I literally saw a guy that was so bad at putting he had a 20g weight in the toe and a 15g weight in the heel of his Scotty. He said he has trouble rotating through.

lol

The member/guest I am playing this week has a calcutta. You can purchase your own team for $380. If you don't buy your own team it goes to auction with bids starting at $250.

My question is what is the etiquette on this. Are you obligated to purchase your own team? They did say that whoever purchases your team is not obligated to sell back any % of your action.

Just wondering since I have never played in a calcutta before. I will say that neither my partner or myself are really willing (or really rich enough) to pony up $380 for our own action. I would be willing to buy back $100 worth, tops.

It depends upon how sporty the players are. I assume that either you or your partner has some idea about how this has gone in the past. If an initial event, calcuttas at the club generally?

I would consider buying my own team and offering to sell half for $200 or more if the market is likely to bear it--especially if there are a lot of gamblers entered. That is assuming you have a chance to cash. If you don't think you will, then let them auction you off. You can always bid there if you decide you like the price. What happens if nobody bids on a team at $250? Do they lower the asking price? Or???

ETA: Regarding ettiquette, the only issues I have seen arise are when auction winners don't allow a team to buy half of themselves. That wouldn't seem to be an issue here since everyone has a chance to buy themselves prior to auction.

Not sure on the specifics of the club as I am the guest. My partner has not played in the member/guest there before. He has been a member of the club for about 2 years but really doesn't play with a regular group, so he is basically going into this blind.

They pay top 3 in each flight 50%, 30%, 20%. Most of the $ goes there with the rest going to the shootout 1st and 2nd.

Not sure what happens if a team is not purchased. Could be lower or could be if they make it the prize just moves down a place.

I basically just want to have fun, and playing for a crazy amount money (to me) seems to take the fun out of it.

You are not obligated to purchase your own team. It is customary for whoever buys your team to offer you 50% of it for half of his purchase price. Again, no obligation for you guys to take it however.

Not that it should matter, but people will talk about you guys behind your back for not taking any part of your team. Screw em.

In my member guest this year I told my partner we didn't have to buy part of our team if he didn't want to. But he was gung ho. Our team sold for $1500, we bought half so it was $375 each. Then he wasn't comfortable with it at all and proceeded to crap his pants for the first 27 holes. It was silly because he does pretty well and losing $375 doesn't hurt him at all.

So I've been invited by a guy who comes into my place of business all the time, to play with him at his country club. I am strictly a muni guy so not sure of the etiquette, this place is pretty exclusive.

Should I be prepared to give him money for the round? What about tips for staff who work there (not sure if there will be caddies or not).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9o2CCOgzEw

If you're interested the Long Drive world Champs, Think Bryson is off at Noon not sure what the time zone is though.

Edit: Pacific time

I always offer money in that instance, although he may refuse to take it. Give the person taking your bag to the cart a couple bucks. If there are caddies then I would offer to pay for them if he refused to have you pay for the round.

he comes to your place of business......any way you can expense it and have work cover it if you have to pay? If he's a vendor and your business is a customer of his I'd imagine he'll pay and expense it.

A few years back my dad and I played in a Memorial Day event with a Calcutta. My dad hadn't been playing at all and had a couple of major surgeries since he last played, and I was just ho-humming it. We walked into the bar and someone had paid $1,800 for us, lol. Clearly their memory of our play was me on high school golf team, and my dad 15 years ago when he was a scratch.

This is pretty much the optimal etiquette. Offer to pay for your round/the caddy but don't push it if he wants to cover it.

And if you check the club website most clubs have a guest FAQ or guest policy page now and you can see if it's a no-tipping club (all employees except caddies in most cases) or anything else to know.

Check the cell phone policy and make sure you're silenced or off when you get out of the car. Only other one's I've encountered are no hats in the clubhouse and a few clubs where they don't want you changing your shoes in the parking lot.

I played with my boss at his brother-in-law's course (Bluejack National) and we all gave him $150. He said that was the first time a guest of his had ever offered to pay, lol.

I always offer in these situations, and rarely if ever get taken up on it. So you buy lunch, or dinner or drinks or tip the caddie.

Think this is last 8 2 go through in the long drive pretty insane to see a tie the 2 346's had a playoff.

bit of a random question and I'm going to assume everybody is going to be different due to different variables,

But what's the max distance you would travel to make a golf course your home golf course (Become a member)?

Considering a few for next year as mine is pretty easy and the conditions/maintenance of the course is getting worse by the year. I have a few immediately next to me, However they are super expensive and have big waiting list's so not a option.

i may be an odd duck but if my partner was on board and i could count on consistent sub 4 hour rounds i'm gonna say 60 minutes away.

edit: my current home course is 45 minutes away and i don't mind. what's another 15 minutes?

I have belonged to two clubs that were 45-minute commutes each way. I joined the first one without knowing anyone there. Lucked into meeting a couple of guys who lived near me who played every Sat & Sun morning and needed a regular fourth. We usually carpooled which made it a breeze.

Years later in another state I re-joined a club I had belonged to several years before when I lived nearby. I knew a bunch of the members, and it didn't hurt that there were regular poker and/or gin games after dark 2-3 times per week. The drive did not seem like a burden at all as it was mostly interstate highway that I was traveling at slack times.

In between those I belonged to a club (in a third state) where I lived on the course. I got a lot more sleep when I lived there despite the late night gin games.

I'm not sure that I would want to drive two hours a day (total) regularly, but 1.5 hours was easily doable for me at two different locations. I seldom had a week that I didn't play at least two days even with the 45-minute drive.

I also once briefly belonged to a club with about the same commute. It turned out that I really just didn't enjoy the club that much, so I quit to re-join the club referenced above even though the course itself wasn't quite as good. If you enjoy the course and the people, anything less than an hour is probably reasonable.

Definitely depends on your use plans. When I lived elsewhere, my work schedule meant that I was only playing on weekends. In that scenario I didn't really mind driving up to 60 minutes to play 18.

Now, I have a little more flexibility and like to play nine once or twice a week in addition to weekends. In theory I could go out and practice too, so I'd want to live within 15-20 minutes if at all possible -- either from home or from work.

yeah, i think it all depends on usage and free time in your schedule. there was a point in time i was willing to drive 40 minutes each way to hit balls at a particular range because they had grass and a decent short game area when there were two other ranges within 20 minutes from where i lived with mats.

I would say 30 minutes. I would be willing to stretch that out if it was an easy drive. Right now the commute is 2 minutes to the pro shop so I am spoiled.

Thanks for the answers guys much appreciated!

Like everyone's said, it's pretty fact dependent. Longest I've been is 35 minutes, and that was difficult for me. Just felt like even more of the day was eaten up. My home course is a nice course with a good reputation, but also affordable, and we have several members who live an hour or more away (and many, MANY others who have second homes nearby). My usual weekend group has two guys there every Saturday and Sunday who carpool and drive 50 minutes.

This is probably a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway: I have always used a blade putter (alternating between a Scotty and the PING Anser), and when greens are on the fast side, I putt very well. However, I have a hard time adjusting to slow greens, and even after adjustment time, have trouble with the blade. In my mind a mallet putter would work better on slower greens since I lean towards a shorter stroke when putting, and the extra oomf of a mallet would let me keep that shorter stroke and leave less room for error/misjudging.

So the short question: does it make sense to have two putters, one for summer/fast greens, and a mallet for winter/slow greens? Anyone do this?