Who is on Thousand Greens? You like it?

[FairwayFred]

I was on but had myself removed.  I was getting far too many requests to play at one of the clubs im a member at and it became too much. I like the concept but in practice it just didn't work for me.  

[Divot License]

I am on it but since the UK is such a small proportion of people on there I doubt I'll have much hosting to do, especially as I'm in a less than well traveled part of the country.  

[golfortennis]

On 12/23/2020 at 5:21 AM, FairwayFred said:

I was on but had myself removed.  I was getting far too many requests to play at one of the clubs im a member at and it became too much. I like the concept but in practice it just didn't work for me.  

 

Hey Ari, we'll just pick up  right here then.  What was your course again?  Can you get me on Saturday morning Memorial Day weekend?  About 9:15?

 

🤪

[Schley]

On 12/24/2020 at 11:15 AM, Jedaigeki said:

I am on it but since the UK is such a small proportion of people on there I doubt I'll have much hosting to do, especially as I'm in a less than well traveled part of the country.  

If you are in Cambridge is this The Sacred Nine?  Love the course.

[FairwayFred]

On 12/26/2020 at 3:26 PM, Bluefan75 said:

 

Hey Ari, we'll just pick up  right here then.  What was your course again?  Can you get me on Saturday morning Memorial Day weekend?  About 9:15?

 

🤪

You and 3 friends right? 

[golfortennis]

1 hour ago, FairwayFred said:

You and 3 friends right? 

 

Actually, sorry, was looking for two tee times.  Preferably consecutively.  Mmmkay?  You're a peach.  🤪

[FairwayFred]

Just now, Bluefan75 said:

 

Actually, sorry, was looking for two tee times.  Preferably consecutively.  Mmmkay?  You're a peach.  🤪

Carts or caddies? 

[golfortennis]

1 hour ago, FairwayFred said:

Carts or caddies? 

 

Better make it two caddies per player.  One to carry the bag, and one to look after the beverage needs.

 

We wouldn't sully your fairways with a cart. 

[FairwayFred]

18 minutes ago, Bluefan75 said:

 

Better make it two caddies per player.  One to carry the bag, and one to look after the beverage needs.

 

We wouldn't sully your fairways with a cart. 

Perfect.  I'll get er done...   

[act0fgod]

I've had multiple requests at the clubs that I don't live near.  Only hosted once where I live.  When I lived in Hawaii I also nearly had a game set up but couldn't get a Saturday morning time so the guy, understandably, decided to spend time with the grandkids instead. 

 

I utilized the service as a guest and received reduced fees instead of full rate for 2 rounds during a trip to Australia.

 

Maybe I'm cheap (not willing to pay $250 + caddie + food and beverage for host) but really wish there was a way to see what the fees are before requesting a round.  Admittedly one of my clubs has a $250 guest fee (optional caddies).

 

[Dancin]

12 hours ago, act0fgod said:

I've had multiple requests at the clubs that I don't live near.  Only hosted once where I live.  When I lived in Hawaii I also nearly had a game set up but couldn't get a Saturday morning time so the guy, understandably, decided to spend time with the grandkids instead. 

 

I utilized the service as a guest and received reduced fees instead of full rate for 2 rounds during a trip to Australia.

 

Maybe I'm cheap (not willing to pay $250 + caddie + food and beverage for host) but really wish there was a way to see what the fees are before requesting a round.  Admittedly one of my clubs has a $250 guest fee (optional caddies).

 

If the hosts are doing it right, they should contact you with cost information before accepting a request and if someone says sorry that's more than I was prepared to pay, that's ok. I always contact and lay out all the details in messages before accepting a request.

 

Playing private courses is expensive. If you're playing a top course in a US state or better you pretty much should expect $300 as a starting point.

[Ereim]

I quit TG after a year, just don’t travel enough to use it. In one year I had 25+ requests to play my club, and I hosted one request. I like the concept and would revisit if I travel more in the future, but it got rather annoying having to reply to so many requests when I never once sent a request.

[Dancin]

You can turn off the notices or just ignore them.

[2Scoops]

I’m not a member, but curious to know everyone’s thoughts: should TG limit requests to a monthly, quarterly, or annual number? Seems like the biggest frustration is with the request intake. Placing a cap on requests may actually drive better engagement and higher quality of requests for both sides. Thoughts?

[monty09]

22 hours ago, 2Scoops said:

I’m not a member, but curious to know everyone’s thoughts: should TG limit requests to a monthly, quarterly, or annual number? Seems like the biggest frustration is with the request intake. Placing a cap on requests may actually drive better engagement and higher quality of requests for both sides. Thoughts?

 

 

I think its two fold...  you can only earn one token a month or when you host.. so people who host a lot will have more tokens and can request your club more....   the current cap in place is the max of your current token total...  If you are at a very desirable club you will always have a ton of requests but you can ignore all you want 

[Dancin]

23 hours ago, 2Scoops said:

I’m not a member, but curious to know everyone’s thoughts: should TG limit requests to a monthly, quarterly, or annual number? Seems like the biggest frustration is with the request intake. Placing a cap on requests may actually drive better engagement and higher quality of requests for both sides. Thoughts?

Too many requests is not an issue. Anyone can make themselves invisible and not see any requests very easily in the settings. The token and levels prevents too many people from hammering highly desired courses too.

[Mullenboy]

Hmmmm.....

I have experienced the same inundation as Ary... almost certainly regarding the same club.

 

I can see how the system would work great for some people, but it hasn't for me.  I haven't deleted my profile yet (out of laziness and perhaps the hope that some day a request will come in that is genuine and sincere) but... I will likely give up soon.

 

 

[raynorfan1]

Just circling back on this because I was active in this thread 2+ years ago.

 

Like @Mullenboy I've fully muted myself. The volume of requests just got to be too much. The particularly annoying thing (IMO) was that the site had some logic so that lower-tier members could be 'promoted' into higher tiers which compounded the number of requests that high tier members got.

 

Also, TBH, it frustrated the heck out of me that I was a relatively generous host over time and I had a quite low success rate trying to use TG for introductions to similar clubs.

[wegobomber31]

I’m on TG but haven’t used or hosted yet. I wonder how much longer it will be free and whether they monetize it at some point. 

[Ralphyboy84]

I still think it’s a great idea, but I’ve found since they did the big upgrade that the site doesn’t seem to work as well and I don’t use it as much. Which is a shame as it got me a game at Loch Lomond which is somewhere I never thought I would get to play in a million years!

[Dancin]

It's slowly getting back to where it was and most of the bugs have been fixed. Because of all the bugs after the rewrite I'd guess they lost 30% of the user base as either regular users or lost for good.

[raynorfan1]

I'll also point out that the latest release included a feature that I've advocated for since the beginning - you can now pick and choose the clubs that you are "visible" to, effectively creating your own tier that is relevant to only you. This is a really great solution for those of us who were inundated with requests and wished the platform could be more selective.

[Abh159]

Maybe this is a silly question, but can one of you who has used Thousand Greens give me a basic explanation of how it works? There isn't a ton of info about it online so just curious if it's worth me experimenting with or not.

 

If I understand correctly... You sign up and then people can contact you (or you contact them) to see if you are willing to host them at your club in the hopes they will return the favor at some point?

 

How do they verify that the people on the site are actual members at the places they claim to be?
 

Is it any more or less beneficial than just having your head pro call and get you onto a course (something I have access to now)?

 

[Dancin]

37 minutes ago, Abh159 said:

Maybe this is a silly question, but can one of you who has used Thousand Greens give me a basic explanation of how it works? There isn't a ton of info about it online so just curious if it's worth me experimenting with or not.

 

If I understand correctly... You sign up and then people can contact you (or you contact them) to see if you are willing to host them at your club in the hopes they will return the favor at some point?

 

How do they verify that the people on the site are actual members at the places they claim to be?
 

Is it any more or less beneficial than just having your head pro call and get you onto a course (something I have access to now)?

 

1) yes but really no need for return of favor although that happens and the general goal of TG is not access to courses. It's making connections and new golf friends which is why they highly encourage only accompanied play. You can control if you are contacted or not and the tiering and tokens limits what you can do. Personally I've been hosted at 5 other courses and hosted probably 20 people. All the people I have hosted have been great and I have standing offers to host me anytime I happen to be in their town, but of all of those I've made 3 really good connections that I've gone on to play with again and will likely continue to see every year in the future. You aren't getting that from having your club pro call for you.

2) they ask for something to confirm your membership (member directory web site listing screenshot, monthly statement...)

3) Biggest benefit is you are playing accompanied with someone who wants to host others and show off their club vs a head pro call is almost always unaccompanied which is both more expensive and not as much fun. You also see open offers where people are telling you they will definitely host on X dates with costs and details listed up front vs. randomness of a club pro being able to get you on or not and not knowing the costs until after you've asked the pro to make the effort for you.

 

And it's free for now so really no reason not to. You can set it up so you'll never get pestered at all if you really wanted to do that but you will need to host or at least have an open offer to host in order to make more than 3 requests.

[Abh159]

6 minutes ago, Dancin said:

You can control if you are contacted or not and the tiering and tokens limits what you can do.

 

Got it. Thanks! I guess this part is what I don't really get.

 

I assume Tiers means the level of the club? Like Oakmont would be the top tier, Backwoods CC in Podunk, WV would be the bottom tier, and there are other clubs in between? And that determines who can make requests or the likelihood your request will be accepted?

 

And Tokens are like some sort of currency? Having more tokens means you can make more requests or something like that?

 

Maybe I just have to join and mess around with it to see what it's really like.

[Dancin]

8 minutes ago, Abh159 said:

 

Got it. Thanks! I guess this part is what I don't really get.

 

I assume Tiers means the level of the club? Like Oakmont would be the top tier, Backwoods CC in Podunk, WV would be the bottom tier, and there are other clubs in between? And that determines who can make requests or the likelihood your request will be accepted?

 

And Tokens are like some sort of currency? Having more tokens means you can make more requests or something like that?

 

Maybe I just have to join and mess around with it to see what it's really like.

Correct. There are 4 tiers based on a course's ranking or lack thereof in a superset of top100golfcourses, golf, golfweek and golf digest which basically break down (in the US) to top 100 world, top 100 in the US, best in state (basically shows up in top100golfcourses for the state), all the rest.

You can only make an unsolicited request to courses in your tier or lower. But anyone can put an open offer to host out and determine which tiers to open that offer to, so even if you are in a lower tier, you can see offers from higher tiers if the host decides to do that. You start out with 3 tokens which allow you to make 3 requests. You gain tokens by hosting others or you earn a token for each month you have an open offer to host listed (up to max of 3) regardless if anyone takes you up on that.

[Dancin]

As to the likelihood of an unsolicited request being accepted, it really depends on the club, your flexibility and the sincerity in what you write in the request (more important on the top courses - the repercussions to the host of hosting an a****** at a top tier club are huge. They could easily lose their top membership they likely cherish and worked hard for if something really bad happened. It's pretty amazing and refreshing to me how many top 100 world members are actually on the site and willing to take that risk all in the love of the game we play).

 

If they only have a couple members on TG and you want to play on a specific day in a small time frame, well good luck with that. If they've got 20+ members on TG and you give them a multiple day range, you've probably got at least a 50% chance of getting an unsolicited request accepted by someone. Again that's just unsolicited requests though. There are hundreds of open offers listed year round. The only time I couldn't get a game while on a trip somewhere was this year in Portland when temps hit 113 and I'm very glad nobody had accepted. I didn't notice the weather report until it was a couple days before and I was trying to figure out why nobody wanted to host that day.

[greyman09]

I have enjoyed it so far. I have only hosted and have enjoyed getting to know like minded folks. I enjoy sharing my memberships and gives me a reason to get out. I have pretty good access to places so I have not requested to play any where yet. 

[RMcAvoy]

Joined TG a few years ago early on.  I love the concept, and it has been great for me.  I’m a member at a Top 100 in the world club and happy to host.  Agree with the comments here on requests, just turn off notifications and look when you’re open to hosting someone.

 

If you love golf, and travel, and as importantly genuinely like people, there’s no better offering out there.  If it’s not for you, don’t join but this guy put this together, for free out of the love of the game.  I wish more of us, myself included had that kind of time and heart.

[njlam]

I echo RMcAvoy's comments. I joined TG a few years ago, but did not use it much due to family obligations.

While I did not make many requests, I did host some rounds and met some really great people.

Unfortunately COVID coincided with my becoming an empty nester, so many of my TG aspirations have been delayed.

However, I have meaningful travel plans for 2022 and have scheduled a number of TG-related rounds this spring.

 

My home course is not a top 100 in the world, but as it has hosted a major and a Ryder Cup in its storied history, and it is great some TG members have wanted to check those boxes.

 

I am luckily some of the guys I have hosted love golf and golf history as much as I do and are open to reciprocation. It is quite a nice community.

Can't say enough good things about TG. 

On the other hand, I made the mistake of making an inquiry (checking a box on IG) for one of TG's high priced competitors and have been receiving aggressive solicitations weekly. A real turn off.