Should I Change Clubs?

[HomerJSimpson]

I think you need to write down what you are looking for in a club. From what you say I think the list needs to include

Drawn competitions - mine does it and it is a great way to meet new players and easier to then get social games down the line

Good social golf - need to be friendly and welcome newcomers

Good practice facility - Do the hard work to improve your game

Good clubhouse - Needs nice surroundings

Good craic - Need to be able to have some banter with new friends and old colleagues

Decent pro shop - Friendly pro who will do you good deals and a few pointers when your game is off

Locality - Somewhere where you aren't stuck in a car for ages and arrive all stiff and hassled from the drive.

My sugestion is that if the competitions are that important and causing such an issue then your decision has been made for you. I would have thought that scrubbing yourname out though is totally against the rules and if it were me I'd be making a proper stink. Have a look round your area (sorry don't know any courses your way so can't give any recommendations). Get out now and you may get away with either a reduced joining fee or in these difficult times no joining fee at all

 

[Yidio]

To scrub your name out & put theirs in is a f*****g liberty.

If i were you,mate,i'd be off somewhere else.

What's an extra 15 minute drive when you don't have to put up with knobs like that & you get to play in comps,which is obviously what you want?

 

[steve]

jon,whatever course you join there will be idiots and cliques but most will be descent golfers after a game.don't let the idiots put you off, if its local stick with it there must be a descent bunch you can get a game with.sounds like your h/c is way to high but enter every comp it will soon come down.

 

[Smiffy]

The reluctance by some secretaries to cut handicaps on the request of the genuine player has always struck me as a little odd.
I mean, it's not as if you are giving yourself any advantage is it? If anything, you are penalising yourself for your honesty...
If it were a player asking to go out the other way, I can understand it.
This is why I stated in another post that if a player does not hand cards in on a regular basis their handicap should automatically come down.
No disrespect John, but the biggest bandit I have ever met hailed from Gillingham Golf Club!!

 

[MVP]

Jon i would change clubs mate. When i joined my club beginning this year i got invited to everything by everyone. The more the merrier type thing. swindles every week sunday and they are all drawn! so if you turn up on your own you got a fourball already. Also there are competitions on most saturdays and thursday morns.
The only problem is its a nine hole course! which is why i may leave the club other than that its fantastic.

I think that you will find most clubs are charging 900+ for a year now as well, so you be hard pushed to find a deal. Although i here sittingbourne is only 800ish and is a nice club!

Good luck mate

 

[billyg]

I dont know what to do, a shame as Gillingham is 5mins from my house and work, it is a nice little track and has fantastic facilities.

Not sure if this helps you sway your decision wih regard to the distance thing MWJ but I reset the trip counter and the trip timer this Sunday before heading to my club with the following results.

Total travel time : 2 hours 20 minutes
Outbound: 1 hour 20 minutes
return: 1 hour.....ok then - 58 minutes(how it can possibly take longer to negoitate my way out of Central London at 10am than come home at 5pm is anyones guess)

Total distance :44 miles

So that's pushing 2 and a half hours of my life and roughly £11 in petrol just to play at my 'local' club.

Do I regret it?

Never.

I set down a list of things Mrs. BillyG and I wanted from a club and then went and contacted EVERY SINGLE club in Hertfordshire in the AA guide.

Many ruled themselves out, many more WE ruled out. Got down to a list of 5 possibles and our club picked itself from there.

There are many factors involved in picking a club and I wouldn't suggest travelling as far as I do but cast the net just a little wider and see what the tide brings in.

The key is value. A cheaper club may have none of what you want. A more expensive one prettymuch everything. Compromise on the bits you can live without and insist on the important bits and it should all fall into place with you ending up getting the best combination of needs for cost - value.

I think it's quite healthy to look around at other clubs once in a while and I would be surprised if Gillingham (or any club) had a problem of bad blood about you leaving the fold.

I left my first club after just 8 months when I finally sat down and worked out I was paying a lot of money to let a small hardcore of foosty old barnicles and crumblies play what passes for unforgivably even comically bad golf (yet somehow maintaining single figure handicaps- nudge nudge) on my time

You live and learn.

Good luck with it

Bill

 

[USER1999]

BillyG, if you looked at all the herts clubs, you must have rejected mine, where did you join? (sorry Jon, jacking your thread here).

 

[billyg]

BillyG, if you looked at all the herts clubs, you must have rejected mine, where did you join? (sorry Jon, jacking your thread here).

I ended up here - http://www.hatfieldlondon.co.uk/

pm me the name of your club Mog and i'll consult the master spreadsheet (if I can find it) and let you know what happened.

What MWJ is seeking in a club may not be what I or you would want but the principle still applies.

Chances are your club just laughed at me and Mrs. BillyG. It cuts both ways.

I have to say though, on the whole, most clubs that responded (and many didn't) were very polite in refusing us where they needed to.

The weirdest one that stuck in my mind was one that wanted us to buy a debeture for about 4.5k up front and then about 3k a year top up fees- lordy!

In retrospect we should have donned the sharp suits (or tweed perhaps) and given it a twirl just for the experience. For that kind of money I would expect a complimentary glass of Chablis at the turn and a travelator from green to next tee but now we'll never know.

Maybe it's a dump with just a small group of very well connected industrial magnets playing in plus fours and with persimmons. Either way, we wouldn't have fitted in.

(Think Delboy with the pump-action at the grouse shoot in OFAH and that would have been the Mrs&I)

There's a shrinking but evergreen place for such clubs- particularly in the home counties. Just one of those peculiar legacies of British golf I guess. Some go with the flow and some stand ,Brigadoon-like, in a pocket of timelessness somewhere around the turn of century. All a bit 'Wikkerman' for me though. Goodness knows how they survive.

The Mrs. would have put her foot down anyway but fun to get a blast from a different age if only briefly.......
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(Make my day Mog and tell me it's not your club )

The main point is that no two clubs are the same and that there's a good chance that you'll find what you want if you do the groundwork MWJ. Nothing tops a personal visit to get a feel for a place.

bill

 

[Sneds]

I ended up here - http://www.hatfieldlondon.co.uk/

Literally no more than 2 minute drive from my house

 

[SammmeBee]

John - you've got your Princes Membership, which may be 40 miles away but it's a real easy drive.

Great golf course, 3 nines, good practice, dry in the winter, it's never really busy, loads of competitions and it's the type of golf course that will make you a better golfer. You can play matches to play other courses, and then if you want a game nearer home just get your mates to take you round Gillingham or pay a green fee and play somewhere.

How many rounds of golf do you think you'll play in a year?

 

[billyg]

I ended up here - http://www.hatfieldlondon.co.uk/

Literally no more than 2 minute drive from my house

You lucky lucky bar steward

It takes two minutes to drive from the gates to the clubhouse( it's 3/4 of a mile driveway but watch that first speed hump- it's a demon) so make that 4 minutes.

That should rename that area 'Stanton'* county.

I just love it when I get to the right turn just past the Northaw/Cuffley turnoff north of Potters Bar - the drive from there to/from the club is as a blast of fresh air to a city urchin.

yours in envy

bill


*Local joke - Stantons are a regional estate agents that deals with mega bucks properties in Herts. and have a very distinctive yellow "for Sale' banner.