Roll Ups : Entitled or Appreciative ?

[Slab]

I think we’ve had this before… Do roll-up groups at your club (known by whatever name) get ongoing and preferred tee booking & do they appreciate it?

They do at mine, and X tee times will be booked/blocked out in advance for each social group. Occasionally they get cancelled or tweaked if an event, comp or course work causes a clash but typically they’re unchanged

It seems to work ok most of the time but I do hear grumbling when they need to be moved or tweaked due to other activity. There seems to be a wee bit of a (false) sense of ‘ownership’ of those slots that once granted by the club, are not easily relinquished by the group, even for one week
i.e one group has a two-tee start and will moan to anyone who’ll listen if one week they need to all go off one tee

I think these groups are by and large mutually beneficial to club and players but like any relationship it may be strained at times



... Oh and a bonus ball question: is your roll-up group mixed?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

No and no. Don't get them and the club has the audacity to organise and annual team event and call it the annual roll up competition. If you aren't going to give allocated times then don't rub the noses of those who wanted that by calling it something it isn't. Would be appreciative if they reviewed the situation

 

[GB72]

At my old club they got preferential treatment but for all the wrong reasons. There were 2, Wednesday and Sunday and both were roll ups by name only. They were run by the great and the good of the club and participation was by invitation only. Yes, that is right, roll ups you had to be invited to take part in but because it was all former captains, committee etc, they got their weekly times reserved ahead of others.

 

[Orikoru]

We don't have tee bookings on the weekend, but it's well known that roll-ups go out at 8am and 8:30am on Saturdays and everyone else works around them.

 

[Billysboots]

Ours is mixed, and we are allocated five tee times from 8.30am every Saturday when there isn’t a comp.

We send a WhatsApp message to the whole group a week before, and the first 20 to reply get a game. If we are undersubscribed the deal we have with the club is that we return any unused tee times by midday on the Wednesday before so they can be rebooked. We also agree that any new members wanting a game are added to the WhatsApp list, which currently numbers about 30.

We are rarely oversubscribed so it works well for everyone. Format is decided on the day and a draw made for groups or playing partners.

 

[RichA]

At my old club, which was small, there was only one roll-up. They were allowed to block off 3 tee times every Sunday after 8am. They were a bit cliquey, but mostly ok when you got to know them.
It was mildly irritating that they were given the most popular tee times every Sunday before they were available to everyone else, but there were usually plenty of others available.

At my current club there's a roll up who are not given tee times; they have to join the Wednesday and Thursday 8pm fastest finger lottery for weekend tee times a couple of weeks ahead like everyone else, but apparently coordinate to have a few people going for each of their favourite slots. Fair enough. They don't sound very inclusive but I don't know them, so that's just gossip.

 

[Neilds]

As I mentioned, we get set bookings and, from our group in the winter, they are much appreciated. If we don’t fill the slots we make sure we give back any unused slots so the general members can use them. We all stay in the bar afterwards (in the group rules’) and support the club socially, even have an end of season meal and do.
A couple of years ago, a member with a personal beef with one of our groups organisers brought an EGM motion to ban the block bookings for groups and got massively voted down by the members.
We aren’t a mixed group but have a junior member (son of a group member)

 

[Backache]

Ours are midweek midday which is not a particularly popular time. It's only since Covid that tee times have been booked at our club outside competitions. Occasionally cancelled for matches /events without much protest. Not cliquey but single sex.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

We don't have a roll up at my club. There is a clique who block book about 5 slots on a Saturday but this is a fastest finger job. There was a spell when they were given a block booking by the management but others complained as to why they should be given preferential treatment. I agree with that, we pay the same fees, we should have equal access to bookings.

I have no issue with roll ups but they have no more right to booking slots than any other member.

 

[nickjdavis]

Not sure that we have what might traditionally be known as roll-ups but we do have a number of groups that play on a regular schedule....the Saturday Group, Friday Skin, Sunday skins ect. but there are no tees specifically blocked out for them. It is up to the regular players playing in them to book appropriate tee times close together via the tee booking system. Sometimes an "independent party" manages to book a tee time in the middle of the group...the group just has to work round these.

Most groups are mixed.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

I think we’ve had this before… Do roll-up groups at your club (known by whatever name) get ongoing and preferred tee booking & do they appreciate it?

They do at mine, and X tee times will be booked/blocked out in advance for each social group. Occasionally they get cancelled or tweaked if an event, comp or course work causes a clash but typically they’re unchanged

It seems to work ok most of the time but I do hear grumbling when they need to be moved or tweaked due to other activity. There seems to be a wee bit of a (false) sense of ‘ownership’ of those slots that once granted by the club, are not easily relinquished by the group, even for one week
i.e one group has a two-tee start and will moan to anyone who’ll listen if one week they need to all go off one tee

I think these groups are by and large mutually beneficial to club and players but like any relationship it may be strained at times



... Oh and a bonus ball question: is your roll-up group mixed?

There are no roll ups in respect of block bookings where people can just turn up

The is only block bookings for comps , club matches and also the ladies on a Tuesday

The swindles sort themselves out but every new member gets the information of the swindle organisers if they want to join one - there is also a new members swindle organised at the weekends

 

[Billysboots]

There are no roll ups in respect of block bookings where people can just turn up

The is only block bookings for comps , club matches and also the ladies on a Tuesday

The swindles sort themselves out but every new member gets the information of the swindle organisers if they want to join one - there is also a new members swindle organised at the weekends

Ours is more of a swindle than traditional roll-up.

 

[Imurg]

We have so many roll ups that, if you don't want to play in them for whatever reason, it can make life tricky organising games..
Technically they don't have pre-booked times but if you turn up at the wrong time you've got your work cut out.
Many a time we've caught the back end of a roll up and not been let through and being given the " we're in the roll up" line...
We've got pretty good at working around them but it can be hard. We have a traffic light grid system which shows all the roll ups and when is a good or not good time to start.
Being 2 9 hole courses we always have a bottle neck when crossing over.
Sometimes a roll up starts during a crossing over time and it can cause havoc....
We are a Roll Up Club by the Constitution so it ain't gonna change any time soon.

 

[garyinderry]

A swindle is a terrible name for it.

Maybe the the next thing the R&A should change. Haha

 

[ntommo]

Our older contingent get their Wednesday morning tees booked for about an hour but nothing else. Any other "groups" have to book their own times for the weekends but it works quite well and there aren't really any arguments about it. This is probably the only thing there aren't any arguments about at our place

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Fortunately we don’t have tee bookings, so swindles/roll ups just meet at a time they decide on which most know about and everything slots into place.
When we had to have tee bookings around covid, it was quickest on the draw with no block bookings of any sort.

 

[Slab]

I think for all intent and purpose, if its well known the roll up / swindle group ‘just turn up’ at xx time and others know to avoid that window etc… its still a (quasi) booked roll up

 

[SteveW86]

A swindle is a terrible name for it.

Maybe the the next thing the R&A should change. Haha

I dont know, sounds like the right name of it for Royal Ascot based on a recent thread (for one member atleast).

 

[garyinderry]

I dont know, sounds like the right name of it for Royal Ascot based on a recent thread (for one member atleast).

Hahaha I stand corrected.

 

[Bdill93]

No preferential treatment at our place - In fact I think the owner would probably more opposed to the roll up!

Every Sunday morning - show up at 7.30am and first tee around 8am - they will welcome pretty much anyone but you'd have to be told about it by a member to know it happens - one of those things.

They get tee times by fast finger booking, book out anything between 3-6 tees each week.

Issues crop up when say a society is already booked in advance to come and the roll up cant get enough tees for the golfers or other members book around them.