Weekly Club Golf Competitions in USA?

Talart · July 9, 2014

This is a question from golfers in Australia regarding club golf in the US. For myself and my peers in Australia we play weekly competition golf at our clubs varying from: Monthly Medals, Club Championship, Seasonal Sponsor tournaments, regional Pennants team competitions and travelling to -play neighboring club annual opens.

Every week at a club there is a competition day usually Saturday even at the smallest club.

Now in the US I have no idea of the club golf situation and would like to know if you operate the same or similar. Or is it totally different.? Thankyou for your time and attention.

IdahoAussie · July 9, 2014

G'day Talart. Aussie in exile here, as you might tell from the handle.

I'll relay my personal experience, and hope some others might chime in as well.

Over here, I see two different types of things going. You have the private clubs, of which I have no experience, and you have the examples where the courses are run as completely separate concerns to any golf "clubs". In fact, in my neck of the woods the "clubs" tend to refer to themselves as "associations". The courses might be privately owned and operated or they might be owned and operated by city councils or other sorts of local governments, but the idea is the same. The financial barrier to joining a club is lower, because you're not paying for your annual green fees - that's separate, and typically much higher than would be the equivalent back home.

The Mens' Association to which I belong has tournaments maybe once a month, maybe every other month, depending on the time of year. It's rare that they will open them up to visitors and almost no mixed fourballs (the women have their own completely separate Association and ne'er the twain shall meet) other than the odd promotion that the course (not the Association) might put on. I really don't see anything equivalent to Club Pennants over here, other than what various Associations might arrange between themselves and very much as a one-off

Another difference is that membership of a Men's Association will include membership of the state governing body but not the USGA, which operates almost as a completely separate organisation. There is nothing comparable to the district associations back home (e.g, Brisbane Water GA, Newcastle GA etc.) to which clubs belong and which run and co-ordinate regular inter-club events such as the Pennants. Handicaps are administered at the state level, although they will be recognised interstate - if you move to a new state, however, your handicap doesn't move with you (from what my neighbour told me), so you in effect have to start over. The State body will run a number of tournaments throughout the year as well, more than I ever remember seeing the NSWGA run in the day.

Handicaps are administered differently over here as well. Back home it's only club comp rounds that count, but because there's so many of them (and I seem to remember the club where I had membership and played infrequently had Tuesday and Thursday stablefords, the Friday morning chook run as well as the Saturday mixed/ members four balls and the Sunday individuals) that's not a major problem - over here, pretty much every round you play can count towards your handicap because there are so few club comps. Every course will have a GHIN terminal where you can punch on your score for the day while you're unwinding, or you can do it on the Internet (web site or phone app) when you get home.

Another difference is at the junior level. Over here, you will see inter-school matches on a weekly basis once you get to high school (think year 9 or 10 and above) which is basically the same as junior pennants. You will also have zonal, state and regional tournaments for the better kids. Associations themselves tend not to cater for the juniors, although some courses might run something (but typically not competitive) for them, as the schools seem to have that piece of the market to themselves.

As I say, that's my experience, others might chime in and offer something different.

Talart · July 9, 2014

[quote name='IdahoAussie' timestamp='1404926227' post='9667287']
G'day Talart. Aussie in exile here, as you might tell from the handle.

I'll relay my personal experience, and hope some others might chime in as well.

Over here, I see two different types of things going. You have the private clubs, of which I have no experience, and you have the examples where the courses are run as completely separate concerns to any golf "clubs". In fact, in my neck of the woods the "clubs" tend to refer to themselves as "associations". The courses might be privately owned and operated or they might be owned and operated by city councils or other sorts of local governments, but the idea is the same. The financial barrier to joining a club is lower, because you're not paying for your annual green fees - that's separate, and typically much higher than would be the equivalent back home.

The Mens' Association to which I belong has tournaments maybe once a month, maybe every other month, depending on the time of year. It's rare that they will open them up to visitors and almost no mixed fourballs (the women have their own completely separate Association and ne'er the twain shall meet) other than the odd promotion that the course (not the Association) might put on. I really don't see anything equivalent to Club Pennants over here, other than what various Associations might arrange between themselves and very much as a one-off

Another difference is that membership of a Men's Association will include membership of the state governing body but not the USGA, which operates almost as a completely separate organisation. There is nothing comparable to the district associations back home (e.g, Brisbane Water GA, Newcastle GA etc.) to which clubs belong and which run and co-ordinate regular inter-club events such as the Pennants. Handicaps are administered at the state level, although they will be recognised interstate - if you move to a new state, however, your handicap doesn't move with you (from what my neighbour told me), so you in effect have to start over. The State body will run a number of tournaments throughout the year as well, more than I ever remember seeing the NSWGA run in the day.

Handicaps are administered differently over here as well. Back home it's only club comp rounds that count, but because there's so many of them (and I seem to remember the club where I had membership and played infrequently had Tuesday and Thursday stablefords, the Friday morning chook run as well as the Saturday mixed/ members four balls and the Sunday individuals) that's not a major problem - over here, pretty much every round you play can count towards your handicap because there are so few club comps. Every course will have a GHIN terminal where you can punch on your score for the day while you're unwinding, or you can do it on the Internet (web site or phone app) when you get home.

Another difference is at the junior level. Over here, you will see inter-school matches on a weekly basis once you get to high school (think year 9 or 10 and above) which is basically the same as junior pennants. You will also have zonal, state and regional tournaments for the better kids. Associations themselves tend not to cater for the juniors, although some courses might run something (but typically not competitive) for them, as the schools seem to have that piece of the market to themselves.

As I say, that's my experience, others might chime in and offer something different.
[/quote]

Thanks for that mate. You explained the comp situation really well.Here in Oz over the past 5 years the handicapping system has been changed and all scores go through Golf Australia's - Golf Link.com.au. The inclusion of social rounds has been considered and still not accepted. For the obvious reason that we do not see a social round as having the same status as a competition one.
A business partner of mine in the US has always referred to the golf I play as 'What is my league's next event"

I missed the point with this comment thinking he just called my club comps a league event. I have now seen that people set up "Golf League comps" in the US you can set up your own with this software [url="http://www.golfleague.us/"]http://www.golfleague.us/[/url] . Here is a more organised competition from the UK as well [url="http://ukgolfleague.com/"]http://ukgolfleague.com/[/url]

What I am beginning to realise is the golf competition/operation from nation to nation is very different. Personally I can see why there are two Australians in the PGA top ten and One Oz and a Kiwi in the LPGA top ten. If we did not have weekly club competitions, club championships and pennants the golfing would lose at least 70% of its appeal for myself and my mates.
If you ever feel like seeing what the Oz golfers are up to check out iseekgolf.com.
Thankyou for your time and attention.

BGH · July 9, 2014

[quote name='IdahoAussie' timestamp='1404926227' post='9667287']
G'day Talart. Aussie in exile here, as you might tell from the handle.

I'll relay my personal experience, and hope some others might chime in as well.
[/quote]

Thanks for that mate, always been interested to know. I asked a similar question to Talart a while back and didn't get any responses.

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/1011333-how-does-handicapping-work-in-your-country/

A couple of quick question.

1. Do you think the fact that entering scores for handicap purposes in the US is handled by the individual player rather than a club/handicapper means they are less accurate?

2. Does a player have to specify before their round that the round will be entered for handicapping or can they just decide to only enter it into the GHIN terminal afterwards if they had a good round?

I just find it strange that the US Open qualifications are open to any amateur with a handicap index of 1.4 or less, when US players could so easily manipulate their own handicap by simply inputting whatever scores they wanted.

Huddy76 · July 10, 2014

Seems like pretty much the same system we use in the UK. The other thing I always find different, about golf in the US is being able to choose what tee u play from. In the UK u play off the yellows unless playing In a competition, most clubs I've played at it's the same rule u can't just decide to play off the whites..

RagingPlatypus · July 10, 2014

A bit off topic but how much does it cost to join a typical Australian club? I love the fact only competition rounds count for handicapping.

BGH · July 10, 2014

[quote name='RagingPlatypus' timestamp='1405002985' post='9672931']
A bit off topic but how much does it cost to join a typical Australian club? I love the fact only competition rounds count for handicapping.
[/quote]

Obviously this is a very "how long is a piece of string" type of question, but as a general rule Australia has an over-supply of golf courses so in the current environment you can join a club for a very reasonable price.

To join a private club in a major city you are looking at somewhere between $1.5k - $4.5k a year. There would only be a handful charging more than that.

You have other options as well such as joining a club that just utilises a public course. This will set you back a few hundred dollars a year and you simply pay weekly green fees + comp fee and you get to compete in the club competition every week.

IdahoAussie · July 12, 2014

[quote name='Huddy76' timestamp='1404974902' post='9671421']Seems like pretty much the same system we use in the UK. The other thing I always find different, about golf in the US is being able to choose what tee u play from. In the UK u play off the yellows unless playing In a competition, most clubs I've played at it's the same rule u can't just decide to play off the whites..[/quote]

I actually don't mind having multiple sets of tees so much, especially for juniors or seniors. Every set of tees has it's own rating and slope so you can, say, run a comp off a forward set of tees and have the scores count toward handicaps on a more or less equitable basis with the scores of the guns playing off the tips.

In fact most courses will advertise a recommended handicap range for each set of tees, not dissimilar to how ski runs are colour-coded. One day they will actually enforce these and set greens fees accordingly!

IdahoAussie · July 12, 2014

[quote name='BGH' timestamp='1405032988' post='9676463'][quote name='RagingPlatypus' timestamp='1405002985' post='9672931']
A bit off topic but how much does it cost to join a typical Australian club? I love the fact only competition rounds count for handicapping.
[/quote]

Obviously this is a very "how long is a piece of string" type of question, but as a general rule Australia has an over-supply of golf courses so in the current environment you can join a club for a very reasonable price.

To join a private club in a major city you are looking at somewhere between $1.5k - $4.5k a year. There would only be a handful charging more than that.

You have other options as well such as joining a club that just utilises a public course. This will set you back a few hundred dollars a year and you simply pay weekly green fees + comp fee and you get to compete in the club competition every week.[/quote]

I was looking up my old club back home, on the NSW Central Coast - I think their annual would still give you change from a grand for a really nice layout. I compare this to some places I researched in Houston when I was considering relocating which were asking four or five hundred a MONTH.