Mid Am Tour - Warning

Robobum

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Appears to be done. The guy has stopped contacting or replying to anything.

Despite confirming that first event @ Hunstanton was going ahead, he has paid the club by cut off date and has now disappeared.

Has kept a lot of people’s money including entry fees, prize money and membership fees

Please avoid!
 
D

Deleted member 15344

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Blimey - that’s not Darren , hope you get everything back or something else has gone on
 
D

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A lot of golf club now there own Mid Am's and the ones MAGT run were not cheap at all.

Shame as it could have been a fantastic tour.
 
D

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A lot of golf club now there own Mid Am's and the ones MAGT run were not cheap at all.

Shame as it could have been a fantastic tour.
Yeah I played a few events but they started getting silly expensive.
 

badger57

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Just got an e . mail from a friend .
MAGT <midamateurgolftour>

Statement released regarding payments for cancelled events .
List of events cancelled .
Return of fees .
 

6535

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1 March 2019
Please take the time to read this following as it contains important information about the tour, web site and events.

I started the tour about 7 years ago and have come a long way with little or no sponsorship or outside support. Over that time we have grown the number of events from around 7/8 to almost 30 in 2017. Clubs changed scratch events to Mid Am’s and they continue to thrive so in all the tour has been successful for a lot of clubs and many players have enjoyed playing in top class events at top class venues with some going on to represent GB&I in the Concession Cup and others moving on to play in the Seniors European Tour.

Whilst the events had no doubt been popular, pressure from the clubs around pricing and payment and pressure from players to keep the prices down (and the prizes up!) meant that in latter years the events were harder to fill and suitable courses at the right price were hard to find.

Some other issues at our end culminated in us taken a rest from events in 2018 with a view to re-launching in 2019 which is what we did but unfortunately the same issues still plague us which is costs of venues, players withdrawing and players committing to play but then deciding not to plus the ongoing costs of running the tour and the events. Do not think I am passing the blame - it is my company and I take full responsibility for everything that has happened, good and bad.

I can assure all of you that at no time were we accepting entry fees knowing that we were not going to be holding the event, contrary to some posts on social media. In order for us to run an event we need to ensure we have the entry fees secured so we can honour the payment schedule put in place by the host club. We work and have worked tirelessly with the clubs to get these events and any cancellations affect them as well as you and us.

I accept fully that the communication in the past and more recently has been poor and unacceptable and those that have been playing for some time will know it is not the norm. There have been various reasons for this, not least that fact that we were trying to secure enough players to make any or all of the events viable.

I understand that people book holidays from work (as do I), arrange family situations (as do I), book hotels etc etc and any changes to this can cause immense pressure and inconvenience all round as well as lost money.

Those of you who are new to Mid-Amateur golf events might be feeling let down and wondering what the hell is going on. You’re right to feel that way and those of you who have been playing for years will also feel let down and pissed off to say the least. PLEASE remember that the team and I do this because we wanted to. In the 8 years we have been running this we have taken no salaries from the tour as it something we enjoyed doing and wanted to build something for the future. In time we wanted to run it commercially but that has proven to be the hardest thing of all to achieve.

I urge to to enter and pay in the club run events – they are excellent and you will play some amazing courses and meet some amazing people. Please also bear in mind that we only used the club and county run events for scoring purposes for the OOM. None of the clubs are involved in the running of the tour or the business.

2019 events.

Hunstanton has been cancelled and EVERYONE will receive a full refund of any fees paid. Additional email to follow.

Borth and Aberdovey have also been cancelled and the same applies in that EVERYONE will receive a full refund of any fees paid. Separate email to follow.

The other events for 2019 will be advised within a couple of weeks but it is hoped that these will go ahead if the numbers are there and/or other organisers can be found. Swinley Forest seems to be full and a deposit has been paid to the club. The Players Club and Prestatyn will not be going ahead as well as Goswick and Dunstanburgh.

Memberships.

People who have paid for Life Memberships or any other memberships (5 year) with guarantees for events will be contacted separately and if necessary refunds WILL be made.

Club run events.

These are still open for entry and you can do so via Golf Empire or the clubs own web site.

The tour web site.

We are looking for interested parties or individuals to take this on going forward. It can be used simply as a point of reference for everything Mid Am and also the OOM or as base for new events. Anyone who in interested in this please let me know. We are not looking to sell it – we are looking for parties/someone to carry on the site for the benefit of others with the potential for future development. We currently have over 2300 contacts and the site (when live) was getting 2-3000 hits a month.

The OOM.

As above, if someone is interested along with the web site they can get in touch.

Other Events.

If any of you would be interested in picking up the Welsh/Scottish/British Mid Am’s that we started then these could be run as stand-alone events and we would be happy to pass on the details of past players etc. and we also have trophy’s etc.

Vice Golf.

This partnership is still viable.

For now, the MAGT team will be stepping back from most of the events we planned and the web site, until we find suitable parties or individuals who may want to take this on as a project.

Any outstanding entry fees/vouchers will also be addressed in the coming week or so but we will need your help with this.

Some/most of you will not take the news very well and I get that. Some of you have already intimated that you will seek legal means to get your money back and I cannot stop you from doing that and any claims will be dealt with appropriately. I can personally guarantee though that ALL monies sent to us will be refunded. It may take a little longer than you and I would like but no-one (none of you) will be out of pocket. I fully expect that 90-95% of you will be refunded within 7 days with the rest following in 7-14 days.

I would like to thank those of you who have supported us over the years, we have met some amazing people and had some great times.

Kind regards

Jason Morris and the MAGT team.​
 
D

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Hopefully everyone will get the money back.

A real shame as I thought the tour was a great idea as there is massive gap in the market for golfers once you get to 30 years plus the seniors don’t start till 55.

I guess it’s people wanting to play the top courses but once the entry fees for the tournament were announced people really didn’t want to folllow through and pay for it.
 

Homer

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It was great at the start but they tried to get clever and had to make some to cover some of the ‘freebies’ they had promised life members.

A number of clubs worked out how much they were ‘making’ from what the clubs were charging and the entry fee, and so withdrew their support either by declining to host or increasing their charges.

Sad really as there is indeed a higher gap in the marketing for decent such individual competitive events.
 

Jacko_G

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It was great at the start but they tried to get clever and had to make some to cover some of the ‘freebies’ they had promised life members.

A number of clubs worked out how much they were ‘making’ from what the clubs were charging and the entry fee, and so withdrew their support either by declining to host or increasing their charges.

Sad really as there is indeed a higher gap in the marketing for decent such individual competitive events.

Surely if there is a gap in the market then the clubs themselves can exploit it and host these events meaning the money comes straight to the club with no middle man taking the big cut.
 
D

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There are some good ones already - sadly like golf in general, some golf clubs (read secretary) just don’t like making an effort.
It’s also worth noting clubs don’t carry it on if the 1st year flops. Takes time to get a comp running well.
 
D

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Surely if there is a gap in the market then the clubs themselves can exploit it and host these events meaning the money comes straight to the club with no middle man taking the big cut.
There are loads of good ones already run by various clubs but the MAGT tried to bring them all together as a 'tour' with an OOM etc. They organised a few of their own events but I think just got greedy with how much they charged. Some were well in excess of £100 whereas the ones run by clubs were typically £40-75.
 

MendieGK

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There are loads of good ones already run by various clubs but the MAGT tried to bring them all together as a 'tour' with an OOM etc. They organised a few of their own events but I think just got greedy with how much they charged. Some were well in excess of £100 whereas the ones run by clubs were typically £40-75.
Single figure golf tour tried to do similar a few years back by using club opens but it just didn’t really work.

Personally I think their is a market for it but unless run by the club they charge some silly prices

Assuming MAGT was being charged society prices to play the events then £75 to £100 isn’t that’s bad
 

fundy

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Was always a fan of the concept but not sure they ever quite got the balance right in the product they offered, ultimately targeting too small a market and charging a little too much to that niche. I get that a lot of the top golfers wanted to play 36 holes in a day or 54/72 holes in 2 days, but invariably they had a fair sized target market that wanted to play 18 holes and have a decent feed at a top end course in decent company but they all but refused to cater to this part of the market. It became too much driven towards just the golf and those targeting their order or merit, and hence shrinking their potential market for a lot of the events, rather than making the days more accessible to a broader section of the market. Think they needed a bit more variety in what they offered whereas it felt like they narrowed their target as time progressed
 
D

Deleted member 17920

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There are loads of good ones already run by various clubs but the MAGT tried to bring them all together as a 'tour' with an OOM etc. They organised a few of their own events but I think just got greedy with how much they charged. Some were well in excess of £100 whereas the ones run by clubs were typically £40-75.
In fairness to MAGT they probably had to charge a fair bit more.

Staff costs, travel costs and hotels etc all add up.

The players want decent prizes as well so that has to accounted for.
 
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