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Charity Scrambles, when is enough enough?

jdtox

jdtox

Lord Tox
Albatross 2024 Club
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We all have played in them we know what to expect right? Slow play, terrible food, etc but many do them and fun can be had. Yesterday I played in one that I have played in for years. We arrived to the course and what awaited us was something I NEVER want to do again. We started an hour later than we were supposed to and then proceeded to take 6 hours and 40 mins to complete our round:oops:

Why did it take so long you ask? 41 foursomes. Yes that means 2 foursomes on every hole and 3 foursomes on 5 other holes :rolleyes: OH and btw it was CART PATH ONLY. What a total disaster. My question is who is at fault here? The course? The event organizer? It was completely ridiculous and to the point I may never play in that outing again which is a shame because its for a great cause.
 
that's insane. all of the above.

I think there's a high likelihood I would have bailed after the 3 and a half hour front 9.
 
I think the course has to put a limit on entrants for a charity event. For obvious reasons the charity itself cannot be counted on to limit the number of entrants. Their incentives are to have as many entry fees as possible and for as many people to be there buying skirts and mulligans and bidding on silent auction items as possible. I am fine with a highish limit of entrants, but throwing 12 people on a hole is ridiculous.
 
jdtox said:
We all have played in them we know what to expect right? Slow play, terrible food, etc but many do them and fun can be had. Yesterday I played in one that I have played in for years. We arrived to the course and what awaited us was something I NEVER want to do again. We started an hour later than we were supposed to and then proceeded to take 6 hours and 40 mins to complete our round:oops:

Why did it take so long you ask? 41 foursomes. Yes that means 2 foursomes on every hole and 3 foursomes on 5 other holes :rolleyes: OH and btw it was CART PATH ONLY. What a total disaster. My question is who is at fault here? The course? The event organizer? It was completely ridiculous and to the point I may never play in that outing again which is a shame because its for a great cause.
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I would have got back in my car and when I saw 41 foursomes on the tee sheet haha
 
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BuckNasty said:
I would have got back in my car and when I saw 41 foursomes on the tee sheet haha
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I thought about it when I saw CPO but I didn't drive and we were an hour away :rolleyes:
 
jdtox said:
I thought about it when I saw CPO but I didn't drive and we were an hour away :rolleyes:
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If I was the one that did not drive, then this would be me instead
 
I have played in some long charity events but 6.5 hours is not acceptable and the course and event organizer should be ashamed.
 
Played in a fundraiser for KC Metro Golf on Saturday, was done in under 3 hours. The last foursome came in an hour and a half later, sadly it was my regular Saturday guys. I'm not slow you're slow!!
 
I've played in some pretty bad charity events, and to be honest, I expected some pace if play issues.

My thoughts are that as long as the charity is the major beneficiary (most of the fees paid go to them) of the event, then play on. It is what it us.

The charity is worth the inconvenience incurred by those participating. It's for a good cause, and why we signed up in the first place.
 
Did someone put a gun to your head to play? What were you expecting?

It’s a scramble, not a tour event.
 
Yikes! There isn't enough alcohol in the world to get thru that. :eek:
 
Bosco... said:
Did someone put a gun to your head to play? What were you expecting?

It’s a scramble, not a tour event.
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I wasn't expecting to play in 4 hours, I was expecting 5-5.5 which is acceptable and understood for on course time for a charity scramble. 6.5 hours on course is never acceptable in my book. Neither is starting an hour late or allowing 3 foursomes per hole.
 
At some point people need to realize it is smarter to have 2 shotguns of 18-20 groups and play both in 4 hours. Both shotguns will be much happier.
 
WLG1952 said:
I've played in some pretty bad charity events, and to be honest, I expected some pace if play issues.

My thoughts are that as long as the charity is the major beneficiary (most of the fees paid go to them) of the event, then play on. It is what it us.

The charity is worth the inconvenience incurred by those participating. It's for a good cause, and why we signed up in the first place.
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I agree with this. It’s a charity event.
 
The #1 goal I set for my charity's outing is to create an enjoyable experience for everyone attending. We want people to have a good time, be in a good mood, smiling, laughing, and ready to open their wallets for the silent auction and raffles. The course hosting the event has a cap of 144, we cap it at 120.

Many charity events I have played in are organized by people who know nothing about golf. The course should (IMO) take most of the blame for this, but certainly not all of it. Not sure what caused the 1 hour delay but CPO is a bummer and largely out of your control.

I can't imagine what a 6:40 round would feel like...eff me sideways.
 
Well, if it's a charity scramble, you know what you're getting into. If it's for a good cause, it's worth it. After all, if it doesn't hurt, it's not a sacrifice.
 
Events like that require an AM and a PM shotgun start. Doubling up every hole is just a big middle finger to all who paid to play.


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MattyD-MPLS said:
At some point people need to realize it is smarter to have 2 shotguns of 18-20 groups and play both in 4 hours. Both shotguns will be much happier.
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Yes, I have seen events like this. The only issue would be if there was a dinner / awards / raffle after the conclusion of the second shotgun. You wouldn’t expect people to hang around for hours to wait for the dinner event.
 
I did one Friday with 37 holes. It was a grind and most folks were grumbling by the end. I agree with those that say the experience needs to be worthwhile. Otherwise I'm happy to cut the check and play on my own time, right? While events are designed to make money, they are also designed to give folks a good time and build a community for future support. Looks like this one missed the boat on the latter.
 
jdtox said:
We all have played in them we know what to expect right? Slow play, terrible food, etc but many do them and fun can be had. Yesterday I played in one that I have played in for years. We arrived to the course and what awaited us was something I NEVER want to do again. We started an hour later than we were supposed to and then proceeded to take 6 hours and 40 mins to complete our round:oops:

Why did it take so long you ask? 41 foursomes. Yes that means 2 foursomes on every hole and 3 foursomes on 5 other holes :rolleyes: OH and btw it was CART PATH ONLY. What a total disaster. My question is who is at fault here? The course? The event organizer? It was completely ridiculous and to the point I may never play in that outing again which is a shame because its for a great cause.
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I have played in one that was like that once. They had 3 groups on every tee box. After 5.5 hours I walked off the course and we were through 13 holes. I get maximizing the revenue for the charity but it was a terrible experience. My thought is charge more until you can just fill 36 groups. Any more than 36 groups is awful.
 
links_slayer said:
The #1 goal I set for my charity's outing is to create an enjoyable experience for everyone attending. We want people to have a good time, be in a good mood, smiling, laughing, and ready to open their wallets for the silent auction and raffles. The course hosting the event has a cap of 144, we cap it at 120.

Many charity events I have played in are organized by people who know nothing about golf. The course should (IMO) take most of the blame for this, but certainly not all of it. Not sure what caused the 1 hour delay but CPO is a bummer and largely out of your control.

I can't imagine what a 6:40 round would feel like...eff me sideways.
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Exactly to the bolded above. Outing was supposed to start at 1pm. We tee'd off at 2 and off course at 8:40pm. Thank goodness the food was ready when we got in but many ate and bailed. We finally left at 9:40 and they still had not called any of the raffle baskets. :oops: All those prize baskets were sitting there and I'm sure some people stuck around and had great chances of winning stuff they wanted but the place was at least half as empty as it would normally be. Many people just had enough.
 
MattyD-MPLS said:
At some point people need to realize it is smarter to have 2 shotguns of 18-20 groups and play both in 4 hours. Both shotguns will be much happier.
Click to expand...
Yeah it sounds like if they would have started on time they could have done that and still finished both in almost the same time.
 
That is insane. I know that these types of events will take longer than usual but 6.5 hrs... Geez, They better have had the best goodie bags and door prized ever.
 
I've stopped playing in charity events for the most part for those reasons. So many better things that I can do with 7 hours... and if I want, I can just donate the $$ used from the fee or find some other way to support the cause. In addition, the jack-holes that get sauced up and do stupid things annoy me more than anything. The last one I played in, a dude was so ham-boned that he drove a cart off the bridge (through the wood barriers).
 
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