"I'm on the committee..."

Sports_Fanatic said:
I find this quite interesting, it's a focus of the game at the moment that slow play is an issue, here you have someone trying to keep the speed of the course up (although appreciate in a very poorly delivered way) and the response is annoyance at him and a report to the manager.

Pro on the other hand just tells people the course is playing slow and that's fine.

You don't want to be firing balls at the group in front, but maybe he thought that by backing off you weren't in a position to immediately play when they left the green. No big deal if you're relaxed about it but if all on the course were doing this then perhaps it could significantly slow the pace over 20-30 groups.
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In agreement here. maybe the guy didn't handle it in the right way, but if you don't keep up with the group in front and an opportunity to play though arises you can't take advantage.

its quite common, its slow ease back, which only makes it slower for those behind.
 
patricks148 said:
In agreement here. maybe the guy didn't handle it in the right way, but if you don't keep up with the group in front and an opportunity to play though arises you can't take advantage.

its quite common, its slow ease back, which only makes it slower for those behind.
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Don't think he suggested he wasn't keeping up with the group in front
 
Ethan said:
Many people on committees don't know what they are talking about, especially golf club committee people.
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That's not my experience at all having served on golf club committees a number of times. The vast majority of committee members are very knowledgeable and bring a variety of abilities to the committee in the interests of the members. Also most if not all are giving up their time voluntarily and with no reward (one or two may get a parking spot a tad nearer the clubhouse - whoop de do..). Of course there are going to be people who join a golf club committee in order to try to gain personal advantage, often they perceive there to be privileges available which aren't granted to the "ordinary" member and usually they're disappointed.
 
We were up with the group in front all the way round, they were up to the group in front of them etc. On our 9th tee you can see up to the 10th green (run along side each other) and as we got there, there was a group at every point of the holes (tee box, fairway & green) so nowhere really to go, even if us as a 3 ball wanted to play through the 4 ball ahead.

Biggest problem was his attitude. I'd never met the bloke, nor had he spoken to us up to that point of the round. As my PP said, for all he knew we were 3 guests playing with a view to join the club. Would his attitude have been that to entice me to spend my money there? Nope. In fact, I'd have finished my round and never gone back.

A polite "any chance you could push these guys up a bit?" or "is there a backlog up ahead or just these guys ahead of you holding us up?" would have been the humane way to deal with it, not demand us fire balls at the guys ahead because he's on the committee in a raised, angry voice.

It's also worth mentioning that when we were a hole ahead of them, we witnessed him duffing a shot and then slam his club deep into the fairway. Some committee member he is. If he has the authority to put people in danger by demanding balls be fired at them, he should also be looking out for the maintenance of the courses condition, no?
 
You meet people like that in all walks of life. I might have had a few words with him, but I would certainly not lose any sleep over it.

I would also not let one person put me off a Club. Seem to remember another thread where one person had been put off playing a course because of the rudeness of a member. Unfortunately every course has them.
 
Sports_Fanatic said:
I find this quite interesting, it's a focus of the game at the moment that slow play is an issue, here you have someone trying to keep the speed of the course up (although appreciate in a very poorly delivered way) and the response is annoyance at him and a report to the manager.
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Fantastic point, I think if the "committee member" had been polite, knowledgeable and understanding while encouraging good pace we wouldn't be discussing it on here.

Marching around red faced is never the answer, a marshall driving around generally managing pace is a much better solution.

We should encourage good pace by tackling the causes rather than blustering at symptoms that might not even be there!

If you see slow play and can remind someone without undue delay or coming across as arrogant would you? (asking anyone here)

I would if I was in the same group, to another group which was not directly ahead or behind I would be inclined to have a word with another member of the group so they could tackle the cause, it would seem less arrogant (I think).
 
dufferman said:
It's also worth mentioning that when we were a hole ahead of them, we witnessed him duffing a shot and then slam his club deep into the fairway. Some committee member he is. If he has the authority to put people in danger by demanding balls be fired at them, he should also be looking out for the maintenance of the courses condition, no?
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Definitely worth mentioning the whole incident and his own behaviour.
 
Let me start by saying you didn't do anything wrong and the guy sounds like a right weapon!

That said its a common and understandable misconception that we should keep up with the group ahead, actually we should keep ahead of the group behind.

We should ALWAYS play through a faster playing group, saying "you can't go anywhere" doesn't cut it, it's their choice to go thru or not and then it's the group ahead that has to make the next decision. Your group cannot dictate that.

Both of which were explained to me by the previous owner of Merrist Wood btw before he sold to Crown.

As an ex committee member at MW of several years back perhaps I can shed some light on how things actually work inside Crown. Unlike private clubs, this guy has ZERO real authority. The Commitee is there solely to run the competitions, manage the handicaps (they have a computer that even does that now!) and to organise social events. Whatever else they tell you , believe me they have no authority and very little influence over anything else. The GM and his area boss have ALL the power.

Finally, don't let one person who might actually be a good guy put you off, they are generally an excellent bunch there.
 
Retread61 said:
Let me start by saying you didn't do anything wrong and the guy sounds like a right weapon!

That said its a common and understandable misconception that we should keep up with the group ahead, actually we should keep ahead of the group behind.

We should ALWAYS play through a faster playing group, saying "you can't go anywhere" doesn't cut it, it's their choice to go thru or not and then it's the group ahead that has to make the next decision. Your group cannot dictate that.

Both of which were explained to me by the previous owner of Merrist Wood btw before he sold to Crown.

As an ex committee member at MW of several years back perhaps I can shed some light on how things actually work inside Crown. Unlike private clubs, this guy has ZERO real authority. The Commitee is there solely to run the competitions, manage the handicaps (they have a computer that even does that now!) and to organise social events. Whatever else they tell you , believe me they have no authority and very little influence over anything else. The GM and his area boss have ALL the power.

Finally, don't let one person who might actually be a good guy put you off, they are generally an excellent bunch there.
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Actually must disagree with that statement

Just staying ahead of the group can create slow play
 
Retread61 said:
We should ALWAYS play through a faster playing group, saying "you can't go anywhere" doesn't cut it, it's their choice to go thru or not and then it's the group ahead that has to make the next decision. Your group cannot dictate that.
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Well said. If more people did this then we wouldn't have so many threads about slow play.
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Actually must disagree with that statement

Just staying ahead of the group can create slow play
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Not sure about that. AS long as they weren't obviously waiting on shots etc then theres no problem, unless the group behind have 'subconciously' slowed down so as not to chase you up. I guess it would take some careful managing by the group in front to stay just far enough ahead, or let the guys behind through.
 
The only way to solve this problem is to attack the cause. It needs a Golf Ranger to go around the course looking for the bottlenecks. If he finds a match with no one in front holding up the players behind they should be told to stop & let those behind through, then watched to see if they are holding up the next group. We are in the process of introducing this, with committee members doing shifts. I'd volunteer if it meant that some people got the message about slow play.

A hotline to the Ranger could be set up so players could summon him to trouble spots.
 
Maninblack4612 said:
The only way to solve this problem is to attack the cause. It needs a Golf Ranger to go around the course looking for the bottlenecks. If he finds a match with no one in front holding up the players behind they should be told to stop & let those behind through, then watched to see if they are holding up the next group. We are in the process of introducing this, with committee members doing shifts. I'd volunteer if it meant that some people got the message about slow play.

A hotline to the Ranger could be set up so players could summon him to trouble spots.
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Shouldn't a course already know where their bottleneck points are though?
 
We don't have tee booking and quite often the 3&4 ball course is very slow on a Saturday. The real cause of this is groups not allowing enough time before teeing off on the 1st. Groups will tee off as soon as the group ahead is out of range so they're right up behind them from the 1st onwards. When we run comps with 10 minute intervals between tee times the course flows perfectly and there's little, if any, waiting to play.
 
Tarkus1212 said:
We don't have tee booking and quite often the 3&4 ball course is very slow on a Saturday. The real cause of this is groups not allowing enough time before teeing off on the 1st. Groups will tee off as soon as the group ahead is out of range so they're right up behind them from the 1st onwards. When we run comps with 10 minute intervals between tee times the course flows perfectly and there's little, if any, waiting to play.
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Spot on, and as I have said many times, holding back players on the first tee is the hardest thing to do.

Players who have lost a hole have lost 15 minutes on a busy course.
Two slow groups out of 30 can add 30 minutes to a round
 
Another thread where Dufferman is caught up in a slow play situation. There's a pattern here perhaps?
 
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