It is easy to demonize something in general by pointing to an outlier event and convince the masses that it is prevalent, thus sound the alarms. I have used TG a few times and think it is a great innovation. Pros connecting members another private club via phone/email has been done forever, this cuts out the middle man and I see at least 2 benefits immediately.
1. You meet a member, who agreed to accept your request, of the club when they host you (unaccompanied can happen but discouraged). So you have golfing serendipity at work.
2. The cost is at a reduced guest fee, not an unaccompanied rate.
Yes the risk is you are hosting a jerk, or whatever. It has happened and Manish has purged a couple guys, as when you are dealing with 7,000 plus members of course some outlier events will happen. But the benefits for the masses far outweigh the outlier events. You don’t have to tap your pro for a favor, save his time and whatever grease you would have provided redirect to your TG member host.
The US private club model is an unique model in the world of golf globally for the most part anyway. Don’t we read ad nauseum on here about many lamenting the affluent US clubs as bastions for the HAVES, whereas we praise the UK model for its openness of hosting visitors. The TG is way to link like tiered private club members to each other, it isnt’ even the UK visitor model as you have to be a member at a private club to even be on the platform.
I like the platform and would have hosted 3 guys if not for the pandemic at one of my clubs. The one I was going to play I can pick up this year and glad TG is an option.