Juinor Tee times

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thomasnathan

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Hi all,
I have been playing at my local club for around 7 months now and have only recently found out that they don't allow juniors to book or play on a Saturday morning. I find this quite annoying and a bit insulting to be honest. Does anyone else have this rule at their club?
 
I'm a junior myself.

This year I'm now old/good enough and allowed to play in the gents competitions, which will mean I'll be able to play whenever. On a Saturday (gents medal day) its block booked off for the 'gents' for most of the day. So some of the other juniors (younger and not as good) can't play until later on on a Saturday.

The funny thing is, for the past few years I've been better than half the men that are playing in the morning!
 
But you might find some will say, you have your own comps, different fees just like the ladies and a lot of clubs don't let them play at certain times either
 
I've mixed feelings on this.

On one hand it is good to encourage any new players into the sport and juniors obviously are the 'full members' of the future so should not be discouraged at the outset.

On the other hand, they pay less that 20% of the full fees and at the moment 18 holes tee times are really only for four hours on two days a week for most working adults so to be afforded some sort of priority does not feel unreasonable, particularly if, as the OP suggested, when able they are given an equal footing in comp entrys etc.

On balance, I think the second agrument wins for me but there is clearly a bit of explaination needed to everyone can at least understand the logic even if they would choose another option if they were in charge!

During the summer perhaps there is a case to relax the restriction but most juniors will be on school / college holidays so could really play anytime so even then, some priority for those of us paying a 7 day fee for 2 day practical access is not too much to ask?


Interested to hear what others think.

Simon
 
Juniors aren't allowed on the course until after the last competitors in the Men's Saturday competition have gone out at ours.
 
Evesdad said:
Anyone can play at any time at mine. Booking system and just book your slot. That's ladies and juniors.
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What if there's a Comp on?
Juniors can book/turn up anytime at ours apart from when Mens/Ladies Comps on.
 
Not 100% sure what the rules are at my course but it seems like juniors can play anytime on a Saturday, but only with adults, so you don't see a full 4ball of juniors for example.

It was always the case when I was a junior that we couldn't play in gents comps until we were 18 years old, or single figure handicap. But there was a block junior booking early afternoon and a junior comp.

I thought it actually worked really well and built a great junior team because of the direct competition with other juniors and made some really good friends.

The system at my current course means you don't often see juniors playing together on Saturdays and there don't seem to be many junior comps.
 
What I didn't think was right as a junior was the fact we had little standing on the course and had to let gents play through. Boiled my p1ss that particularly when I played off 5.
 
chillicon said:
What I didn't think was right as a junior was the fact we had little standing on the course and had to let gents play through. Boiled my p1ss that particularly when I played off 5.
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Never played as a junior, but not sure if this is one of these "Old boy rules" ie not an actual rule, just a local, seen some heated discussions with the senior section over this very behaviour. Everyone regardless of age should have equal standing.
 
chillicon said:
What I didn't think was right as a junior was the fact we had little standing on the course and had to let gents play through. Boiled my p1ss that particularly when I played off 5.
Click to expand...

pauldj42 said:
Never played as a junior, but not sure if this is one of these "Old boy rules" ie not an actual rule, just a local, seen some heated discussions with the senior section over this very behaviour. Everyone regardless of age should have equal standing.
Click to expand...

Agreed - crazy and belongs 50 yrs ago at best. Whether clubs do or don't prioritise some times for one group or another is one thing, but once on the course the speed of play should be the only consideration.
 
When i was a junior we had our medal day on a sunday morning, i feel the saturday should be gents/ ladies medal day and juniors should be allowed out when medals are finished 2/3 oclock. Rules should be relaxed during winter months when its mainly just winter leagues in play. Maybe have 12-1 for juniors.
 
I was a junior golfer at a private members club, but fortunately me and my best mate had dads that where on the lower end of the handicaps in the club so knew most of the better players.

But the attitude of a lot of the senior members absolutely stunk, they treated us like second class citizens. Best one ever was when we approached the first tee together one day and a 4-ball of seniors where teeing off. They had all teed off when one of them said to the others they should let us play through, because we are a 2-ball. One of them commented that we had better not hold them up. Well the look on his face when a pair 15 year olds smashed their balls 50 yards past their drives was fantastic and he didn't know where to look.

Juniors are going to be future members and if you start alienating them they may stop playing and never become that full member. This crap at clubs about you not being allowed to play unless you have a single figure handicap is unbelievable. They will let a 60 year old 28 handicapper who rarely breaks 100 play, but an improving junior off 18 can't, what a joke.
 
I agree with what's been said. But for me it's frustrating when we're stuck behind a group of seniors (who own the course... NOT and were much quicker than them but we are juniors so don't get played through.
A few years ago adults behind us were shouting at us to get off the fairway and let them play through, so we did what any 11 y/o would and stepped to the side..... They were then stuck behind the fourball in front....
 
At weekends, juniors can't play before 10am at ours. Scheduled competitions will block out specified tee times, in these cases any person not playing in the comp will have to wait until the tee opens. Juniors are allowed to play in comps if they have an official handicap of 28 or less, but are only allowed to book their time after 10am. On one hand, I think this is a little unfair sometimes, we have some very good juniors around the 15 - 17 year mark playing off single figures or close to. They are very well behaved and are not going to hold up play, and certainly good enough to compete. My own son at 14, is 6'3" tall, plays off 19 (although should be close to single figures) and outstrips many of us with his swing, it's really frustrating for me sometimes if I want/ need to play earlier but have to wait until later if he is playing in the same comp.

However, I also realize that our junior fees are considerably cheaper than the full membership, so the full paying members that can only play at weekends should get some priority - 10am seems a reasonable cut-off to me.

On a side note, there are one or two comps a year where juniors are prohibited from playing, but this usually doesn't apply to monthly medals, stableford or foursome comps.
 
Any Junior who has a handicap of 18 or better can play in all our comps those that aren't can attend free junior coaching with our pro on Saturday.
We don't restrict junior booking times and they have there own comp on a Sunday and are included in all our team comps. As an ex junior organiser we fought many a battle in order to get to this stage of inclusion and it works well. The current Junior organisers are doing a great job, oh and one of them is our Club Captain.
 
Doh said:
Any Junior who has a handicap of 18 or better can play in all our comps those that aren't can attend free junior coaching with our pro on Saturday.
We don't restrict junior booking times and they have there own comp on a Sunday and are included in all our team comps. As an ex junior organiser we fought many a battle in order to get to this stage of inclusion and it works well. The current Junior organisers are doing a great job, oh and one of them is our Club Captain.
Click to expand...

:thup:

Sounds good to me, this is more like how it should be done. If you are capable of getting an 18 handicap from the men's tees then why shouldn't you be allowed to play.
 
As a junior we had Saturday tee times for our monthly medal. However this was after the gents medal which started at 07:00 and finished at 12:30. The ladies section then got medal times from 12:30 to 13:30. We were only allowed to start at 13:30 onwards. 5 hour rounds were common for various reasons. When I was single figures I still couldn't play in gents medals as I was a junior. Fair doo's as I didn't pay anywhere near the gents price (although I worked in the Pro Shop so my membership fee was taken from wages = effectively free then). The only time juniors were allowed to play in the senior comps was the winter league as it was so poorly attended, even then we had to pay the gents entrance fee, twos and sweep! That put a lot of juniors off.
 
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