One thing that happens the last half of the summer and into the fall is the Girls Golf Programs. This is fun, especially if the team has a good coach. A good coach does not mean win at all costs, a good coach is one that encourages the girls to ENJOY GOLF ! We have a team that the girls golf coach is an infrequent player but she has the most girls playing of any of the teams we have seen— because she encourages them to have fun!
The two things that are a little bit of a downer for me are: it takes time for the new girls to understand that a round of golf should not take all evening. That is getting better. The other thing that is often a less than fun experience are parents. We have rules that have been tweaked over the 45 years to best fit our operation and our players. Some outside influences do dictate things we do. The one thing that parents do not understand, (they think we are just being mean) is that we do not allow spectator carts and do not allow personal coolers on the course. The first, (spectator carts) is really a no brainer on a hilly course like ours, believe me over the years we have seen it all and don’t want to see a lot of it again. Most golf course accidents are from golf carts, too many riders, drivers turning too sharply causing a rider to fall out, driving in a place that is unsafe such as down a fair way Green to Tee coming up over a hill where the golfer cannot see the spectators. A golfer hits one down the pipe only to find out there is someone in the middle of their fairway going the wrong way over a hill into the driver’s chosen path!
As far as the coolers, the alcoholic beverage commission has been telling golf courses that if a golf course allows private coolers on the golf course then they are breaking the law because the golf course is allowing golfers to bring alcohol onto the course and if the course is a licensed facility then that is a big NO NO. So this makes us have a standing policy that no personal coolers are allowed because we do not want trouble with the Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The parents do not understand that we cannot tell one person they can have a cooler and tell the next person they cannot. Tonight I had a parent put a cooler on the coach’s cart and was mad that I asked him to remove the cooler. The coach seemed oblivious to it and did nto say anything. The parent wanted to tell me how bad I was for our rule and mentioned that he did not have beer in the cooler. I said ” you mean you are not taking beer out for the girls?” Guess I should not have said that but — REALLY. Did he think I though he was taking beer?
True it has been a long summer but sometimes one has to vent!