5150
Well-known member
Invited 3 buddies out for an early AM round at my home course (which will remain nameless) last week... we had the first time off the box at 6:00 AM.
Context - I'm at this course at least 3x a week for practice or a round and have been for the last 4 years.
We all arrived at 5:30. One of our group knew the starter and struck up a conversation with him in the parking lot. He told us to go ahead off the first tee whenever we were ready.
I went in and paid the tab. It was about 5:40 so I asked the young lady behind the desk if we could go ahead OR if we needed to wait for the starter or the maintenance crew. She told me it was fine for us to go ahead.
We hit our tee shots at approx 5:45 am. One of the guys was mowing #1 so we waited for him to clear the fairway. He was done with the green by the time we got to our approach shots.
After our approaches we were lining up our putts when a single approached me in a cart insisting that we had to go back to the first tee and check in with the starter. I tried to tell him that we had spoken w/ the starter and the manager in the clubhouse and were good to go... he interrupted me loudly, told me "I work here! You have to go back to the starter. You are not good to go. The maintenance crew is mad at you. Go back to the tee, now."
This guy may or may not have worked there BUT - was clearly not working today as he had clubs on the cart. I asked him to let me finish and again explained the situation. He insisted and would not let it go.
HINDSIGHT: If at this point I had simply said something like "Sir, I'm sorry you're upset. If you want to play through, go ahead. If the marshal or the starter have a problem, feel free to send them our way" and walked back to the green, it's possible that things would've ended there.
Instead I drove back to the starter. The rest of my group came with me and Mr. I Work Here followed us. The starter looked surprised to see us and said we were good to go. That wasn't good enough for Mr. I Work Here who started insisting that we needed a starting time placard.
At that point I said, "We're done with the conversation now sir... have a great day and hit 'em straight." He replies that no, we're not done with the conversation, and escalates it further. One of my playing partners (6'4", 250lbs easy) tells him that we're ready to drop it and move on.
Mr. I Work Here takes it one step further with this gem: "Have you ever played golf before?!? They have to know who's on the course! You have to check in! (etc)." My buddy responded - loudly at this point - that yes, he had played golf before and that Mr. I Work Here seemed to have forgotten who the customer is here. At that point the starter got between them and told us to go ahead with our round and told Mr. I Work Here to cool it.
As you might guess, Mr. I Work Here then wanted to play through on #2. We stepped aside and let him thru as 1) it was the right thing to do and 2) we didn't want him hitting into us all day.
At the end of the round I ran into the manager. She started apologizing before I even got a word out. I appreciated and accepted the apology and suggested that if my buddies could have a beer or two on the house that might encourage them to return to the course some day. She immediately told the bartender to hook them up.
So, what say you THP? Do I keep my membership? Discuss it further with the (new) owner? Let it go?
Context - I'm at this course at least 3x a week for practice or a round and have been for the last 4 years.
We all arrived at 5:30. One of our group knew the starter and struck up a conversation with him in the parking lot. He told us to go ahead off the first tee whenever we were ready.
I went in and paid the tab. It was about 5:40 so I asked the young lady behind the desk if we could go ahead OR if we needed to wait for the starter or the maintenance crew. She told me it was fine for us to go ahead.
We hit our tee shots at approx 5:45 am. One of the guys was mowing #1 so we waited for him to clear the fairway. He was done with the green by the time we got to our approach shots.
After our approaches we were lining up our putts when a single approached me in a cart insisting that we had to go back to the first tee and check in with the starter. I tried to tell him that we had spoken w/ the starter and the manager in the clubhouse and were good to go... he interrupted me loudly, told me "I work here! You have to go back to the starter. You are not good to go. The maintenance crew is mad at you. Go back to the tee, now."
This guy may or may not have worked there BUT - was clearly not working today as he had clubs on the cart. I asked him to let me finish and again explained the situation. He insisted and would not let it go.
HINDSIGHT: If at this point I had simply said something like "Sir, I'm sorry you're upset. If you want to play through, go ahead. If the marshal or the starter have a problem, feel free to send them our way" and walked back to the green, it's possible that things would've ended there.
Instead I drove back to the starter. The rest of my group came with me and Mr. I Work Here followed us. The starter looked surprised to see us and said we were good to go. That wasn't good enough for Mr. I Work Here who started insisting that we needed a starting time placard.
At that point I said, "We're done with the conversation now sir... have a great day and hit 'em straight." He replies that no, we're not done with the conversation, and escalates it further. One of my playing partners (6'4", 250lbs easy) tells him that we're ready to drop it and move on.
Mr. I Work Here takes it one step further with this gem: "Have you ever played golf before?!? They have to know who's on the course! You have to check in! (etc)." My buddy responded - loudly at this point - that yes, he had played golf before and that Mr. I Work Here seemed to have forgotten who the customer is here. At that point the starter got between them and told us to go ahead with our round and told Mr. I Work Here to cool it.
As you might guess, Mr. I Work Here then wanted to play through on #2. We stepped aside and let him thru as 1) it was the right thing to do and 2) we didn't want him hitting into us all day.
At the end of the round I ran into the manager. She started apologizing before I even got a word out. I appreciated and accepted the apology and suggested that if my buddies could have a beer or two on the house that might encourage them to return to the course some day. She immediately told the bartender to hook them up.
So, what say you THP? Do I keep my membership? Discuss it further with the (new) owner? Let it go?
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