Great Golf Green Fee Deals

Looking back on a few old twits and blog posts recently I came across a Twitter Poll I had tweeted about how golfers conclude their round once the final putt has dropped.On the tour players usually remove their hats (revealing a forehead remarkably lighter in colour than the rest of their face) and shake hands and I wondered if casual players did the same.The results were interesting;

• 61% Removed their hat and shook hands
• 35% Shook hands only
• 1%   Removed their hat only
• 4%   Did neither

For my own part I do both, this was something drilled into me as a junior golf as being courteous and sportsmanlike.In fact unless someone has blatantly cheated I cannot imagine not shaking hands with a fellow golfer, to not do so would be a snub. Removing hats is another matter and may well be a generational thing. As an aside I remember as junior being told that it is the responsibility of every golfer to ensure that their playing partners have a pleasant round and I think that is a rather nice sentiment to take out on the golf course. So what do you do when you’ve finished your round? The poll is still available here it’s interesting to see all the votes and comments it would be great if you could add to them too.

I have long wanted to combine my golf posting with a beer theme and as last I have found the perfect excuse. As a golfer how could I resist sampling a beer called Old Hooky? And when it turned out to be particularly flavoursome brew a new series of blog posts is to begin.
The idea is that I will identify a nice ale (or cider!) link it in with the brewers themselves and point golfers to a golf course near to the brewery.
To organise a days golf with a brewery trip and a few sherbets included would be a very civilised carry on indeed.

Old Hooky is just one of the real ales brewed by Hook Norton Brewery, Oxon, they have 47 pubs with a visitor centre and museum that is open to the public.
Hook Norton brew a range of core beers throughout the year and then seasonal ales and commemorative special brews.
Old Hooky is 4.6% ABV, was Gold Medal winner at The International Beer Challenge in 2009 and the brewers themselves describe it as “A beautifully beautifully balanced beer, fruity by nature, with a well-rounded body and the suggestive echo of Crystal Malt.”!!

Located only 4 miles from the brewery is Tadmarton Heath Golf Club and with a clubhouse that looks like this it is surely irresistible. *

The course itself sounds a delight too, The Times Guide to Golf Courses of Britain & Ireland describing it in glowing terms, “Tadmarton is for the traditionalist, for whom finesse is of greater importance than power…….plotting a way through holes…….which gives the connoisseur particular satisfaction.”

In the days of bomb & gouge this sounds an idyllic throwback to golfing days of old.
Donald Steel the renowned golf architect and writer has provided an evocative introduction to the course and if that doesn’t invoke a desire to look up Tadmarton Heath then you have no golfing soul

* I hope Tadmarton Heath GC does not object to my use of the photo of it’s clubhouse but if so I’ll happily remove it from the post.

Like many golfers I started to play the game on a municipal golf course near where I live and I have posted here before about how pleased I am at my
local authority’s (Leeds City Council) commitment to golf.
In the early 1970’s a round of golf at Gotts Park cost 15p which was incredible value particularly as we used to sneak around the back of the clubhouse and play three rounds in the day!
It is a very short undulating course that suffers from all the usual muni problems and rejoices in the informal name of “Royal Gotts”. Unusually though, for a municipal golf course the greens are good, Leeds CC seem to train their Park Department staff there so the course is quite tidy.
 
Back in the 70’s it was not unusual to find kids playing in bunkers, your ball mysteriously disappearing and on one memorable occasion a family picnicing on the first tee!
Gotts Park in those days had a wonderful pro who seemed to have a deal with Slazenger when it was a top brand to sell their “seconds” clubs and many a bargain was to be found, I once picked up a Seve Ballesteros 1 iron from there that was an absolute beast of a club.
Obviously, the pro sold all the usual stuff including an own label golf ball called a “Gotts Flyer” which whilst cheap wasn’t particularly cheerful because they only flew about half the distance of a normal ball and lumps quite frequently came off them!
Years later I dropped into Gotts and was reminiscing with the pro particularly about the Gotts Flyer and he told me I shouldn’t laugh because one of those had once been recovered from a lake on the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club!

Have you seen our Free customisable (is that a word? guide to all the Major winners and golf courses that have held Majors? Further details here!

As the cold weather continues I’m getting withdrawal symptoms from golf, by this time each year I’m about ready to hit the ground running having practiced hard during the winter. This close season with so much snow and other adverse conditions I haven’t been able to do as much work on my game as I would have liked.

Step forward therefore The Indoor Cafe Bar Leeds, as I mentioned in my last post I discovered this place and was very impressed, particularly with the practice settings on the simulator creating a virtual range. This got me thinking of the pros and cons of indoor practice on the simulator over a traditional driving range.

The most obvious advantage of the simulator is that it is inside and warm, let’s face it ranges are pretty bleak places, particularly on a dark wet Tuesday night in December. But beyond that I think the simulator has a particular advantage in that I always find it tricky to gauge the wind strength and direction from the range bays and if you don’t want to practice in a strong left to right wind then sometimes you might as well go home. On the simulator you can set the wind strength and direction to suit, which is an excellent option.

Range golf balls are notoriously iffy, even if they are in good condition many ranges now use golf balls that only fly a percentage of a “proper” ball. That’s just no use at all for practising distance control and besides the trajectory and flight of range balls is completely different to the ball you would choose to play in the course. On the simulator you can use your own ProV1s or whatever.

With inconsistent range balls it is difficult to gauge any meaningful feedback from a practice session without keeping a regular log and analysing over a period of time but the simulator gives instant feedback on every shot both accurate numerical data regarding distance, spin rates, direction etc but also a visual feedback. This shows a representation of every shot so it is very easy to identify patterns and trends in your shot making.

The range does have the edge on cost, on average the ranges I visit charge typically £3.00 for 50 balls that I usually take about 45 minutes to hit. The simulator, however, charges a practice rate of £10 per half hour.

NB. I cannot guarantee you a game on The Old Course but I can offer you a free round of golf on your birthday. See our free report. 

Simulated golf sounds like a less than satisfactory experience but I went along to the Leeds Cafe Bar Golf recently to test out the latest in indoor golf and was mightily impressed.

A quick whirl around The Old Course gave me enough memories to be able to say during The Open this summer “When I played The Road Hole I kept it out of the bunker and off the road!”

Actually I had used an indoor golf simulator before, abut 7 years ago but the quality of the graphics and accuracy left a lot to be desired. This experience was, however, much more like the real thing and I really enjoyed it. The added bonus was that the weather outside was horrendous, all the local golf courses were closed and the driving range wasn’t an attractive proposition.

In fact, Nick the Pro, showed me how the simulator can be set up on driving range mode so some serious work on your golf game can be undertaken indoors with the machine accurately measuring ball flight, trajectory, spin rates, carry distance etc.

So, for those golfers in urgent need of a fix or if you just want a laugh with your mates Leeds Cafe Bar Golf is an excellent location. City Centre Leeds very near the railway station.

The prices are reasonable (£20 - £30/hour depending when in the week you visit) and with Sky Sports on a big screen, good food and drink available I do recommend having a look particularly in the evening, the bar has a great number of social events organised for individuals and groups.

As a greenfee deal this represents excellent value, particularly for a fourball.

NB. I cannot guarantee you a game on The Old Course but I can offer you a free round of golf on your birthday. See our free report.

I’m really looking forward to the second Major of the year but I’m not looking forward to hearing the inane shouts of “Geddin Da Hole” or “You Da Man” when one of the players actually avoids having a fresh air on the tee.

I just cannot understand why the marshalls put up with it or the rest of the gallery tolerate these idiots.

So, I’m proposing a zero tolerance policy of ejecting the clowns from the Championship as soon as these utterances spout forth.

To be named “Hoik the Oik” let’s hope the policy can be extended to all golf tournaments and the real golf fans can enjoy the action in peace.

Revised 2010

This idea was well received last year so I’m hoping we can continue the good work and reclaim the fairways for the real, appreciative golf fans.
Actually watching the PGA Tour on TV this season I haven’t noticed as many of these half wits as usual so maybe we are fighting back.
Just hope vuvuzelas don’t make an appearance at Pebble Beach!

If you are on twitter please “Tweet This” and RT Hoik the Oik 

Have you seen our Free customisable (is that a word? guide to all the Major winners and golf courses that have held Majors? Further details here!

After my previous post Golf Courses of the Majors and during the recent Masters tournament I asked the question on the microblogging platform Twitter;
Which “Major” golf courses have you played? Me, Royal Lytham & Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) http://RTlinks.com/946d2765
and got a great response with Pebble Beach, Carnoustie and St Andrews being the most popular.
If you twitter you may wish to follow the following enthusiatic golfers;

http://twitter.com/SadlerMatt - Pebble Beach, Olympic, Torrey Pines, Congressional
http://twitter.com/frontofficebox - Birkdale, St. Georges, Troon, Lytham, Carnoustie, Hoylake, Oakmont, Merion, Pebble Beach. (Pine Valley)*
http://twitter.com/golfinthefield - St. Andrews, (Spyglass)*
http://twitter.com/nickfogelson - Pebble Beach, St Andrews, Carnoustie and (Bandon Dunes)*
http://twitter.com/jimbeaver - Torrey Pines
http://twitter.com/rosskie - Carnoustie
http://twitter.com/ClevelandGolf - Colonial CC, Champions GC, Northwood Club, Pecan Valley GC, Dallas Athletic Club, Bethpage Black, Southern Hills, Cedar Crest Park & Pebble Beach
http://twitter.com/WalkerSports - Congressional
http://twitter.com/progolferdigest - Pebble Beach
http://twitter.com/readygolfer - Pinehurst, Torrey Pines
http://twitter.com/BreakParGolf - St Andrews and Carnoustie

In true golfer style we even got a claim for The Players Championship to be counted as the fifth Major! Nice one Sergio I mean @mchamberlin

http://twitter.com/mchamberlin - “Does TPC at Sawgrass count? They sometimes call it the fifth major, right?”

and I wonder if @davechen has qualified for the US Open this year?

http://twitter.com/davechen - “haven’t played any major course yet, but I should be playing Congressional some time soon.”

My twitter profile is http://twitter.com/greenfee look me up and twit some golf with me, if you haven’t got a clue what I’m talking about this link should help you out.

* I don’t think these courses have held a Major but they may go under a different name. Did you know that 114 different golf courses have held “Majors” for the full list on the free download go here.

It would be great to hear comments, courses played and twitter username below and I’ll be happy to include them.

Undertaking some research I was doing into golf courses that have held golf’s Major championships I was amazed at the number and variety of different courses that have held The United States Open Championship, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship, though, obviously The Masters has only ever been held at Augusta National GC.
As I got more into the research I decided to put together a document with links to all the websites of the different golf courses and links to the players that won there. It is fully searchable by year, winner, course and championship and I’ve had great fun playing around and learning more about the history of our game and the golfers who have a “Major” to their name, many of whom I was unfamiliar with.

The document is available free for you to download just click here or on the cover of the book. I hope you find the data as fascinating as I have.
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* Updated to include Phil Mickelson’s 2010 Masters win.

I was recently alerted to a concept that I haven’t come across before
Free Birthday Golf, courses offering you a free round of golf on your birthday!

Researching this further I found over 320 clubs offering Free Birthday Golf
(all in the US & Canada I’m afraid, UK wake up!!) and I’ve put them together in a report.

Check it out and claim your free rounds. Click here or on the book cover.

The idea requires you to register with the course online and you get a day pass or voucher to be used on or around your birthday or in the case of winter birthdays a more suitable time when the weather is improved.

Now, I appreciate that club will send you follow up emails etc but lets face it we get so much spam and rubbish anyway we might as well get some information about something we are actually interested in for once!

A criticism I have of golf clubs, particularly in the UK, is that in general they are pretty poor and unimaginative in their marketing but this innovative approach creates a win win situation for all concerned. The club gets to showcase it’s course, clubhouse, facilities and atmosphere and the golfer gets to enjoy a memorable free day out and may well come back again in the future. Loss leaders have been used successfully by business for many years to tempt customers into trying their products for many years and I’m sure golf clubs would make up any reduction in revenue very quickly as word got round.

As all golf clubs are facing a very difficult and uncertain financial future it’s great to see something different being tried.

These must represent the ultimate great golf green fee deal!

I’m afraid This post has been coming for some time but when the article
“As PGA season opens, Tiger is the elephant in room” appeared in my Google Reader it was The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back to continue the animal theme.
I thought that phrase meant that everyone in the room knew that the elephant was there but avoided talking about it but in Tiger’s case no-one bloody shuts up talking, writing or broadcasting about him even when he’s not around, with endless articles speculating about what he would or wouldn’t have done last season and what he’ll do this season when he comes back etc etc ad nauseum.

Don’t get me wrong I love watching Tiger Woods play golf but heretical as this may seem only when he’s in contention and when he’s actually playing. Unbelievably during the weather interrupted 2008 PGA Championship SKY TV in the UK showed a re-run of Tiger and Rocco Mediate in the US Open. Even when Tiger isn’t in the tournament the media find a way of squeezing him in somewhere!
Similarly, we had endless speculation as to whether the US Ryder Cup team would miss him. When the team played magnificently and won the cup we even had analysis into whether Tiger would have enhanced the victory.

I accept Tiger Woods is a magnificent golfer and if he ever wins 19 majors I’ll concede he’s the best ever but in the meantime I wish the media would give a more balanced coverage to the game and remember golf has been played for centuries and will continue to be played long after the Tiger Woods era.

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