Tee-time 'No Shows'

2blue

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How tolerant is your Club when folk fail to turn up for their Tee time on Sat Comps & what is Club Policy on the matter. Is it effective??
Our Club runs a Ballot a fortnight ahead, from names on a sign-up sheet, so you play with a variety of people which is great for new members getting to know others but seems to lead to folk regularly disregarding their responsibility towards playing partners by just not turning up or cancelling on-line that morning.
Am sure this will strike a chord with a few folk..... it is at our place
 
things happen - you can't avoid that

however, things can happen more frequently to some people; clubs need to monitor such situations and act in the interests of the wider membership (suspension from competitions being the tried and tested solution)
 
For a fine the only real way is to do something like add a 10 shot penalty for the next one or two tournaments they hand in a card. Has the extra benefit of if they don't serve it in time for a big comp it could hit them right at the worst time! Maybe expiring after 3 months or something to be fair.

A ban for the next tournament or two is hardly much punishment as most people would just wait it out, quite possible they were not going to play at least one of them anyway!

Any other solutions?
 
For a fine the only real way is to do something like add a 10 shot penalty for the next one or two tournaments they hand in a card. Has the extra benefit of if they don't serve it in time for a big comp it could hit them right at the worst time! Maybe expiring after 3 months or something to be fair.

please show me where in the rules of golf such a penalty is provided for?

or, to put it another way, you can't apply golfing penalties for non-golfing offenses
 
We are currently looking to revise our No Show guidelines

First no show - a polite letter with a polite warning about not showing up unless a valid reason is given

Second no show - 3 comp ban unless a valid reason is given

Third no show - 3 month comp ban including forfieting any knockout matches involved in
 
For a fine the only real way is to do something like add a 10 shot penalty for the next one or two tournaments they hand in a card. Has the extra benefit of if they don't serve it in time for a big comp it could hit them right at the worst time! Maybe expiring after 3 months or something to be fair.

A ban for the next tournament or two is hardly much punishment as most people would just wait it out, quite possible they were not going to play at least one of them anyway!

Any other solutions?

You can't apply penalties like that in regards shot penalties
 
I personally would like to see players who fail to turn up for allocated tee times without a very good reason flogged! However this might be considered a bit extreme. Certainly regular offenders should at least get a warning letter and a possible competition ban. :)
 
Summer = a quiet word.

Winter = when tee times are at a premium, a two weekend ban from comps.

Good point- in the height of summer, plenty of daylight. Pretty well everyone can get a game
In winter you can't get round in daylight if you start much after 12 so wasted tee times are keeping others from a proper game of golf.
 
We are currently looking to revise our No Show guidelines

First no show - a polite letter with a polite warning about not showing up unless a valid reason is given

Second no show - 3 comp ban unless a valid reason is given

Third no show - 3 month comp ban including forfieting any knockout matches involved in

Seems draconian for what's a leisure activity and for someone that has already paid a hefty price in membership. We always have a reserve list and sometimes life gets in the way especially if you have kids or elderly parents to look after. We have had issues and my own club is looking at the issue but nothing as heavy or hard hitting as this
 
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Seems draconian for what's a leisure activity and for someone that has already paid a hefty price in membership. We always have a reserve list and sometimes life gets in the way especially if you have kids or elderly parents to look after. We have had issues and my own club is looking at the issue but nothing as heavy or hard hitting as this

Its quite simple - if you cant make your tee time that is booked on a comp you do the minimum courtesy and phone up to ensure you PP are aware. We have had occasions where people have been left as 1 ball because people have not turned up - people book tee times in comps then dont turn up.

If the person has a valid reason then there is no issue - if there is no valid reason then they know the rules
 
My previous club didn't have a start sheet apart from club championship and one other 36 hole competition so it wasn't a problem.

Not really sure there is much else that can be done apart from banning the offenders from booking times.
 
If the person has a valid reason then there is no issue - if there is no valid reason then they know the rules
I imagine every no show can come up with a 'valid reason' but whether it's genuine or not is another matter. After all, no one's going to ring up and say they just couldn't be bothered or they don't want to play in the rain or something equally feeble.
 
How tolerant is your Club when folk fail to turn up for their Tee time on Sat Comps & what is Club Policy on the matter. Is it effective??
Our Club runs a Ballot a fortnight ahead, from names on a sign-up sheet, so you play with a variety of people which is great for new members getting to know others but seems to lead to folk regularly disregarding their responsibility towards playing partners by just not turning up or cancelling on-line that morning.
Am sure this will strike a chord with a few folk..... it is at our place

I'll hold my hand up to being guilty of this on a couple of occasions when I was a member at Drumoig (Dundee) many years ago. We had the sign up sheet that you then got drawn out from. A couple of times I really was hacked off with the people I had been drawn with. On one occasion I had been drawn with a club chucker that I had played with before and he made my round as miserable as his, so I didn't bother playing.

The final straw though came in one of the big board comps. i got drawn out with a beginner that had got his first handicap of 28. He told me during the round that he had never broke 100, but obviously had put enough good holes in to get an adjusted score to get a 28 handicap. It's medal format, the wind is blowing and that place can get really difficult in the wind. Well after it taking nearly 3 hours to play the front 9 and he had taken the best part of 70 shots I faked an injury and walked off. After that I never played a comp again, as I found myself checking who I was with and if I wasn't happy I dropped out.

I can see the benefits of having a ballot for comps, but it can also be a huge pain in the ass and I can understand people not turning up.
 
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