Rick,
The genesis for that idea came from a piece Michael M. Thomas wrote a few years back in Golf Digest entitled "How to Save Your Club." It is the best article I have ever read in a golf magazine and it would be a perfect "In My Opinion Piece" for this website.
The gist of it was that the employees could band together and vote out a member every year. A wonderful thought for P-Hills - but our Club Secretary will deal harshly with members who consistently abuse the employees.
There is a woman I played with last year at one of the nations most prestigious clubs. The day before my friend (also a poster but I don't want to give anything away) and I play unaccompanied with a terrific caddy.
We mentioned that through a scheduling quirk, we were going to play the next day with a member and would he caddy for us? He said he would love to (we are good tippers besides) and asked who we were playing with.
I gave him the name (somebody I had never met) of the member and he told us he was sorry, but as much as he liked us, he was not going "put up with that f*cking bitch for eighteen holes."
We thought that was a bit strange, but chalked it up to a bad incident from the past or a misunderstanding.
Well, the next day, this looney woman shows up, rustles up some caddies and off we went.
No sooner were we in the fairway on the first hole and she is SCREAMING and BERATING this one caddy because he could not find one of the balls in the weeds.
And she kept it up, nearly putting this poor boy (maybe 15 or 16 years old) in tears. Finally, after the 7th hole, I took her aside and sort of gently told her that because I was a young caddy once that "maybe we can switch and I'll teach him a few things."
It was just to get this poor kid away from this crazy woman and give her a way to save face. This kid tried soooooo hard and was literally shell-shocked.
"Absolutely not," she snapped, "you are my guest and as a member it is my responsibility to teach this caddy the right way to do his job."
She never let up for 18 holes on this boy and I found out later that none of the more experienced caddies would even pack if she was in the group.
So, this kid gets thrown to the wolf because nobody else will do it and from what I understand, this kind of behavior is nothing unusual for her. . . . nobody has ever had the guts to straighten her out.
She has been a member her entire life (trust fund baby) and evidently has been abusing caddies for years and years.
The funny thing is that she treated us so well and could not have been more gracious. . . . . but if I was that kid, I would have shoved those clubs right in her bottom and walked off the course after the first hole.
The point is, she would have been voted out years ago and the club would be far better off.
I am actually frightened of what may happen if she came to Olympic.
P.S. At one point, I thought of the "How to Save Your Club" piece (expressing my admiration for his work) when we were playing and asked her if she knew the author - he is quite prominent in their neck of the woods.
It turns out she knows him well and absolutely hates his guts -something about him being "nasty to people." It makes me want to meet him all the more.