lazychicken
Active member
I played a round this afternoon/evening at a nearby course in Frisco. We were a threesome and I had booked the 4:30pm tee time on GolfNow last night for this course which I had only played once before.
The course was predictably busy for a beautiful Sunday afternoon, but not awful. We were behind a group that seemed to be a tad slow, but then we noticed they were having to wait on tee boxes for the group in front of them, so it was all good. Just typical Sunday afternoon golf on a public course. We were content to wait, enjoy our round, and not rush anyone.
And then this happened: At about 8:15pm we were teeing off on #17. The shadows were getting a bit long, but we felt like we had enough light to finish the round. After we teed off, we noticed the marshal driving up carrying all the flags from the previous holes. He immediately started barking at us that the carts are supposed to be back in the cart barn at 8:00pm and we need to pick up our balls and head in.
We were stunned. Obviously this was the first we've heard of this rule. We're not regulars at this course, but nothing was said when we checked in. The marshal claimed there was a sign about it in the pro shop. I dunno, we're pretty observant people who like to follow rules, but none of us saw a sign and not a single employee we encountered in the pro shop mentioned anything about it.
But more to the point, I booked the round on GolfNow which did not list an 8:00pm hard closing time among their terms and conditions. So since I booked on GN and I agreed to be subject to their cancellation policy, it doesn't seem like there would be much room for any additional significant rules to be added at the course anyway. Once I was within their cancellation policy, could I have even said "Oh no, I don't agree to that rule so please cancel my reservation"? They would have tagged my credit card for the full amount.
Look, we all know courses have lots of typical, traditional rules that aren't covered in the GN T&Cs and that's completely fine. For instance, we got to the course today and, due to rain earlier in the weekend, the course was cart path only. That obviously wasn't in the T&Cs, but it is a normal function of weather and golf so it was fine. And I know when I book a late afternoon tee time there's always the threat of losing playable light before we can finish, I'm not complaining about common sense here. I'm annoyed because we booked it, we played it, and we still had light, but then a marshal imposed what I believe to be an arbitrary closing time and artificially removed our ability to finish the round.
And I know how petty and #firstworldproblems it sounds to complain about not completing 2 holes. But we're golfers here, right? We want to finish the round if at all possible! (And I had a good round going...)
For what it's worth, there were maybe 5-6 very angry groups that drove by after the marshal came by and before we could pick up the balls we had already hit. Every group was complaining about what happened, and many of them were regulars who said nobody had ever before kicked them off at 8:00pm with plenty of playable light left.
We're planning to call the course tomorrow to follow up. Just wondering if anyone else has ever had this happen.
The course was predictably busy for a beautiful Sunday afternoon, but not awful. We were behind a group that seemed to be a tad slow, but then we noticed they were having to wait on tee boxes for the group in front of them, so it was all good. Just typical Sunday afternoon golf on a public course. We were content to wait, enjoy our round, and not rush anyone.
And then this happened: At about 8:15pm we were teeing off on #17. The shadows were getting a bit long, but we felt like we had enough light to finish the round. After we teed off, we noticed the marshal driving up carrying all the flags from the previous holes. He immediately started barking at us that the carts are supposed to be back in the cart barn at 8:00pm and we need to pick up our balls and head in.
We were stunned. Obviously this was the first we've heard of this rule. We're not regulars at this course, but nothing was said when we checked in. The marshal claimed there was a sign about it in the pro shop. I dunno, we're pretty observant people who like to follow rules, but none of us saw a sign and not a single employee we encountered in the pro shop mentioned anything about it.
But more to the point, I booked the round on GolfNow which did not list an 8:00pm hard closing time among their terms and conditions. So since I booked on GN and I agreed to be subject to their cancellation policy, it doesn't seem like there would be much room for any additional significant rules to be added at the course anyway. Once I was within their cancellation policy, could I have even said "Oh no, I don't agree to that rule so please cancel my reservation"? They would have tagged my credit card for the full amount.
Look, we all know courses have lots of typical, traditional rules that aren't covered in the GN T&Cs and that's completely fine. For instance, we got to the course today and, due to rain earlier in the weekend, the course was cart path only. That obviously wasn't in the T&Cs, but it is a normal function of weather and golf so it was fine. And I know when I book a late afternoon tee time there's always the threat of losing playable light before we can finish, I'm not complaining about common sense here. I'm annoyed because we booked it, we played it, and we still had light, but then a marshal imposed what I believe to be an arbitrary closing time and artificially removed our ability to finish the round.
And I know how petty and #firstworldproblems it sounds to complain about not completing 2 holes. But we're golfers here, right? We want to finish the round if at all possible! (And I had a good round going...)
For what it's worth, there were maybe 5-6 very angry groups that drove by after the marshal came by and before we could pick up the balls we had already hit. Every group was complaining about what happened, and many of them were regulars who said nobody had ever before kicked them off at 8:00pm with plenty of playable light left.
We're planning to call the course tomorrow to follow up. Just wondering if anyone else has ever had this happen.