Tournament Event Participation | USHandicap Classic

trsockwell Professional Champion
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It is quite obvious that the city of Houston, Texas is a completely dead city when it comes to group events. I have scheduled 3 tournaments within the most recent 9 months and have committed to organizing a minimum of 1 event per quarter going forward. The most recent event is coming up in Feb-16. I have posted a blog, sent messages to the club member containing 250+ members, posted comments on the club page, etc. There were 93 viewers of the blog and not one comment or "Like" indicator. We have only been successful in getting one additional club member to play because he is a work associate whom I play golf with on a regular basis. Thanks to Daniel Garcia, he is the only other member on this site that has participated in two of the most recent events. It is amazing to me that with the number of players in the Greater Houston area that there is not more interest in an organized round of golf with a fun competition. 80% of the players in the Feb-16 event are not members of the GolfNet network. This proves that the greatest success and participation is outside of this website. I am instituting changes to enforce the compliance in maintaining a handicap index within the club for the 2016 season. This is going to result in some discontent and possibly the loss of club membership in the near term. The expectation is that we can in the end drive up the level of interest in local events and build a more competitive and engaging golf community. It is nice to hear that other clubs have been more successful and can only suspect that they are private clubs with a higher level of control in the membership and group participation. My particular golf club is public and full of single players looking to keep a handicap trend rather than a handicap index and do not understand the difference. Not only that the area seems to be infested with players that are not interested in playing in any competitions. Based on the indicators, I am not sure why they want a handicap index other than for social status reasons among their peers. I am personally not a very skilled golfer, but I do like to compete on an equitable level with other skill levels. It provides me with the encouragement to improve and gives me a benchmark to work with when trying to improve my game. I have participated in the World Amateur Handicap Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C. three years in a row and can tell you that golf is a lot more fun when competing with players of similar skill levels and handicap. Unfortunately we cannot seem to get enough interest in the local area to even have a different handicap flights in the local events thus far. I am hopeful that 2016 will be a year that we can turn the tables and improve the metrics that I have observed over the years. My local golf course is starting up a Men's Golf Association, but I still like the flexibility that this website provides overall and will continue to maintain my handicap here. If you are in the Houston area and want to know more about the events that I have scheduled, then please send a message or post a response.
mtags LowIndex
# 1 12/13/2015 3:05:58 PM
Good luck with that. Chicago is just as bad, and we have almost 1300 members.
Mongo68 Legend
# 2 12/13/2015 6:33:37 PM
Good luck! You'll probably have minimal success with removing non-compliant members from your roles. Why? Because they will email the admins of the site who will re-instate them without even telling you. I suggest you keep a list, specifically of the member account numbers, so when they magically appear back in your roles you can mark them as non-compliant. They don't necessarily have the same user name when they are re-instated. Those that care about a valid handicap will take notice to their status. Our Philly Club removes about 100 members every year and we retain 2-3 members a year that become regular participants. We've been at this process for about 4 years and we have a fairly solid base of 15-20 members who actually care about their handicap and play in the 10-12 club events each year. Every single member is warned repeatedly about their non-compliance and encouraged to participate but 99% don't bother. Then when they are removed they are all up in arms why their handicap is non-compliant. Well duh!!!
Pappy82nd Professional Champion
# 3 12/13/2015 8:01:36 PM
Good luck! You'll probably have minimal success with removing non-compliant members from your roles. Why? Because they will email the admins of the site who will re-instate them without even telling you. I suggest you keep a list, specifically of the member account numbers, so when they magically appear back in your roles you can mark them as non-compliant. They don't necessarily have the same user name when they are re-instated. Those that care about a valid handicap will take notice to their status. Our Philly Club removes about 100 members every year and we retain 2-3 members a year that become regular participants. We've been at this process for about 4 years and we have a fairly solid base of 15-20 members who actually care about their handicap and play in the 10-12 club events each year. Every single member is warned repeatedly about their non-compliance and encouraged to participate but 99% don't bother. Then when they are removed they are all up in arms why their handicap is non-compliant. Well duh!!! So what do you do when the so called leadership in your club won't respond to inquiries about events? I tried for my first two years to make contact with anyone up here with no luck. I was asked to take the lead but I simply do not have the time as I am on several boards and planning events already in my community. I still want to know my handicap for a couple of minor tournaments I play each year in particular one with my son.
Mongo68 Legend
# 4 12/13/2015 8:17:43 PM
Good luck! You'll probably have minimal success with removing non-compliant members from your roles. Why? Because they will email the admins of the site who will re-instate them without even telling you. I suggest you keep a list, specifically of the member account numbers, so when they magically appear back in your roles you can mark them as non-compliant. They don't necessarily have the same user name when they are re-instated. Those that care about a valid handicap will take notice to their status. Our Philly Club removes about 100 members every year and we retain 2-3 members a year that become regular participants. We've been at this process for about 4 years and we have a fairly solid base of 15-20 members who actually care about their handicap and play in the 10-12 club events each year. Every single member is warned repeatedly about their non-compliance and encouraged to participate but 99% don't bother. Then when they are removed they are all up in arms why their handicap is non-compliant. Well duh!!! So what do you do when the so called leadership in your club won't respond to inquiries about events? I tried for my first two years to make contact with anyone up here with no luck. I was asked to take the lead but I simply do not have the time as I am on several boards and planning events already in my community. I still want to know my handicap for a couple of minor tournaments I play each year in particular one with my son. That's the problem with the way the site went about creating clubs. They just created clubs in different areas and reached out to members for someone to chair them and in turn gave the chair a free handicap for their efforts. That worked initially but as you've probably read here more than a few times, the chairs have zero contact with members, don't have a clue of what's actually required and most chairs haven't logged on in years. I'm a chairmen of an ACTIVE club because we have worked to make it function. As long as the site and the USGA allows these "rouge" clubs to continue then your handicap is safe. The USGA requires club chairs to retake a compliance test every few years to keep their club valid. Now, whether the USGA doesn't recognize clubs that aren't compliant? I don't know. That would be a good question for the admins of the site. If the chairs haven't logged on in years then how can they possibly be keeping their clubs compliant? If the clubs aren't compliant then either are the members handicaps. Honestly, I don't think the site will ever enforce membership requirements because they know that if they were ever forced to comply it would mean complete collapse of 99% of the clubs here because they aren't meeting basic requirements. Play it smart and keep a secondary handicap with your local "brick and mortar" club. Even I do that because I worry that someday soon I'll go to log on here and find the site is gone. Maybe an admin on the site could tell us all differently about what has been said above but I don't think that will happen. There's a lot of changes coming for 2016 and I really wonder how this site will deal with them.
Pappy82nd Professional Champion
# 5 12/13/2015 8:34:30 PM
Thanks Mongo for the input. I think you can hear my frustration. There are 7 clubs within 50 miles of me and not one is active and most have no leadership. The last post on any of them is 2013 and most are back 50 2010, 2009 and much ealier. I saw one post that was 2015 by a new guy. I know the results he got and that is 0. I would respond but he is a long ways from me. Wished I lived closer to you. People up here just do not keep handicaps. There are 3 pro shops local. I am members of all 3 but not for handicap purposes. I will join up with them and maybe get some better results.
ArizonaBlue Professional Champion
# 6 12/13/2015 11:40:44 PM
When I took over chairmanship of my club, we had almost 150 members. Now, we have 34. Of those 34, we have a core group of about 15-20 that participate in our club events. I keep track of their participation not only in club events but rounds played with another member. If they haven't completed the required USGA requirement in their membership year, they remain in the club but become non-compliant and lose their handicap index. (In our club, a membership year begins when they join the club ... not a calendar year.) If they become non-compliant, they have 6 months to meet the requirement. If not ... permanent removal. In addition, if they are not active for 6 months at any time ... permanent removal. It's all spelled out in our By-Laws. All we need is 10 members to have a club (per USGA) ... and we have that many in the core group. There are other clubs in my area ... and that's where many of my removals have wound up. Are they compliant? I don't know ... and it's not my problem nor my responsibility. My responsibility is to see that my members are compliant. If the USGA were to ever audit my club, we'd pass with flying colors. So, if your in a HUGE club that does nothing, find at least 10 members who are active ... and form a new club. Being a chairman does take some work, but this site does a LOT of the work for you. You can either keep grousing ... or take the bull by the horns and do something about it!
Glennehurst Professional Champion
# 7 12/14/2015 1:57:12 PM
Great Advice Mongo. I have just been asked to Chair the Alamance #272 region here in GSO, NC area. I am looking for better ideas to get more activity within the club. The search and learning continues.... Good luck! You'll probably have minimal success with removing non-compliant members from your roles. Why? Because they will email the admins of the site who will re-instate them without even telling you. I suggest you keep a list, specifically of the member account numbers, so when they magically appear back in your roles you can mark them as non-compliant. They don't necessarily have the same user name when they are re-instated. Those that care about a valid handicap will take notice to their status. Our Philly Club removes about 100 members every year and we retain 2-3 members a year that become regular participants. We've been at this process for about 4 years and we have a fairly solid base of 15-20 members who actually care about their handicap and play in the 10-12 club events each year. Every single member is warned repeatedly about their non-compliance and encouraged to participate but 99% don't bother. Then when they are removed they are all up in arms why their handicap is non-compliant. Well duh!!! So what do you do when the so called leadership in your club won't respond to inquiries about events? I tried for my first two years to make contact with anyone up here with no luck. I was asked to take the lead but I simply do not have the time as I am on several boards and planning events already in my community. I still want to know my handicap for a couple of minor tournaments I play each year in particular one with my son. That's the problem with the way the site went about creating clubs. They just created clubs in different areas and reached out to members for someone to chair them and in turn gave the chair a free handicap for their efforts. That worked initially but as you've probably read here more than a few times, the chairs have zero contact with members, don't have a clue of what's actually required and most chairs haven't logged on in years. I'm a chairmen of an ACTIVE club because we have worked to make it function. As long as the site and the USGA allows these "rouge" clubs to continue then your handicap is safe. The USGA requires club chairs to retake a compliance test every few years to keep their club valid. Now, whether the USGA doesn't recognize clubs that aren't compliant? I don't know. That would be a good question for the admins of the site. If the chairs haven't logged on in years then how can they possibly be keeping their clubs compliant? If the clubs aren't compliant then either are the members handicaps. Honestly, I don't think the site will ever enforce membership requirements because they know that if they were ever forced to comply it would mean complete collapse of 99% of the clubs here because they aren't meeting basic requirements. Play it smart and keep a secondary handicap with your local "brick and mortar" club. Even I do that because I worry that someday soon I'll go to log on here and find the site is gone. Maybe an admin on the site could tell us all differently about what has been said above but I don't think that will happen. There's a lot of changes coming for 2016 and I really wonder how this site will deal with them.
gsollars LowIndex
# 8 12/20/2015 9:40:36 AM
I used to be on the site frequently. I pretty much gave up because there were no tournaments being held. I keep a handicap specifically so that I can play in tournaments with a handicap. I have actually met and played with a couple of members; Danial Garcia being the one the one I have played with the most. I don't really need to post stuff on the site that much. The group of which I am a member has had ONE tournament in the entire time I have been on the site. That's been about six years. I am willing to play in tournaments. It's way more fun to play when you are forced to follow rules, play in front of your peers and be forced to play the ball down. It's the reason that I always play by the rules, never touch my ball and NEVER play a second ball off the first tee and choose the best result. It's unfortunate that so few are willing to play with other members. For several years now, I have advertised for members in Albuquerque, New Mexico to get together for some golf when I make my annual pilgrimage. I have not had a single taker. Not even so much as a single response. I assume that we have some members in Albuquerque. I tried to find out once but was told that the site does not allow us to search for members by city. I'm willing to play. Does that mean I need to join your particular group? Just let me know what I have to do and I will join and participate when able. Thanks for your efforts

Professional Champion

208 Views 8 Replies 0 Likes

It is quite obvious that the city of Houston, Texas is a completely dead city when it comes to group events. I have scheduled 3 tournaments within the most recent 9 months and have committed to organizing a minimum of 1 event per quarter going forward. The most recent event is coming up in Feb-16. I have posted a blog, sent messages to the club member containing 250+ members, posted comments on the club page, etc.

There were 93 viewers of the blog and not one comment or "Like" indicator. We have only been successful in getting one additional club member to play because he is a work associate whom I play golf with on a regular basis. Thanks to Daniel Garcia, he is the only other member on this site that has participated in two of the most recent events.

It is amazing to me that with the number of players in the Greater Houston area that there is not more interest in an organized round of golf with a fun competition. 80% of the players in the Feb-16 event are not members of the GolfNet network. This proves that the greatest success and participation is outside of this website.

I am instituting changes to enforce the compliance in maintaining a handicap index within the club for the 2016 season. This is going to result in some discontent and possibly the loss of club membership in the near term. The expectation is that we can in the end drive up the level of interest in local events and build a more competitive and engaging golf community.

It is nice to hear that other clubs have been more successful and can only suspect that they are private clubs with a higher level of control in the membership and group participation. My particular golf club is public and full of single players looking to keep a handicap trend rather than a handicap index and do not understand the difference. Not only that the area seems to be infested with players that are not interested in playing in any competitions. Based on the indicators, I am not sure why they want a handicap index other than for social status reasons among their peers.

I am personally not a very skilled golfer, but I do like to compete on an equitable level with other skill levels. It provides me with the encouragement to improve and gives me a benchmark to work with when trying to improve my game. I have participated in the World Amateur Handicap Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C. three years in a row and can tell you that golf is a lot more fun when competing with players of similar skill levels and handicap. Unfortunately we cannot seem to get enough interest in the local area to even have a different handicap flights in the local events thus far.

I am hopeful that 2016 will be a year that we can turn the tables and improve the metrics that I have observed over the years. My local golf course is starting up a Men's Golf Association, but I still like the flexibility that this website provides overall and will continue to maintain my handicap here. If you are in the Houston area and want to know more about the events that I have scheduled, then please send a message or post a response.

mtags

LowIndex

# 1 12/13/2015 3:05:58 PM

Good luck with that. Chicago is just as bad, and we have almost 1300 members.

Mongo68

Legend

# 2 12/13/2015 6:33:37 PM

Good luck! You'll probably have minimal success with removing non-compliant members from your roles. Why? Because they will email the admins of the site who will re-instate them without even telling you. I suggest you keep a list, specifically of the member account numbers, so when they magically appear back in your roles you can mark them as non-compliant. They don't necessarily have the same user name when they are re-instated. Those that care about a valid handicap will take notice to their status. Our Philly Club removes about 100 members every year and we retain 2-3 members a year that become regular participants.

We've been at this process for about 4 years and we have a fairly solid base of 15-20 members who actually care about their handicap and play in the 10-12 club events each year. Every single member is warned repeatedly about their non-compliance and encouraged to participate but 99% don't bother. Then when they are removed they are all up in arms why their handicap is non-compliant. Well duh!!!

Pappy82nd

Professional Champion

# 3 12/13/2015 8:01:36 PM

Good luck! You'll probably have minimal success with removing non-compliant members from your roles. Why? Because they will email the admins of the site who will re-instate them without even telling you. I suggest you keep a list, specifically of the member account numbers, so when they magically appear back in your roles you can mark them as non-compliant. They don't necessarily have the same user name when they are re-instated. Those that care about a valid handicap will take notice to their status. Our Philly Club removes about 100 members every year and we retain 2-3 members a year that become regular participants.

We've been at this process for about 4 years and we have a fairly solid base of 15-20 members who actually care about their handicap and play in the 10-12 club events each year. Every single member is warned repeatedly about their non-compliance and encouraged to participate but 99% don't bother. Then when they are removed they are all up in arms why their handicap is non-compliant. Well duh!!!

So what do you do when the so called leadership in your club won't respond to inquiries about events? I tried for my first two years to make contact with anyone up here with no luck. I was asked to take the lead but I simply do not have the time as I am on several boards and planning events already in my community. I still want to know my handicap for a couple of minor tournaments I play each year in particular one with my son.

Mongo68

Legend

# 4 12/13/2015 8:17:43 PM

Good luck! You'll probably have minimal success with removing non-compliant members from your roles. Why? Because they will email the admins of the site who will re-instate them without even telling you. I suggest you keep a list, specifically of the member account numbers, so when they magically appear back in your roles you can mark them as non-compliant. They don't necessarily have the same user name when they are re-instated. Those that care about a valid handicap will take notice to their status. Our Philly Club removes about 100 members every year and we retain 2-3 members a year that become regular participants.

We've been at this process for about 4 years and we have a fairly solid base of 15-20 members who actually care about their handicap and play in the 10-12 club events each year. Every single member is warned repeatedly about their non-compliance and encouraged to participate but 99% don't bother. Then when they are removed they are all up in arms why their handicap is non-compliant. Well duh!!!

So what do you do when the so called leadership in your club won't respond to inquiries about events? I tried for my first two years to make contact with anyone up here with no luck. I was asked to take the lead but I simply do not have the time as I am on several boards and planning events already in my community. I still want to know my handicap for a couple of minor tournaments I play each year in particular one with my son.

That's the problem with the way the site went about creating clubs. They just created clubs in different areas and reached out to members for someone to chair them and in turn gave the chair a free handicap for their efforts. That worked initially but as you've probably read here more than a few times, the chairs have zero contact with members, don't have a clue of what's actually required and most chairs haven't logged on in years. I'm a chairmen of an ACTIVE club because we have worked to make it function. As long as the site and the USGA allows these "rouge" clubs to continue then your handicap is safe. The USGA requires club chairs to retake a compliance test every few years to keep their club valid. Now, whether the USGA doesn't recognize clubs that aren't compliant? I don't know. That would be a good question for the admins of the site. If the chairs haven't logged on in years then how can they possibly be keeping their clubs compliant? If the clubs aren't compliant then either are the members handicaps.

Honestly, I don't think the site will ever enforce membership requirements because they know that if they were ever forced to comply it would mean complete collapse of 99% of the clubs here because they aren't meeting basic requirements.

Play it smart and keep a secondary handicap with your local "brick and mortar" club. Even I do that because I worry that someday soon I'll go to log on here and find the site is gone.

Maybe an admin on the site could tell us all differently about what has been said above but I don't think that will happen. There's a lot of changes coming for 2016 and I really wonder how this site will deal with them.

Pappy82nd

Professional Champion

# 5 12/13/2015 8:34:30 PM

Thanks Mongo for the input. I think you can hear my frustration. There are 7 clubs within 50 miles of me and not one is active and most have no leadership. The last post on any of them is 2013 and most are back 50 2010, 2009 and much ealier. I saw one post that was 2015 by a new guy. I know the results he got and that is 0. I would respond but he is a long ways from me. Wished I lived closer to you. People up here just do not keep handicaps. There are 3 pro shops local. I am members of all 3 but not for handicap purposes. I will join up with them and maybe get some better results.

ArizonaBlue

Professional Champion

# 6 12/13/2015 11:40:44 PM

When I took over chairmanship of my club, we had almost 150 members. Now, we have 34. Of those 34, we have a core group of about 15-20 that participate in our club events. I keep track of their participation not only in club events but rounds played with another member. If they haven't completed the required USGA requirement in their membership year, they remain in the club but become non-compliant and lose their handicap index. (In our club, a membership year begins when they join the club ... not a calendar year.) If they become non-compliant, they have 6 months to meet the requirement. If not ... permanent removal. In addition, if they are not active for 6 months at any time ... permanent removal. It's all spelled out in our By-Laws. All we need is 10 members to have a club (per USGA) ... and we have that many in the core group. There are other clubs in my area ... and that's where many of my removals have wound up. Are they compliant? I don't know ... and it's not my problem nor my responsibility. My responsibility is to see that my members are compliant. If the USGA were to ever audit my club, we'd pass with flying colors. So, if your in a HUGE club that does nothing, find at least 10 members who are active ... and form a new club. Being a chairman does take some work, but this site does a LOT of the work for you. You can either keep grousing ... or take the bull by the horns and do something about it!

Glennehurst

Professional Champion

# 7 12/14/2015 1:57:12 PM

Great Advice Mongo. I have just been asked to Chair the Alamance #272 region here in GSO, NC area. I am looking for better ideas to get more activity within the club. The search and learning continues....

Good luck! You'll probably have minimal success with removing non-compliant members from your roles. Why? Because they will email the admins of the site who will re-instate them without even telling you. I suggest you keep a list, specifically of the member account numbers, so when they magically appear back in your roles you can mark them as non-compliant. They don't necessarily have the same user name when they are re-instated. Those that care about a valid handicap will take notice to their status. Our Philly Club removes about 100 members every year and we retain 2-3 members a year that become regular participants.

We've been at this process for about 4 years and we have a fairly solid base of 15-20 members who actually care about their handicap and play in the 10-12 club events each year. Every single member is warned repeatedly about their non-compliance and encouraged to participate but 99% don't bother. Then when they are removed they are all up in arms why their handicap is non-compliant. Well duh!!!

So what do you do when the so called leadership in your club won't respond to inquiries about events? I tried for my first two years to make contact with anyone up here with no luck. I was asked to take the lead but I simply do not have the time as I am on several boards and planning events already in my community. I still want to know my handicap for a couple of minor tournaments I play each year in particular one with my son.

That's the problem with the way the site went about creating clubs. They just created clubs in different areas and reached out to members for someone to chair them and in turn gave the chair a free handicap for their efforts. That worked initially but as you've probably read here more than a few times, the chairs have zero contact with members, don't have a clue of what's actually required and most chairs haven't logged on in years. I'm a chairmen of an ACTIVE club because we have worked to make it function. As long as the site and the USGA allows these "rouge" clubs to continue then your handicap is safe. The USGA requires club chairs to retake a compliance test every few years to keep their club valid. Now, whether the USGA doesn't recognize clubs that aren't compliant? I don't know. That would be a good question for the admins of the site. If the chairs haven't logged on in years then how can they possibly be keeping their clubs compliant? If the clubs aren't compliant then either are the members handicaps.

Honestly, I don't think the site will ever enforce membership requirements because they know that if they were ever forced to comply it would mean complete collapse of 99% of the clubs here because they aren't meeting basic requirements.

Play it smart and keep a secondary handicap with your local "brick and mortar" club. Even I do that because I worry that someday soon I'll go to log on here and find the site is gone.

Maybe an admin on the site could tell us all differently about what has been said above but I don't think that will happen. There's a lot of changes coming for 2016 and I really wonder how this site will deal with them.

gsollars

LowIndex

# 8 12/20/2015 9:40:36 AM

I used to be on the site frequently. I pretty much gave up because there were no tournaments being held. I keep a handicap specifically so that I can play in tournaments with a handicap. I have actually met and played with a couple of members; Danial Garcia being the one the one I have played with the most.

I don't really need to post stuff on the site that much. The group of which I am a member has had ONE tournament in the entire time I have been on the site. That's been about six years. I am willing to play in tournaments. It's way more fun to play when you are forced to follow rules, play in front of your peers and be forced to play the ball down. It's the reason that I always play by the rules, never touch my ball and NEVER play a second ball off the first tee and choose the best result.

It's unfortunate that so few are willing to play with other members. For several years now, I have advertised for members in Albuquerque, New Mexico to get together for some golf when I make my annual pilgrimage. I have not had a single taker. Not even so much as a single response. I assume that we have some members in Albuquerque. I tried to find out once but was told that the site does not allow us to search for members by city.

I'm willing to play. Does that mean I need to join your particular group? Just let me know what I have to do and I will join and participate when able.

Thanks for your efforts

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