Winter League Feedback sent to H & C (Graham Prichard)

Questions

1. Why did you not enter the Winter League last year?
2. Do you have any specific criticisms of the competition? Cost, duration, format
3. Do you have any suggestions on how it could be improved that will encourage you to enter?
4. Do you have any alternative suggestions to the Winter League?

Notes Captured from Dawn Patrol and others

• Payment of £10 upfront and then £5 / pair on the day is thought to be excessive especially if you are out of the running early
• Confusion in the initial communication that there was going to be one prize split between the two leagues. i.e. there was going to be one monthly winner. See green below in the Background to the Winter League after the Events for your Diary
• Players not willing to commit to the whole duration of the competition. There is a good chance that the weather or their availability could disrupt one or more games. Question was the scoring based on playing 5 out of the 6 competitions?
• There could be some competition days where weather changes over the day prevent play in the morning due to frost or fog. Then late morning the course re-opens
• If you don’t get off to a good start and pick-up points you lose interest. It soon became obvious that there were a couple of players who would and did walk away with the overall competition
• Double points for the last competition again amplified those at the top of the leaderboard
• Overall leauge format favours low handicappers
• Some formats are disliked e.g. Multiplier
• Handicap restriction affected the mid-week players. Question was there a handicap restriction?

General

• On one occasion a match had to be abandoned after 8 holes due to adverse weather. A waste of the entry fee
• Andy Platt commented on the lack of mixed pair entries. Possibly wont enter the next one
• The Seniors already have the weekly Cliff Rogers Trophy on a Monday and a Seniors Winter Knockout. Some players felt to commit to another League was too much

Suggestions

• Apparently, the competition was introduced when it was not possible to put in qualifiers during the winter. Now the course has a winter tee rating, has the Winter League become superfluous?
• Should the 6 competitions just be ‘standalone’ competitions instead of the Winter League. If the weather is bad, they don’t run. Different pairs could enter dependent on their availability