Scott R Chilcutt, DFW Tour (January 5, 2011) Happy hump day. In our continuing coverage of resolutions for the New Year we wanted to go over some of the tournament operations activities.
While this is what we have set out for the New Year, we want your feedback. Good, bad, right or wrong, let us know what you think.
Registration:
For DFW Tour specific events we DO NOT process credit cards for entry fees until the deadline. You will see players on the website that show “Pending”, that’s not because the tournament is pending it’s simply because we haven’t dinged the card.
We do that for a couple of reasons: One, why should you pay for a tournament before we have to pay for the rounds? Secondly, it’s important we have a good feel for the size of field for gift certificates and trophies. The more time we have to anticipate those numbers the more planning we have to make appropriate choices the better for the winners!
You may also notice that the deadline for events is the Friday the week before the event. Again the more time we have to plan the better the prizes we can deliver but at the same time we can schedule with the golf course without crowding. Entries may be available after that date but will only be allowed if the space is available and will normally require a phone call or email as that deadline date will be held in the system. Enter the events you THINK you might want to play, you don’t get charged until the deadline.
Prizes:
You paid your entry fee 7-8 days before the event. You win and you’ll get your gift card and trophy the day of the event.
Food:
With the exception of the Tour Championship we will provide a box lunch for most events. With the travelers and the late tee times we try to arrange that so it will be available to you before the round at the turn or after the round, your pick.
Side Games:
We will only have skins as an optional side game. Depending on the size of the field they will normally be by flight but on occasions may be by TEE BOX. Those skins payouts will be available to the players shortly after your flight has completed play. You won’t wait for the entire event to conclude, or until the next tournament.
On occasion we may have a “FREE” closest to the hole. Some courses require that we buy some gift certificates from the pro shop. In those cases, instead of forcing you to use flight winnings at a store with limited inventory we will simply place that in the “prize pool” for closest to the hole awards.
Pace of Play:
I’m sure everyone is familiar with the SkyCaddie Pace of Play Policy but if you’re not you might want to read up on it.
This is a tour wide policy that was mandated when The Golf Channel took over operations and rightfully so. At that time they took a survey of players that didn’t renew memberships and overwhelmingly the top answer was “slow rounds”. Everyone spends too much time and money to go play 5-6 hour rounds.
Now here’s what might make us different from other local tours. We believe that if you are penalized for slow play we have not done our job. We have to put players in a position to SUCCEED not FAIL and that can only be done with diligence on the golf course. You should always see 4+ people on the golf course with the tournament committee. They are not there to impede or disrupt your round. You’ll very rarely hear them say anything about time, but may occasionally let you know (between holes) your position. What they are there to do is to help the entire field get through the round in 4 ½ hours. Spotting balls is just one way we are going to be there to help but you’ll see as the year goes by that this presence is not only important to the field but will be welcomed when we drop off an ICE towel or bottle of water.
While we can’t control the golf course does in front of our play, we try very hard to have a cushion between our first tee time. Threesomes help greatly and always try to negotiate that in our contracts, but occasionally we may have to go out with four.
You will never be asked to keep your own time, that’s our job. We’re on the golf course to see that you SUCCEED not FAIL with the SkyCaddie Pace of Play rules.
We hope everyone is having a great week, next up membership activities.
As always, anything I can do for any of you, please let me know.
972.302.9478
Schilcutt@gcamtour.com
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