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Would this piss you off?

Boone

Boone

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So, found out this week that my 'home course' is closing at the end of October. Bummed, I decided to start checking out some other local public courses to see if I could find another one to play consistently in the future. Since I was playing alone, decided to get as early tee time as possible at a nearby course so that I wouldn't have a bunch of groups in front of me or have to inconvenience anyone. Before I share my experience, I worked until after midnight last night and probably got 4 total hours of sleep before heading out this morning. That may be one reason why my experience rubbed me the wrong way.

When I got to the course, it turns out I had the 2nd tee time. The first group of guys at hole 1 were great. They held up at hole 2 and told me to play through. I did, and I moved through the rest of the front 9 in a timely fashion with no one behind me the whole way.

Figured out where the 10th tee was, and immediately saw that there is a foursome slowly teeing off, and another foursome waiting. The 2nd foursome shared that they had a group of 24 playing some kind of informal tournament and that the staff had directed them to start on the back 9. I made it clear that I had just played the front 9, and it was obvious that having to now wait on 2 full groups to continue playing wasn't ideal. While I was chatting with the guy, another group of four screams past me and gets in line with group 2 at the tee.

There were no offers to let me play through from any of them. There was no 'starter' or staff member anywhere to be seen. And as I tried to decide how to handle it, yet another group was driving up the cart path past me. I felt my blood pressure rising, and as I said earlier, I was already a little sleep deprived. I'm sort of a 2 speed kind of a guy - and in the interest of not getting into a pissing match or being unkind, I just elected to call it a day and went back to my truck, unpacked, and left. I gave brief thought to going to the pro shop and having a conversation with the staff, but given my mood at this point, decided to let it go.

I did send an email to the course after I got home. Not sure what I'm looking for - I suppose I'm trying to figure out if this is the kind of thing I should expect if I ever go back, or what their thought process was starting a large group like that on the back 9 just when those who got up early to play 18 were rounding onto the 10th hole to start the 2nd half of their round?

Am I just sleep-deprived, grumpy, and need to take a nap, or would this have pissed you off as it did me?
 
In my experience at my home / public course it is common for groups to start off the back like this. However, there is a starter there to help and the groups going off the back are expected to work in between the gaps of the groups making the turn. In other words, at worst you would have had to wait for the first group to finish teeing off (i.e., they should have gone off already but for the sake of argument let's say they were a little slow getting off). No way you should wait for the other groups.
 
Sending groups off the back 9 when other groups are making the turn is never a good idea. That has happened to me before and I've just walked off the course because of it and talked to the clubhouse. Usually, they were very apologetic and gave me a rain check for a full future round.
 
They should have made them go off on front and that way the pace of play was kept. The should have let you go thru and play as being a single you wouldn't have held any of them up. Just not courteous at all.
 
I am with you - pissed. Would have demanded a free round for effin' up my day. The pro shop screwed up with that scheduling. As an alternative, I may have tried to get in front of those groups, then gone back and checked #10 out after finishing #18.
 
Yeah - it just kind of blew me away. I know the grown-up thing to do would've either been to say 'you all need to let me go ahead and play through' or to go ask the Pro Shop about it. But I couldn't believe they were just happy to ignore me and let me sit there, and I knew if I 'went there' it wasn't going to be a nice conversation. I wouldn't have minded waiting if they had shown even a little bit of common courtesy.

Just seems like a dumb way to manage a course as there's no way it is not going create major backups for those making the turn.
 
Desmond said:
I am with you - pissed. Would have demanded a free round for effin' up my day. The pro shop screwed up with that scheduling. As an alternative, I may have tried to get in front of those groups, then gone back and checked #10 out after finishing #18.
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Yeah - that's exactly what I should have done.
 
I wouldn't be happy and probably would have skipped ahead or quit if that wasn't possible.
I almost always see a starter on the 1st tee but never on the 10th.
 
You have every right to be annoyed. The course should have had someone there to control the tee-offs, and getting the "2nd nine" golfers onto the 10th. The golfers were a bit at fault also, how long would it have taken for them to let you through? And finally, no matter how pissed you were, you should have gone to the pro shop to tell them what happened. As mentioned previously, maybe you would have gotten a rain check.
 
You are 100% in the right on this. Players paying for a full round and starting on 1 absolutely have the right of way and should not be made to wait on players teeing on 10 unless there is very clear communication of such. While it would have still stunk of greed at a minimum the course should make it clear to players teeing 1 that they may run it to such a thing at the turn. Everyone involved with golf knows darn well that the players that elect to play the first hour of t times are doing so with the expectation that everyone is moving and that the first group will not have to wait on anything. This course is just being greedy IMO.
 
I'd be heated. I'd go to the pro shop and get a rain check for the back 9, but I would hope that the staff would realize their mistake and offer to refund the entire round. I don't think this kind of policy is acceptable.

We hear day in and day out about how slow play is costing the sport players, and ultimately how this leads to fewer options at which to play golf. A golf course that understands this should know they are about to cause a major headache by making a move like this.
 
I would be pissed. No reason to hold up people turning from the front to the back 9.
 
I too would have blew by them and went to the next hole, finish up and then played that hole I missed. I would have also said something to the club house about letting groups like that go out when someone is making the turn or getting ready to make the turn.

I have done this many times playing by myself or with someone. Blew by them then finished on the hole we skipped. I am also not afraid to go up to a group and ask them if I can go ahead of them.

Sometimes the course is just that busy where you just have to relax and deal with slow play too!
 
If I was a single I probably would have just jumped ahead a hole or two to avoid the frustration.
 
I play quite frequently by myself early in the mornings - usually I try to get the 1st tee time for the same reason you stated. I've probably had the exact same thing happen to me 5 or 6 times in the last few months at a handful of different courses. Fortunately, it's usually only 1 or 2 groups, not a whole tournament. Most times, they let me through after a hole or two, but I've had a few groups that just completely ignored me. Talking to the pro shop hasn't helped at all, they just shrug their shoulders. Pretty frustrating to be certain.
 
Boone said:
Yeah - that's exactly what I should have done.
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Either ask them to let you play through or skip 10 and tee of at 11 ahead of them. At least that way you only lose one hole.


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I could understand them letting one group, maybe two, start on the back 9. But having 6 groups is just going to cause problems both on the back and then again on the front. There's no way that scheduling works, unless they are pretty empty a few hours after opening.

So I think you're justified for being upset. There's a reason people take the first tee times.
 
... I am the opposite playing afternoon golf and when leagues tee off the front, some of the muni's around here just send people off the back. Before 2008 and the economy crash, starters use to man the 10th tee and always gave players coming off the front the right of way. Still sucked as the rhythm of the round changed, but after 2008 it became a free for all. I have learned which courses those are and avoid them completely.
 
Absolutely did nothing wrong. You did what I would have done, who needs confrontation ? There would have been one person amongst that group who would have said something and it’s only going downhill from there.
 
Similar things have happened to me before. In that situation any group should see the single and offer to let them through. But if the group doesn’t have the courtesy to let you through than just skip ahead and try and come back to play the holes you skipped after. Otherwise head into the shop and see if they’ll Atleast comp the 9 you won’t be playing.
 
I’m not sure what I would have done at the time. I’d probably ask to replay the front 9 so I could still get 18 in on a decent pace without that kind of delay. I absolutely know what I would do in the future. I wouldn’t go back often enough to call it a home course. Even if it’s a one off situation, the way the course handled that would scare me away from putting that course in a regular rotation.
 
I would have been pissed as well. If a course can't figure out how to properly schedule tee times off of 2 starting points then they should immediately fire their GM and hire somebody competent.
I don't think I'd have gone home, I'd have gone to the pro shop and demanded some sort of resolution to their incompetence.
 
hackitup said:
I’m not sure what I would have done at the time. I’d probably ask to replay the front 9 so I could still get 18 in on a decent pace without that kind of delay. I absolutely know what I would do in the future. I wouldn’t go back often enough to call it a home course. Even if it’s a one off situation, the way the course handled that would scare me away from putting that course in a regular rotation.
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Yep. Doubt I’ll be back.


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ArmyGolf said:
I don't think I'd have gone home, I'd have gone to the pro shop and demanded some sort of resolution to their incompetence.
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Ordinarily, I likely would have. But I was pretty tired and irritable due to lack of sleep and don’t think I’d have communicated very effectively :)


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Boone said:
Ordinarily, I likely would have. But I was pretty tired and irritable due to lack of sleep and don’t think I’d have communicated very effectively :)


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Can’t blame you. I hate confrontation. We can’t all be big brave lads like 95% of the internet claim to be.
 
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