1000 Greens

[John Kavanaugh]

I have a prepaid cart at most every club where I am a member. How much should my guests pay me to host them?

[John Kavanaugh]

“Getting your caddie paid for sounds like quid pro quo mischief to me.”

John you do talk some guff at times. If someone you know loosely or haven’t met before is kind enough to host you it shouldn’t cost them
$100 for the pleasure. As a guest you cannot buy them lunch or a thank you drink so settling their caddie bill is next expected but is the right thing to do.

I also drive an EV to the course. Should I bring along a copy of my electric bill from home?

[Greg Gilson]

Some of the posts here are quite silly.


It is a simple concept. TG introduces like-minded golfers & provides an opportunity for members to host other members at their club at their discretion. there are some guidelines around the process , including "tiers" of membership based on a pretty simple assessment of each club's "quality". Also around cost...but the principle is that the guest pays his/her green fee and associated expenses. A grateful guest may go further & pay host caddie/cart fees but thats not written in stone.


From my personal experience (as both guest & host) it has worked seamlessly & with both sides of the arrangement enjoying their day. I do know there is a potential for bad eggs to take advantage of the process but i believe that's a miniscule% of the membership. The system is good & its not as hard as some of the above posts make it out to be.

[Sean_A]

It's basically club reciprocals but instead of paying the unaccompanied fee that's set up through the pro, it's through members. At least that's the way I understand it

This is not my experience. 1000 Geens is a system for golfers to play courses with members as a guest. It's give and take.

Ciao

Reciprocals among clubs are also give & take, but instead of you owing the member one at your course if he's in the area, your club owes the club you played one if members ever come into the area

Ok, but 1000 Geens doesn't work like that. It's basically a facility to connect private club golfers with each other. It is down to the golfers to arrange the games. It has nothing to do with the clubs per se.

Ciao

[Duncan Cheslett]

It's basically a facility to connect private club golfers with each other. It is down to the golfers to arrange the games. It has nothing to do with the clubs per se.

Unless the host member is running a nice trade in selling his unlimited complimentary guest rounds on 1000 Greens at £150 a time.  It happens - the club would doubtless think it had something to do with them if they found out about it.


Other than obvious abuses like that which threaten the whole model it seems like a good concept. I've joined on the strength of my membership at highly ranked Silloth and it opens up some great possibilities. I'm not sure how many requests I'm going to get though, when the unaccompanied green fee is only £65 (£75 at weekends) against £25 if you play with me - plus a ride from and to Carlisle railway station! 

[Sean_A]

It's basically a facility to connect private club golfers with each other. It is down to the golfers to arrange the games. It has nothing to do with the clubs per se.

Unless the host member is running a nice trade in selling his unlimited complimentary guest rounds on 1000 Greens at £150 a time.  It happens - the club would doubtless think it had something to do with them if they found out about it.


Other than obvious abuses like that which threaten the whole model it seems like a good concept. I've joined on the strength of my membership at highly ranked Silloth and it opens up some great possibilities. I'm not sure how many requests I'm going to get though, when the unaccompanied green fee is only £65 (£75 at weekends) against £25 if you play with me - plus a ride from and to Carlisle railway station! 

Sure, there can be abuse, but that is not what 1000 Greens is about. It really is a simple concept that folks should readily understand.

Ciao

[Mark Pearce]

I had an astonishingly intemperate e-mail exchange with the bloke who runs it.  Frankly I have no desire to be a member of a club run by someone so rude.

[Rob Marshall]

I had an astonishingly intemperate e-mail exchange with the bloke who runs it.  Frankly I have no desire to be a member of a club run by someone so rude.

You're going to leave us with that cliff hanger?

[Tommy Williamsen]

As a member of a top world 100 I am in the top tier so my requests get answered quickly. For others in lower tiers their requests don’t go to a higher tier unless the would be host allows for it. It isn’t a bad system. A club never knows that someone is coming from 1000 Greens. He just shows up like any guest.

[PCCraig]

I know a couple guys who are on there. I think they've met some nice people and have some nice offers from them to reciprocate at their club wherever that might be.


Seems pretty harmless. If anything it cuts out the home club pro having to call another pro for reciprocal privilege's?

[Stephen Davis]

I had an astonishingly intemperate e-mail exchange with the bloke who runs it.  Frankly I have no desire to be a member of a club run by someone so rude.

I feel a need to jump in here. I have no idea what your email exchange was, but I have had the great pleasure of speaking to and meeting the "bloke who runs it" several times, and I can unequivocally tell you that he is as kind and thoughtful a person as I have ever met. Think what you'd like about TG, which I think is really neat and have only had great interactions with the people on there, but there can be no doubt as to this man's character.

[Mark Pearce]

I had an astonishingly intemperate e-mail exchange with the bloke who runs it.  Frankly I have no desire to be a member of a club run by someone so rude.

I feel a need to jump in here. I have no idea what your email exchange was, but I have had the great pleasure of speaking to and meeting the "bloke who runs it" several times, and I can unequivocally tell you that he is as kind and thoughtful a person as I have ever met. Think what you'd like about TG, which I think is really neat and have only had great interactions with the people on there, but there can be no doubt as to this man's character.

He must have been having a really bad day, then.  But I was taken aback by his rudeness.  Astonished, in fact, because there seemed so little reason for it. 

[John Kavanaugh]

He can't be too bad a dude providing a service so many people love for free.


Which brings me a question that I have been thinking about lately. Would you join a club that didn't allow guests?

[Rob Marshall]

https://golf.com/news/thousand-greens-gains-access-exclusive-courses/

[John Kavanaugh]

http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2019Open/2019/04/27/the-impacts-of-tinder-and-bumble-on-dating-and-relationships/

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

Like most of the comments on here from people that have actually used the service I have nothing but positive things to say about it.  I poo-pooed the concept at first being a rugged individualist and thinking I have a pretty decent network of friends and contacts throughout the golf world (many of which I got right here on GCA over the years).
However after hearing from several friends that have been members I gave it a try and I’m happy to say that personally I have been able to use the service probably three times over the three years I’ve been a member accessing 3 places I wanted to play but could not easily put together using my existing that work. All of the members I played with have been exceedingly pleasant and Were very gracious hosts.   
I have probably hosted three people in that same timeframe and also had another request that did not work out with my schedule.  All of them were very gracious, dressed and acted properly and are people I would not hesitate to host again. 
The important thing to keep in mind is that you as a member have the right to except or deny any requests made to you.   Like everything the bad apples might cause problems but overall it’s a great thing for mostly good people to meet and play golf. 

[Jeff Schley]

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.

[mike_malone]

Several out of town golf geeks have had a chance to play Rolling Green with Mayday. What could be wrong with that?


 I was able to play my old home club,Burlington CC, in Vermont and Kilspindie in Scotland with someone using hickories. That ain’t all bad.

[Paul Jones]

I have used Thousand Greens a few times to be hosted and to host others.  It is great for someone that travels a lot for work and can meet up with a local member.  I have played so many courses where you think you hit a great shot and only come to find out you are OB, Hazard, etc...


It is not perfect, but you get so much for price of zero dollars - I say zero dollars, meaning it cost zero dollars to use the service.

[Garland Bayley]

Several out of town golf geeks have had a chance to play Rolling Green with Mayday. What could be wrong with that?
...

Always looking for someone to help find balls for you?

[mike_malone]

Several out of town golf geeks have had a chance to play Rolling Green with Mayday. What could be wrong with that?
...

Always looking for someone to help find balls for you?

Always

[John Kavanaugh]

Nothing but good has come from the practice of finding a game with fellow members at private clubs where I have been a member. Once 1000 Greens has 100,000 members tee times will be filled with token collectors instead of the very people who have made this most difficult year tolerable.


I'm extremely bothered by the very founder of 1000 Greens comparing this system to Tinder. It also failed as it became more popular.

[Tim Martin]

Anyone know the methodology as to how each club is assigned a “tier”? It seems that any proprietary information is shielded until you actually join.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Anyone know the methodology as to how each club is assigned a “tier”? It seems that any proprietary information is shielded until you actually join.

It is based on the rankings found on Top100courses website: http://www.top100golfcourses.co.uk/index.asp


The top tier is top 100 in the world. The second tier is top 100 in the USA. The third tier are any clubs that are named on the site. One belongs to the lowest tier if your club is not named.

[Tim Martin]

Anyone know the methodology as to how each club is assigned a “tier”? It seems that any proprietary information is shielded until you actually join.

It is based on the rankings found on Top100courses website: http://www.top100golfcourses.co.uk/index.asp


The top tier is top 100 in the world. The second tier is top 100 in the USA. The third tier are any clubs that are named on the site. One belongs to the lowest tier if your club is not named.

Thanks Tommy. When I drilled down to the Connecticut list I got all the information I needed. It would be hard to rectify the order of ranked courses and there are a few that shouldn’t be on any list except one slated for demolition. Seeing Gillette Ridge on the list made me vurp.