All,
Boy in reading all the posts in this thread and some of the tangent topics they encountered, I want to start my own website, no less an entire new thread to encapsulate some of my thoughts.
First, to answer the thread's question:
1. National - the halfway house way out by the Shinnecock end of the course. That screen door shack looks like a zephyr could blow it down but when you walk inside, it is akin to walking in the Fort Knox of Booze. The big barrel of cheese with a common knife and humble sleeves of Ritz and Saltines just crumbling all over the cheap tables is some experience. I have known men to end there special day there well after the rain that caused them to seek its shelter was over. If they paid anything approaching a living wage that old fellow's service post is one I could endure the rest of my days.
2. Any course that has a communication system with the clubhouse on the 7th or 16th tees to have a food order waiting in the next turn or otherwise convenient spot. God can this ever save time for players and service staff, keep the rounds' flow, and increase satisfaction on the part of the players.
3. Ice towels in the summer are becoming commonplace here in the Westchester Fairfield belt. But it was a sensible and good idea
4. In-house barber shops are unfortunately going the way of the Dodo bird, but that was a wonderful, unique service as well.
OK, now for the "chastisement" for a certain quality of certain comments...
Sorta long Preface: I have worked in, around or for private golf clubs for 31 of my 43 years. I have been a Caddie, a Caddiemaster, President of the Metropolitan Caddiemasters' Association, a waiter, a locker man, a bus boy, a lifeguard and a pro shop counter man. My grandmother was a Ladies' Locker Room attendant, my father a moonlighting caddie in two different eras of his life.
I also have had the good fortune to have experienced a great deal of Club and Golf life from the member's side of the fence too, not only as an invited or off-hours guest but with several friends who are reaching affluence enough to join clubs of all stripe and with trial membership of my own which they agreed to underwrite.
I also have had profound relationships with the high-income staff (managers, pros, supers, maitre' ds, chefs and all their administrative underlings). I know both the aesthetics of what different members, and memberships want, say they want, actually vote for and the costs therein. This is all to say that I have plenty of bona fides to back up these statements that may be uncovered in instances:
A. Once you calculate the gross expense of joining and remaining at a particular club with a particular idea of its utility with whatever research or opportunity is at hand AND YOU CANNOT TAKE THAT MONEY AND THROW IT INTO THE FIREPLACE WITHOUT SHEDDING EVEN ONE ANXIOUS TEAR, YOU SHOULD NOT BE THERE.
A1. The first and most important reason is the rather unremarkable truth that membership in a private club is the zenith of personal luxury, about two to three steps removed from a private plane and over time, about on par with a six-figure piece of jewelry. You like a muffin buffet and a free flowing Niagra of coffee? You like the ice towels? You like the amenities? You must pay a luxurious price to keep that going because other human beings are providing it and gas, tolls, food, oil, internet and basic open marketplace services cost the same for that human as you. And hopefully they stand a chance to do it better, with closer attention to your particular habits/expectation of comfort and conduct, not like a check-out counter. This is not a value play, like a good deal on an automobile or living in a rent-controlled apartment. If this went away the world would hardly budge.
A2. I was heartened to hear the preponderance of posters mention that the Caddie's particular labor be exempt from the general "no-tipping," "what I prefer" sentiments. The flat rate is there to protect the independent contractor Caddie from wage abuse and for his player-master as knowledge of what having the bags merely go round on someone's shoulder is worth, as if he was a walking cart -which he is. That is the most basic function. Behind that is the idea that the Caddie does this with no guarantee of weather, play volume and opportunity everyday. He does this without health coverage, without being able to use the income to secure credit, and in most areas, only an 8 month season at best to earn. That season, to be utilized, compels the Caddie to miss most summer holidays, many individual opportunities, from Bar B qs to ball games and let's face it, you do 9 loops in 6 days, you are pretty much whipped on the 7th and hope that day is a rain out, even though it could cost you $300. And you fell asleep in the 2nd inning of the ballgame.
B: Other staff and services: Know why country club front line service staffs are mostly populated with immigrants, foreign-exchange students and sometimes, the most hardscrabble, uneducated types of all peoples? BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WILL TAKE IT OR LAST LONG IN IT. They are disposable and they know it, yet it is only in . Who else in life will take your trifling displeasure of the moment and turn it into a yessir? Who else Not 18-25 year old young Americans with little responsibility. Anyone too much older cannot support a life at seasonal wages from 9-15 dollars an hour.
C: The work is defeating, even nihilist, in a tactile way. Yesterday's successes are always forgotten, taken for granted, little remembered with the imperfections of today's fortunes and tomorrows prospects. You have paid "good money" haven't you and you expect better than this, don't you? In such moments, which are numerous and not isolated to my own experience, the hundred fold more hours of your pleasures are somehow non-existent. This is why a country club staff becomes reticent, sometimes anti-social, sometimes surly or dismissive. If you think innovatively or with a real service aesthetic and take staff, administrative or individual initiative to do something progressive for the members, it is quickly institutionalized and treated as "de rigeur." Try putting out ice towels or a muffin buffet and then withdraw it, forget to do it or present the increased bill that comes with it and complaints will always rain down. That's a defeating thing to face when the economic terms are meager to begin with. This even extends to big money CC Managers, PGA and GCSA professionals who don't want to introduce a new item on the menu, or give a free weekly clinic or get the course ready one day earlier in the spring than they must because they your security will be threatened with yet another thing you now DO and might not be able to offer on the governor's budget. One year my superintendent got the course ready in late March, it was beautiful weather and he took advantage of the weather to make a superb presentation and near-mid-season conditions at a date when most members were not even back from FLA. First six questions he was asked was "Where are the ball-washers, benches and 2nd tee scorecard box?" The next six were, "Why is that spot on the 6th green so bald, did we have winter disease, why? Then someone complimented him, the following weekend.
D. Unless your club is ultra-remote, does less than 10,000 rounds a year and/or has less than 100 members (200 bags in its bag-room) then to have a NO TEE TIMES POLICY IS SHEER LUNACY. I have worked with every single type of tee structure available with memberships large small and medium. You have one resource - the course of 18 holes - and after 72 players go out - off both tees - there is theoretically, a group on every hole. There isn't in reality but there's often more than 72 players that go out in medium or bigger clubs. Remember if you choose the devil of using one tee, than the hour has to start earlier (often not feasible with local noise ordinances, frost, weather) but if you use both tees at premium weekend time to have more people go off at a preferable 7:30-9:00 hour, there can be no wasted time, no starter's time, no changing caddies, or carts or contingency time and we end up hustling you along and yelling at you to get on the tee NOW because if we don't you're going to get out - fine - but the guy after you and after him may get fucked by the later and later hour -the decay - this causes. This is with tee times, without them the yelling becomes indifference and we just let you work it out and wait to hear the chain of phone calls from member to golf chair to manager and pro to the desk of the guy who oversees the thing. How can your caddies be selected or requested in advance without a tee time; how can contingencies be adapted without a tee time, how can you see your family or parents or go to work before or after the round without knowledge of when it is - almost precisely - who the hell is playing...WITH a TEE TIME. If you have a tournament, you post it on a board weeks in advance so everyone not participating knows when they cannot play. If you have construction or aeration you post it on the board weeks ahead of time so people will know to expect the level of inconvenience. Most clubs have a Ladies Morning exclusively on tuesdays or Wednesdays - evryone knows exactly what the terms are on those days for course usage. What is the loss of elan, convenience, or whatever to register your preference and your game ahead of time measured against all the benefits of having them. You can have NO TEE TIMES and YOU STILL CAN"T WALK UP AND PLAY. What happens when three other groups have the same idea and the four before them had inchoate, genral walk-up ideas. You all cannot go out at 8:15 and if you have no structure then it may be 8:45 til you do go out. a half hour doesn't seem like much typed here on the page but god almighty on a Fri-Sun morning it is like James Bond and a nuclear ticking bomb for the people given to service it.
Wow, huh?
But still a final note for this voluminous but still incomplete coverage.
- It's a luxury, tip your staff. When you bring the cart and/or clubs back at dark for that post-6:00pm jaunt, hit the 19 year-old jackass or 40 year-old loser or 60 year old curmudgeon with a sawbuck or more, that person whose waited for you to be last, so you can enjoy the quiet and gloaming of sunset on the 16th and work out your frustrations. Luxury does not stop at the water's edge of your dues, fees and billed expenses; this is a luxury inside a luxury and without the grease...$8 - 12 to wait on four people is just not worth an hour of sweet life - it doesn't buy shit out in the real world - and the prospect of more of the same when the bell rings in 9 hours from that moment is awful.
- A tip should NEVER be given for services yet to be given but services already performed. And the staff member who accepts it without making that clear is foolish to do it, because it is a likely corruption of future efforts. This is also yet one more argument for the just relationship involved in a Caddie's tip - which is always given after the service has been rendered.
- If you want your pro to be willing to get out from behind the counter and be a genial glad-hand as well, then alleviate his anxiety and support his shop, don't buy clubs from discount places an the internet without supporting him too. He doesn't like having a $198.00 cost driver with a limited seasonal shelf life in his inventory just as much as you don't like paying $369.00 retail for it, but it is required he have it at hand for you. Don't demo clubs over and over again, take them with you on weekends off campus, whether you end up buying it or not...in either case you could be preventing a sale to another customer and he works in a closed market. Ask for his insight privately in his office, take a needless lesson. If you have a mini-outing and want a few prizes and baubles for your gang, give him a generous budget and tell him you just want a good day for all. This is not to say that my experiences of many PGA professionals has been entirely pleasant. But i'ts a chicken or the egg thing: is it the realization that personal treasury IS the only thing to get when your performing a service that is socially unnecessary that makes them cynical and reticent? Or are you cynical and reticent because you're evaluating his behavior on how much economic value it holds for you? You should have asked your sponsoring member what the yearly nut to walk around the place without a green eye shade on, as much as the initiation discount and yearly dues.
All I should have said is that working in Private Club Service is a tough, tough job, the closer to the golf the tougher it gets and it builds character. Show me a person who has worked for 15, 20, 25 years in one club and I'll show you a person you ca nset your watch too.
I ask that those who CAN burn the money as luxury and do encounter all manner of superb, unique private club services and the people who provide them to consider these things as they innovate or try to improve their experience of their clubs. Car washes, fresh apples, ice towels, bag tags, yardage books, all novelties great and small come at a cost of labor and resources and the half of you that prefer them are in direct contradiction to the half of you that would prefer to be left alone and keep costs down.
It may well sound like I'm on some proletariat jag, some "class warfare" bit of invective - far from it. I am grateful, yes gratefu,l I have had exactly the life I've had, the relationships and extraneous rewards of this life have been manifold. From event tickets to hosting the President to lifelong friends and at one time, a livable income, to hot water heaters and service contacts for my own life, I have been a happy barnacle on the ship of the Private Club affluent. Ive had more lobster dinners and wine on the tip of Goldman Sachs and CBS Television than some of their clients. And i'm full well aware that I could neither do their high-income jobs nor enjoy these things and monetary rewards without their generosity. With that in mind, it literally depresses me to think that if some had their way and this exchange were sanctioned and scrutinized, such graces would have never occurred. And that I would rarely know the difference in practical effect of a job done and a job well done.
kinda sorry for the length but if it helps; it took you 5 minutes to read it but 5 hours for me to write it.
cheers
vk
who provide them