This past week I took my 11 year-old son to our local course for nine holes of golf. This was only his second time on an actual golf course after taking a junior clinic and going with dad to the range for most of the summer. Upon the advice of the pro shop, I waited until their “family time” and booked our tee time at 5:45 even though this meant we would almost certainly get back pretty late which causes lots of other issues (parents will know what I’m alluding to).
We got to the course on time and found it to be very busy. The ranger (aka player assistance) immediately routed us to the less busy back nine, which I appreciated. However, he told me it was with a caveat, “You need to finish by 8:15″. I have to admit this bothered me a little. It wasn’t that I thought we couldn’t come in by that time. My son was using the special junior tees which were painted sprinkler heads from 150 yards out. But it was the first time I had been put on the clock by my home course before I even teed off and it made my little one nervous who kept asking what time it was during the round.
I shook that off and everything went reasonably well until the 14th hole when we were treated to more “player assistance”. My son and I were in the fairway sizing up a pitch into the green when the ranger drove up. “The group behind you is waiting to tee off”.
The 14th hole at Pinecrest is a very reachable 302 yard par 4, but like any aware parent I had been watching the group behind us. The phrase “spray and pray” immediately came to mind and to be blunt I wasn’t concerned about any of them reaching us from 250 yards out. Also, the group waiting impatiently to tee off had just arrived on the tee box a minute before the ranger drove out to us. Regardless, I decided to move us along and then to make the round more relaxing we skipped the next hole to put some distance between us and the trailing foursome. We never saw them again.
The whole experience reminded me of an article I read in the NY Times about how more Americans are giving up golf and how courses need to be more family and junior friendly to survive long term. The crowd at Pinecrest is definitely skewed towards older males. Maybe I should print out that article and tack it to the club bulletin board…
Is your local club family friendly? Comment and share with us your experiences.
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Blaine, why did you not let the “player assistant” have it? This is one of the reasons I abandoned my club a few years back and began playing local municipal courses and semi-private clubs. The attitude that many of these courses have to beginners and juniors is abhorrent. As you described, typically the whiners are marginal golfers at best, usually taking their pathetic golf games out on some other party.
I had a very similar scenario happen to me, when some “course ambassador” relative of a board member began lecturing me about pace of play when I was instructing my son. When I pointed out to the borderline illiterate that we were well behind our scheduled pace BECAUSE we let two groups play through he was unable to understand the concept. He wanted us to move two holes ahead to keep pace. When I tried to explain that it would merely put us in front of a group we had just let go a couple of holes back, and since NO ONE was behind us, I was told, “but the policy states you must keep pace and proceed to 11.” The situation escalated until I told the dolt I was about to drive and if I heard a word while I was swinging he would be needing some medical attention.
Obviously, I was “invited” to the next board meeting. I was not a bastion of popularity to begin with, given my penchant for wearing NASCAR attire, failure to attend the big charity event (I refuse to support United Way), and refusing to treat the club “royalty” with proper deference. Needless to say, that was my last year at the club.
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admin Reply:
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Let’s just say the ranger was lucky I was with my son and not playing alone or with my friends. Anyway, I’m sorry to hear that you experienced a similar issue regarding pace of play at your former club. But hopefully you are enjoying the game more without having to deal with all the politics.
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That’s a real shame, Blaine.
I have also experienced a similar situation and I believe it is one of the most infuriating and unfair pressures to put on a golfer – especially one as young and as new to the game as your son is.
I really think you should consider printing out this article and tacking it to the bulletin board as you mentioned – I think it is not only in the interests of you and your son, but to all the other juniors playing at your club.
After all, how on Earth are the kids at your club supposed to improve if they’re being rushed when they play?
I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen again, and wish your son the very best of luck with his game.
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admin Reply:
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Thanks Joe. Well spoken as always and you make a great point.
I guess what upsets me the most is the reservation we booked was supposed to be during a time that is geared towards families. I really don’t know when to take him now. I might need to switch clubs just for that reason which is a real shame. But I’d rather do that than have my boy get frustrated because we’re dealing with a club that doesn’t properly support junior golf. The game is hard enough.
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Everyone here at golfmanagement started playing golf as yougsters. This would be some forty years ago and in thoughs days, at least as I remember, the playingwhen first public , as well as the marshals as they were then refered to, were a bit more understanding and showed more paitience with the junior player then we see today. Most rangers as well as adult players are pretty good about this, but for thoughs who tend to loose their cool, think back and remember how it was for you when you first started the game. I bet it did not matter whether you were a child or an adult, you were counting on people having paitience with you.
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I play with my husband and my kids most weekends. We are basically a twosome, with the kids playing a few holes here and there. I am lucky that we have not had this problem at our home course, but I did have a group of old guys ask to play in front of us when we were on vacation. They asked before we even teed off!
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I am fed up with my club. We have 36 holes and close to 800 members and they are adding more everyday. No one in the clubhouse know me or my family. My daughter played four years of high school golf and they practiced at the club and now she plays in college.
The only reason I keep the membership is for my kids. My son is playing now and my daughter plays and practices when she is home.
Thank goodness I grew up on a muni.
Come see us at: http://www.aboutjuniorgolf.com
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I once played 9 holes with a friend who was being kind of impatient (to put it mildly) with a golfer who was playing in front of us. I’m not a great golfer and either is he, but for some reason it turned into an embarrassing situation where I just wanted to pack up and go home. I ended up apologizing for him later, haven’t played golf with him since, and I never will. Some people can enjoy their time on the course no matter what, and others can’t, and that’s to bad.
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You should have told the ranger that you’ve been waiting on every tee box, so he should bark at the group ahead!
Sounds like you were discriminated against and not evaluated objectively. The determination of whether or not someone is keeping pace should be determined by current speed, not age or gender. I keep a good pace, and am a decent enough golfer at age 30 with a good swing, but I certainly have my days where I know it’s time to get moving and to the next hole. Yet, no one will ever tell me to move on because of my gender, etc. However, if a 10 handicap woman finds herself skulling the ball around on a round-destroying triple bogey, you can be certain that there will be plenty of comments from the PGA pros in the 4some behind her. Juniors should be allowed on the course whenever they want, and it’s the responsibility of the parent and other golfers to keep the group moving–just as it’s everyone’s responsibility in a group with four 45 year olds.
I think the bigger problem here may be that people EXPECT others to not know they should keep pace. It’s why when a course is backed up, we relish the opportunity to tell the trailing group that “it’s pretty backed up out here, we’re waiting on every tee”. We all do this because we assume that the group behind us thinks is US slowing down the play.
And to some extent, there is a problem in golf that people are not being taught to keep pace. There is an unwritten rule or respect in golf that you don’t ruin others’ round through these means (surfing has a similar problem). A lot of people are going on the course and not being taught these rules by their elders.
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It seems to be the same problem that is burdening every other club. It is funny that till a while back, most clubs that would just open up, would go out of their way to invite people, desperate to see people play the course, willing to let six-hour rounds go quite unnoticed but with burgeoning popularity, the situation has become completely the reverse. Golf really was supposed to be a fun day out on the links. But with so many people playing, it has become a massive nuisance in quite a few clubs just simply because you can’t seem to enjoy yourself out there. You are forced to go through the round without managing to savour a single high point because there is no time to wait and think. It’s the odd well-hit ball from the group behind you that begins to chew away all the thrill of golf.
I really don’t even know if the club can be blamed for it. It is a vicious cycle. They ask someone to speed up, they will be shouted at, if not then the group behind will shout at the club officials, and it doesn’t even matter if the case is a legitimate one or not, a grous is a grouse, and once the member starts complaining, a lot of ill-will just begins to cloud the air.
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I am fortunate that there is a nice par 3 course close to my house. This course is perfect for both my boys who have just started to play.
When I have played at a regular 18 hole course with them there was 1 time where twice the foursome behind us did tee off and land their ball about 20 feet from us. Needless to say after the second time I walked back to the tee and politely informed them if that happened 1 more time their driver would find a body attached bag I would stick it in. Two of the older men appoligized but a couple of the younger snickered, but it never happened again.
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Wondeful blog! Very interesting. You really know much on the subject. Thanks for sharing.
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