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Dealing with competition no-shows

Monty_Brown

Monty_Brown

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The side effect of the heavy frost on Saturday morning at my club was temporary greens on all 18 ... and that a bunch of people didn't turn up for their tee-times for the monthly stableford, because they knew it was going to be a non-qualifier on temps.

So tee-times were coming and going with missing members, and the guys on the desk were having to shuffle people around and move times left right and centre to keep things moving.

Opinions may differ on whether they were right to not want to play on temps, but I think we'd all agree that it's really shabby behaviour not to ring up and say they weren't coming.

Bit of a debate in the bar afterwards about what to do about this...

On one side were those who said they should be fined a fiver. Those views were mainly held by guys who've done comp organising and know what a pain in the 'Arris it is when people don't turn up.

Other people said fines were a no-no as it would put people off signing up for comps.

I'm interested to know what your club does, if you have similar issues, and what they should do about it.

Fines, a quick word in the ear, name and shame, do nothing....
 
Our club has recently introduced a new rule allowing the competition committee to suspend players who fail to show up from future competitions. No experience personally but assume it has been a problem in order to prompt the new rule.
 
Computerise your bookings with the BRS system (if you havent already) then make note of the no shows by those who didnt remove their name on time and red card them for the following weeks game.
 
Not sure what my current clubs policy is, at my old club you would be suspended from next competition, didn't have many who didn't lift the phone to say they wouldn't make it.
 
brendy said:
Computerise your bookings with the BRS system (if you havent already) then make note of the no shows by those who didnt remove their name on time and red card them for the following weeks game.
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im with this, or restrict them to late tee off time for a period, for example, if your medal/stableford is booked tee slots from 9am-11am, dont allow them off until the last couple of groups. be a pain in their aris and see how they like it.
 
Cheers, fellas. Seems like the tough love approach is the way to go. I'll suggest and see if the comp committee has the stomach for it!

Then I'll suggest bans for anyone failing to get round in under 3 1/2 hours... :D
 
I would suggest a cut off time for cancelling, ie 1 hour before tee time , you should be up & about an hour before you play so you will know by then & should be able to contact club or go on line & cancel , . if you cancel in time , no action .

if you cancel after the time or dont cancel at all you should be still liable for the comp fee as you could be contributing to loss of income (the club could possibly have let someone else out if they had known you werent going) .. if you wish not to pay the penalty fee then you are omitted from booking a time (or playing in for repeat offenders) for the next comp .. not sure how easy/hard it would be to police tho ,
 
murphthemog said:
Persistent offenders have their rights to book times revoked for a period.
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This is basically what we have at my club.

If there is a no-show, the offender is asked why. If they have a valid reason, e.g. father had heart attack, then they are excused but politely told to make sure they call/e-mail the club in future. No valid reason and they are banned from competing in the next drawn comp. Notice I say competing, we allow them to play for handicap reasons if there is space available, but they cannot copmete for the prizes/trophy.
 
We use the brs system and have just started to take a stand against the no shows and fictitious bookings. I raised a point a few weeks back as at the time i was playing on my own and would tag onto 2 & 3 ball balls. Then a couple of weeks I couldn't book as tee slot were being "reserved by" instead of names or "x". This was then changed so a name had to be input! A week latter and the president arrives early for his round and sits in the bar and for 30 mins no one tees off, yet the booking sheet is booked solid!

Now players should alert the pro to their arrival but I don't think he was too interested, so now comitee members are acting as starters and checking off who is not turning up and not cancelling. Then this week they were also about on the course and checking what time you finished, so tackling slow play at the same time.

Now what they are going to do is anyone's guess but will keep you posted.

On the subject of slow play we were warned that we took 20 mins too long! Our 3 ball went round in 3hrs 50 mins, bit slower than usual but we were 3 holes infront of the group behind! We all had a mare on the back nine and took a bit longer looking for balls than normal and the conditions were frozen so a few extra shots etc but basically we weren't holding anyone up so no pressure! If people behind we would of given up looking for some etc but as noone there we had a good rummage.
 
Evesdad said:
We use the brs system and have just started to take a stand against the no shows and fictitious bookings. I raised a point a few weeks back as at the time i was playing on my own and would tag onto 2 & 3 ball balls. Then a couple of weeks I couldn't book as tee slot were being "reserved by" instead of names or "x". This was then changed so a name had to be input! A week latter and the president arrives early for his round and sits in the bar and for 30 mins no one tees off, yet the booking sheet is booked solid!

Now players should alert the pro to their arrival but I don't think he was too interested, so now comitee members are acting as starters and checking off who is not turning up and not cancelling. Then this week they were also about on the course and checking what time you finished, so tackling slow play at the same time.

Now what they are going to do is anyone's guess but will keep you posted.

On the subject of slow play we were warned that we took 20 mins too long! Our 3 ball went round in 3hrs 50 mins, bit slower than usual but we were 3 holes infront of the group behind! We all had a mare on the back nine and took a bit longer looking for balls than normal and the conditions were frozen so a few extra shots etc but basically we weren't holding anyone up so no pressure! If people behind we would of given up looking for some etc but as noone there we had a good rummage.
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It's not about keeping ahead of the group behind. It is all about keeping up with the group in front!!!!!!!!!
 
At my club you do not have to book tee times apart from on competition days. You can only book a tee time by going into the pro shop and you have to pay your entry fees at the same time as booking your tee time. So no show then you loose what money you have paid and also do it too often and the committee will suspend you from playing in competitions.

Regarding not wanting to play a competition on temporary greens, I can understand that. Unless you course has temporary greens that are in good condition I would not want to play a competition on them.
 
Has no-one ever heard of the weather forecast?
You dont just wake up and think, oh dear, there's a frost.
Common courtesy to contact the pro shop the day before and cancel if there's going to be a frost
 
This is the plus side of no having drawn comps and no tee times. For a comp you just turn up in your group, pay your fee and off you go. Cannot have no shows if there is no prior reservation etc.
 
At Westerham, for comps, if you don't show up, the Committee sends you a polite yet firm letter explaining the problems that non-attendance and that if you fail to show up for another, then you are banned from comps for a month (one stableford and one medal). It seems to work quite well.

PM me if you want a copy of the letter and I'll try and get hold of one.
 
GB72 said:
This is the plus side of no having drawn comps and no tee times. For a comp you just turn up in your group, pay your fee and off you go. Cannot have no shows if there is no prior reservation etc.
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Try having 300+ guys wanting to get out on a Saturday and you see the necessity of having a tee booking system. Some clubs have their comps spread over the week, others dont and over here in NI at least, Saturday is our main comp day, due to numbers it has had to spill into friday morning too recently.
 
That is the thing, we have less than 500 members spread over full, week day, ladies and juniors. I suspect that we get entries of 100 to 150 in a weekend comp at most.
 
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