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Is Golf's Honor System Dead?

WLG1952

WLG1952

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Albatross 2024 Club
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With this virus thing going on, our local course did away with the ball machine dispenser at the driving range..

Instead they adopted an honor system type proceedure. You pay for the balls, and then go to the driving range, where the balls were already waiting at stations that were separated by several feet for the social distancing requirement.

You either paid $4, or $6 dollars just like you would when using the ball dispenser. (small/large baskets)

Well a couple of things started happening. Some people were paying $4, but would stay on the driving range, hitting way more balls than they paid for. When they ran out of balls, they would just move to another station.
Other people wouldn't pay at all. They would just park, go hit balls for free, and leave the course.

Mean while the course still had workers collecting balls, and replenishing the balls at each station.

To control this new type of theft, a golfer must now go to the counter, pay for, and receive a large bucket of balls from the clerk. There is no $4 small baskets anymore. It's $6, or nothing.

This new proceedure is not much different than the old one. The only inconvenience being some of us now have to wait till the course opens, and a lot of the first bunch of golfers pay, and head for the first tee.

Some of us had an agreement we could use the range first, then pay. This was great for those of us early birds who wanted to beat the heat.

It's just too bad that a few people would feel the need to steal balls, and creat negative issues for others.
 
You are likely right that there is no honor system presently. To make it work, the people who are taking the balls have to have a vested interest in the club making money or staying around more than the few bucks. It’s probably harmless at that level but I’m sure it adds up over time.
 
A majority are still honorable I think but a growing percentage of people are becoming more and more demanding and entitled.
 
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a cooler in someone’s backyard on the course with a coffee can on top and a post-it saying Gatorade/soda/water inside for $1
 
Unfortunately, some folks wreck it for others... happens with everything.

RealPretendPsychic said:
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a cooler in someone’s backyard on the course with a coffee can on top and a post-it saying Gatorade/soda/water inside for $1
Click to expand...

I’ve never seen this... what a fantastic idea and such a great sense of community.
 
Canadan said:
Yes, I'd argue the honor system is no longer relevant in our society, sadly.

Everything is ruined by a couple idiots who don't think the rules apply to them.
Click to expand...

I think Dan summed it up here. It's not just in golf. Unfortunately, it's everywhere now.

Gone are the days when a handshake and your word were all you needed.
 
Canadan said:
Yes, I'd argue the honor system is no longer relevant in our society, sadly.

Everything is ruined by a couple idiots who don't think the rules apply to them.
Click to expand...

Yup. This applies to entire society. Some people just think they can do whatever they want, regardless of the rules society has put in place.
 
Seems to be. People seem to think they're entitled to do whatever they want these days. Sort of sad.
 
Some people will take any inch in life they can grab, it's not theft to them, it's others fault, they're just beating the system.

I call them pond scum and life will get them back in some way.

That being said this range system sounds like the worst idea in the game, of course people will keep on hitting balls, duh.
 
The majority of people will always honor the system. it is the few that ruin it for everyone.

One lie can ruin a thousand truths... well maybe not one but a few in this case...

A few bad apples spoil the bunch! 🍎🍎🍎🍏🍏🍎🍎🍎
 
Canadan said:
Yes, I'd argue the honor system is no longer relevant in our society, sadly.

Everything is ruined by a couple idiots who don't think the rules apply to them.
Click to expand...
OGputtnfool said:
I think Dan summed it up here. It's not just in golf. Unfortunately, it's everywhere now.

Gone are the days when a handshake and your word were all you needed.
Click to expand...
Yup, it's not just golf. There is no end to the news videos of people screaming in other people's faces ... even cops.

My personal opinion is that this is happening because no one gets punched in the mouth anymore for being rude and obnoxious. There used to be consequences for bad decisions. Now, there are not. Too many people think they can do whatever they want, and that attitude is invading every segment of society. The golf community is no exception.
 
There always has been, and always will be the 10%. It won't change.
 
I would also agree, the entirety of golf's honor system is dead based on the example of one driving range.
 
Well, I can't leave packages on my front porch without someone opening my gate and stealing them if they are in view from the street so not surprised that people are stealing services.
 
Always sad to see these type of things happen and especially all the more in our current times. People doing acts of violence and acting like it is a good and right thing.

When we were younger we were basically taught respect to others and their property and if we did anything wrong, no matter how painful the outcome was, we had to go and make it right with the person we wronged. Now, a lot of what I see is disrespect and a care less attitude.
 
Such a shame. This is why we can't have nice things.

I would still argue that 90% of golfers are good honest people, but there's always the 10% that think the world owes them something. Problem is you don't know who's who until it's too late.
 
GoldenBuff said:
I think we need to remind ourselves to look past the small number of people behaving badly and focus on all of those who behave with honor and integrity. Our micro-instant-information society can get too distracted by the outlier crazy.
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I find myself criticizing too many people too often these days. Need to stop. Thanks for saying this.
 
I don't remember how many times I saw as a kid and now an adult with kids. Trick or treating and seeing the bowl that said please take one. Then some idiot teenager walks up and dumps the whole bowl in their pillow case.
 
I dont know that its dead but its certainly on life support. IMO, it would take a lot of confidence in your clientele to trust them to pay for what they use and to not take advantage of it.
 
The honour system, much like common sense sadly has gone the way of the dodo bird. And it's such a small percentage of people who take advantage of the system that ruins it for the rest of us.

Similar situation - one of the guys I regularly play with was hitting a bucket on the range that he paid for. He didn't use all of the balls, and there were a couple of young kids a few stalls down hitting balls. He took what was left in his bucket and added it to the kid's pile. The starter on duty at the time tore a strip off of him for doing this. What was the harm? He paid for the usage of the balls. He had a few left over so what's he supposed to do, dump them back in the bin?
 
I don;t think it's just golf to be honest, I think that 'honour' is reducing amongst people as a rule generally and that's just a sign of it. Most people are honest and decent, but there will always be the minority that spoil it for everyone else.
 
Assume every single person is a POS and you won't be disappointed 90% of the time
 
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