One Tee & One Tee Afternoon Starts

One Tee & One Tee Afternoon Starts

The board of directors at Gosford Golf Club has recently voted to implement a selection of one tee and one tee afternoon starts. There are various reasons for this implementation, with the focus being on benefits to our members and increased revenue. A summary of major benefits can be seen below:

·         Increased revenue from social play

·         Improved junior membership and play

·         Time for green staff to stay ahead of comp field and get jobs done

·         Better club and better course

Financial benefits

It’s obvious that there are immediate financial gains to a better tee structure on the weekends. An earlier start for social players, who pay a premium green fee will undoubtedly bring extra revenue into the golf club. These calibres of players are generally habitual hirers of golf carts also. Weekend revenues and an increase in such will give our club a chance to grow and involves our membership as part of the solution to growing our club and supressing any financial challenges.

Grow the game

Our Junior database has achieved significant growth in the last three months, growing from 3 junior members to 47. Largely down to the hard work and dedication of our Junior development officer, Jason Millers. Along with Kieran Moran, our head professional, they are looking at implementing a cadet programme and junior development program with clinics and golf to be played on Saturday morning/afternoons. The earlier finish to the Saturday comp field again gives members the opportunity to be involved in a solution to growing the membership of our club, promoting our course, our club, and the game of golf to a new generation.

Upkeep of the course

The third benefit to the new structure is in the upkeep of the course. With a large volume of traffic on both the front and the back nine, it is somewhat challenging for green staff to do their jobs and maintain the course to the highest possible standards. The one tee, and one tee afternoon fields will give green staff the opportunity to stay ahead of comp fields, tick jobs off their list and present our course in the best possible way to the membership.

Breakdown

We appreciate your understanding in the interim with new implementation of our tee time structure and hope that we can balance the needs of comp players along with the increased benefits of social and junior play on the weekends.

A full breakdown of the new tee time structure can be seen below:

Monday:           1 Tee start all day social play

Tuesday:         Two Tee crossover, One tee afternoon, Social play from 12pm

Wednesday:    Two Tee crossover, One tee afternoon, Social play from 1pm

Thursday:        1Tee start all day, Social play from 10am

Friday:             1 Tee start all day, Social play from 10am

Saturday:         Two Tee crossover, One tee afternoon. Social play from 1pm

Sunday:           Two Tee crossover, One tee afternoon. Social play from 1pm

Timesheets on one tee afternoon will work as follows.

·         6AM Start on 1^st tee and 10^th tee until 7.45am

·         10.30AM 1^st tee afternoon start until 1pm

·         Social play from 1pm on the 1^st tee

Ready Golf

With the implementation of the one tee and one tee afternoon starts, the match committee has decided to implement ‘Ready golf’ during competition fields. There is strong evidence to suggest that playing “ready golf” does improve the pace of play. For example, in a survey of Australian golf clubs conducted by Golf Australia, 94% of clubs that had promoted “ready golf” to their members enjoyed some degree of success in improving pace of play, with 25% stating that they had achieved 'satisfying success'.

Examples of “ready golf” in action are:

• Hitting a shot when safe to do so if a player farther away faces a challenging shot and is taking time to assess their options
• Shorter hitters playing first from the tee or fairway if longer hitters have to wait
• Hitting a tee shot if the person with the honour is delayed in being ready to play
• Hitting a shot before helping someone to look for a lost ball
• Putting out even if it means standing close to someone else’s line
• Hitting a shot if a person who has just played from a greenside bunker is still farthest from the hole but is delayed due to raking the bunker
• When a player’s ball has gone over the back of a green, any player closer to the hole but chipping from the front of the green should play while the other player is having to walk to their ball and assess their shot
• Marking scores upon immediate arrival at the next tee, except that the first player to tee off marks their card immediately after teeing off

Please be aware of your surroundings and encourage you playing partners in your group to adopt ‘ready golf’ next time you play in a comp.