a massive part of his golfing calendar - a lot of juniors are involved in playing in all the local clubs, and also for our local union (Halifax and Huddersfield)
We're quite fortunate in Yorkshire - being such a large county lends itself to inter county golf - so yeah, team golf is strong in our neck of the woods.

 

[Orikoru]

My club frequently wins multiple competitions and matches, because our course ratings are too low and thus all our handicaps are too high.

I guess I'm mildly pleased when they announce another victory, but I wouldn't go and look up the results if they didn't tell us, put it that way.

 

[jim8flog]

When it come to leagues my handicap as a single figure was too high to make one team and too low to make the other so ever really took that much interest.
When I got seniors age I was able to play in some South West area knockouts so took an interest in them.

The majority of matches I have played in have been friendly matches so the taking part was more important than the result (although I always tried my hardest).

For some years I have stopped playing in any matches so the interest is not there.

 

[IanM]

I like to see how the club is doing in the scratch leagues, and how many good young players are coming up through the ranks.

The other stuff is of minor interest, but you want to do well. I played team golf but now it's only Seniors' Team. These are friendlies, which are usually played in great spirit. But you occasionally get a wombat who thinks it's the Ryder Cup.

My mate gave a 91 year old a 6 foot putt on the last for a halved match this year. It cost us a win overall, and some guys moaned at him about it!

 

[HampshireHog]

Just to be clear I think team golf is great fun, and for the duration of the match I am completely invested in my match and the team match. I just think coming out and saying we don’t win enough is a very strange, it’s not like we have a coaching set up for adults that the club invest in. What is the message he is trying to send to the members?

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Just to be clear I think team golf is great fun, and for the duration of the match I am completely invested in my match and the team match. I just think coming out and saying we don’t win enough is a very strange, it’s not like we have a coaching set up for adults that the club invest in. What is the message he is trying to send to the members?

I would say he's taking it all about him. HE wants to say HE made the team win, and because of HIM they won

 

[Springveldt]

Our club captain recently stated that “our club teams don’t win enough competitions”. Which I thought was a wired thing to say since according to our newsletters we seem to enjoy regular success across the Men’s, Women’s and Junior teams.

But as someone who isn’t good enough to make the teams that play in the leagues or trophies but might play the odd friendly match I thought I really couldn’t care less whether we win trophies or not. Sure it’s nice to see the teams win but it wouldn’t matter to me if we won nothing. I don’t feel it would ever come into my thinking when looking at club to question how successful the teams are.

Am I unusual do you care how successful your club teams are?

I check the team result but that's because I play with guys that are on the team so I'll ask them how their games went. Before playing with them I never bothered with the team results.