Golf forum

Would welcome your thoughts based on Paul Williams original post /hijack , relevant copy copied below :

Paul Williams >>>
what about each of the regions having an open/masters e.t.c. then the top four/five qualifiers from each region go on to play in the golfshake masters. just an idea, but the more i think about it, the more fun it sounds! thoughts please.

Wayne Santorini >>>
I've passed that idea around for over a year Paul.

The idea being that each regions participant pays extra to cover the cost of the "Finalist's" having the final for free, with sponsorship for prizes and reduced green fee's from the many sponsors the site has.

Depending on how many regions/areas we have depends on how many could qualify, top 3 or 4 for example. 

Could even have three sections like 0-9, 10-18 & 19+ qualifiers

Final could be held in the midlands area as a central point possibly Belfry/Forest of Arden.

There are enough volunteer members around the country to help organise & run this on a yearly basis, with the final being run by Golfshake.

Paul Williams >>>
with regards to paying for the final, if i were lucky enough to qualify for it, i'd be more than happy to pay for my green fee for the day,( after all, it would still be like the format of the other golfshake events!)

i like the sections idea! gives everybody a chance!

with the right planning this could be set up to start from april 2009, with the final to be played either june/july. as you said wayne, to be a yearly event! i have sent a pm to luke tricker to get his thoughts on the matter. do you think that if we harp on about it enough golfshake will make our dreams a reality? this definatley could be the ultimate golf event or us amatuers to aspire too! we need more people to respond to this thread.

Golfshake >>
Hi Paul.  This has been discussed many times, on the forums, at other events, over the phone and within the golfshake offices. Thanks for bringing it up again and do keep the momentum going and get others interested

The only reason we haven't done anything to date is agreeing the format.  

I too will now give this further thought, watch this forum and think about how we can getting this going for April 2009. Although April is usually the date for the North vs South annual event, so it may be May - Sep or something.

Wayne is also right and one of the keys to success is get the members involved. This hopefully helps to increase the area that the events take place.

Paul Williams >>
other than the international region, there are nine regions! if we could get one person from each region to act as the chairperson for that region, then sound out everyone in there own region. then with the help of golfshake each region organize there own qualifiers within a two month date between april/may 2009.  each qualifing round having the three handicap sections (ideally there would need to be around 30 players in each qualifing round) with the top two/three from each section then going forward to the final.

thats when we would need golfshake's help and formally make it there event. if anyone has any other idea's please feel free to add to this!

I'm very passionate about this idea Paul and would be more than be happy to run a section, pm me and I'll give you my mob number in fact why don't Golfshake ask for people who would be interested in covering their respective area/county/region?? then we could all get together with Golfshake and organise format and process.

Over to you Darren/Luke

sound's good wayne! i have no experience in putting an event together, but i,m more than happy to give it a go, perhap's each region could have a "vice- captain/chair person" to help out?

hold on "vice captain"  idea for another event - each region to play a ryder cup style tournament on a knock out format! i know let's just stick to the original idea first. sounds good tho!

once every region as a "captain/chair". we post event possibilities via the regional msg board giving a confirmation date for each player to commit to, poss end of january 09. each region selects three venues to poll there members for choice of qualifing.

chairperson's then get quotes for cost's of venue/what deal's we can get. etc

i think it would be a good idea if everyone entering received a small medal/momento for entry, cost put onto cost for qualifier. or even a golfshake certificate, something along those lines.

I think we have our Ryder Cup with the North v South. 

I think that this is a great idea and that we should do it.  How about a mini-league with divisions based on handicap as per Wayne's suggestion above.  We could hold say four events wth the best three scores for each person counting similar to the virtual leader board (that way it doesn't matter if you miss or have a mare on one).  Then an agreed number from each division from each area comes together for a play-off as a team and invidiual event.  How would we put the leagues together though? Here's my format sugesstion. 

Leagues - South, Midlands, North, Scotland 

Divisions - Expert 0-9 handicap, Improvers 10-19, Hackers 20+

Top four based on best three stableford scores from each division and each league go to the team play-off to play for the regional trophy at a venue in the territory of the current trophy holders (Darren can pick where we hold the first one).  Best three scores of each divisional representative count and the cumulative score decides the winner.   

What are everyone's thoughts? 

PS I'll offer my services to help out with whichever league I'm in. 

I'd be interested.

Count me in. 

Hey, it was the best name I could come up with after a long day at work when my brain is asleep.  Couple of good rounds Timothy and you'll be too good for the hacker group anyway.  Now all you need is a couple of good rounds........

How do we split up the country then?  I get the feeling that four leagues wouldn't be enough as it may mean long drives for some.  How about South West, South East, Wales, Midlands, North West, North East, South Scotland, North Scotland.  And would our Irish counterparts like to take part?  I'll leave the chopping up of the country to someone better at it than me. 

chris, your format sounds like a good idea! i would definatley be interested in running/helping out with the midlands group. if we can get enough feedback from this thread, and volunteers from each region we can poll everyone on which format they would prefer. personally i dont mind which! just like the idea of playing regularly with the lads off golfshake. as i can judge so far they seem  much more friendly than some of the "stuck-up brigade" you get at most clubs. 

does anyone else have any other ideas for an annual golfshake event that would reach all of us?

would anyone be interested in setting up their region?

I hear what your saying everyone but lets first of all find out how many areas/regions we are going to get before we start running the world.

My initial thoughts were that we could have;

North, basically Scotland.

North-West, covering Lancs & Cheshire.

North-East,  covering Newcastle to South Yorkshire!! (may need a re think though)

Midlands, covering the obvious.

Anglia/Essex, as above.

London, ditto

Kent, ditto

South, covering not kent to portsmouth.

South West, covering southampton to ??

West, which covers Devon & Cornwall.

and Finally Wales, (North).

Wales, (South) due to road restraints North & South seperate as it can take longer to get from south to north than bloody scotland

Now this isn't final and we as a group (those whom wish to assist in an area/region) need to find out how many volunteers we end up with to determine what we start with, I've no doubt as this rolls out it will increase but lets start slowly and get it right from the outset.

Darren can we start the ball rolling by getting people to contact you whom want to be involved so we can get a geographical representation to start with.

Paul, Wayne, good stuff to get going.  This kind of also fits into something else that we are hoping to do.  Will speed this up and get some feelers out.

Keep the ideas coming.

Regards, Darren.

with regards to the  ryder cup style format i suggested, it was along the lines of:

eight regional teams,

12 players per team,

6 tee times at matchplay

6 tee times at strokeplay,

overall points on the day takes the winning region through to the next stage, untill the final.

personally i think a masters/tour/divisional event would be better! just putting forward another idea into the mix.

Great idea Paul. Your right though keep it simple to start to allow for mass appeal and hopefully mass participation and then other ideas could be dropped into the mix.

From a simplicity perspective the idea of the 9+ regions works well and to assist with the mass appeal the idea on top of an overall winner to have divisional winners is great.  So even if you are a 27 handicap and finish 7th out of 30+ golfers but are the top placed divisional golfer you could still go forward to the final. Great concept!

Regards, Darren.

Ok, bit more awake this morning so here's what I think the divisions and format should be.  First the regional leagues (based on trying to keep travel to a resonable time). 

1. Devon/Cornwall

2. Somerset/Dorest/Wilts/Hants/Berks

3. Sussex/Surrey/Kent/Midds/Essex/Herts

4. South Wales/Hereford/Glos/Worcs

5. Oxon/Bucks/Beds/Northants/Warwick/West Mids

6. Cambs/Suffolk/Norfolk

7. Shrops/Staffs/Chesire/North Wales

8. Derby/Notts/Leics/Lincs/S Yorks

9.  N & E Yorks

10. W Yorks, G Manchester, Lancs, Merseyside

11. Cumbria/Durham/Teeside/Nothumberland

12. S Scotland (Lowlands)

13. N Scotland (Highlands and Islands)

14. N Ireland

Each league has a low (0-9), mid (10-19) and high (20+) handicapper division.  Every league plays a minimum of four matches on stableford format.  Your best three scores are added together on a virtual leaderboard and you have to play in at least three to qualify for the finals.  Top three in each division (126 golfers!) go to a grand final at a venue agreed in advance. 

Grand final has two 18 hole stableford matches with players from the same handicap division grouped together.  Of the 18 results, the best 15 count and are totalled together with the division with the higest score winning.  In the event of a draw, the other three scores are added as a tie-breaker.  Winning division hosts the Grand Final the following year.  The North v South opens the Golfshake season and the Grand Final closes it. 

I think that the number of regional leagues is a little too high personally, but I was aiming to keep travel times from end to end at around 2-3 hours.  I'm sure we could get this down though with a little jiggery-pokery and I think that 8 regions with the top four from each league as Paul suggestted is the right format.  If anyone works for a company that splits the country up into regions for sales purposes or similar, we could use that as a start point. 

Thoughts?

I'd rather wait and see whom we get to run these events in the relevant areas before be decide who/how many/what we do.

we could end up with 4 or 5 areas at first and we'll meet to set format etc, hopefully before January 2009 so we can start next year proper.

Good point Santo.  We might find that no-one from one of the areas wants to participate.   

I'll volunteer my shonkey services for the West Midlands and surrounding counties.  That'll please Jo........

Given the tight cluster in the Midlands I think it may be better to split a West and East Midlands. I will voluenteer to sort out the East Midlands Derby, Nottingham, Leicester etc and Chris could do the West Mids.

 What do you think?

What's wrong Lee, frightened of playing me?

Think we need to keep the number of regions down so let's see how much buy in we get first.  May make sense to have a single Midlands league. 

Not after last thrasing I gave you.

I was thinking about the traveling actually.

http://www.itraveluk.co.uk/maps/england/

useful link for determining the county borders etc for the more geographically challenged.

http://www.itraveluk.co.uk/maps/england/

useful link for determining the county borders etc for the more geographically challenged.

chris, i think wayne is right where we need to get players from the other regions commitment, then a if golfshake could organise a get together of representatives from each region, once were altogether i'm sure we would have a bucketfull of idea's that could be thrashed out so that we're all singing from the same sheet etc.

my concern at the moment is we're not seeing much interest from other region's but i,m sure that we follow... mainly the south.

i'm formally putting myself forward to either run or assist with the midlands group, chris if you want to run it together thats fine by me! personally think every region will require two at the helm, with putting/running events on the scale.

lets hope we get more interest from the other region's

by the way, today we have found i will soon have a new golf partner(12yrsapprox), we're expecting a boy!!!!

Congratulations Paul

cheers wayne, i,m over the moon! i think the wife was hoping for another girl,but she'll get over it. just have the naming debate next.

maybe we could have a "guess the weight sweepstake" amongst yourself's. obviously i won't take part due past knowledge. it would be an unfair advantage.

the main thing is: i will have a GOLF LOVING WOLVES MAD BEST BUDDY FOR LIFE!

SERIOUSLY THROUGH I CAN'T WAIT.... DUE ON THE 23/01/2009

Congratulations Paul.  Is it your first? Thought you might like this quote from the Independant: 

'...the cost of rearing a child from birth to the age of 21 was rising faster than property prices. Child care and education were the biggest expenditures for parents, costing £49,092 and £46,778 respectively, with the remainder of the £180,137 total made up by such items as food, clothing, hobbies, holidays and pocket money.'

See you back here in a few years? 

I reckon it will be 7lb 3oz.

And he may grow up to support SPURS

Hi tim, i have a step son 11, and two girls aged 6 and 18months, i like most fathers work all the hours i can but its never enough is it! i,ve being playing golf for 12months and now i found something i enjoy this much, nothing will stop me enjoying my hobby, i may have to do a bit more overtime to fund it through in the current climate!

 to be honest with you, since i took up golf i,ve become much more relaxed, now have a social life and feel 100% better about myself on the whole....so i need golf to survive bring up four kids. but wouldn't swap my lifestyle for anything, just appreciate what we have!

WAYNE: THERE'S NO WAY IN THIS WORLD A SON OF MINE WOULD SUPPORT SPURS, HE'D BE ON EBAY IN A FLASH, OR I'D ASK FOR A REFUND!!!

i know, joking aside as long as he's healthy thats all that matters to me. if he wants to follow the baggies that would be.....ok..... with me(just about). but i would love for him to get into golf.

I pay for my step-son adam to have golf lessons, and although he enjoy's playing he won't practise for love nor money! and he can't understand why he's not improving.

i keep saying to him, that i wish i'd had the chance to play when i was younger! so once junior's 5 i'll introduce him to his clubs!

struggling to stay awake now, so i,m off to bed goodnight all.

Congrats Paul.  Yopu won't have an excuse when he beats you as he'll be playing off the yellows too.  Not like your daughters.

Junior Baggies membership form is on the way......

its a little early for digs chris, dont you think! to be honest i'm too tired to bite back, only had four hours sleep yesterday!

oh yeah, bye the way..... just when do you think baggies will get a league goal 2208/2009? down by november that will be a new premier league record won't it! i hear the bookies are paying out now!

It's never too early for a dig at a Dingle!  And if you have a look, we scored in our first home game.  Using last season's league table, we've lost away to 3rd, at home to 5th (got mugged after playing them off the park) and drawn away to 16th.  A draw away to a fellow relegation struggler is a good result, especially when it's Bolton.  We've scored 1, conceded 3.  Not too disappointed yet.  Got West Ham on Sat; they've scored 6 and let in 5.  They'll be goals in that then!

Oh, and I bet we get more Premiership goals and points than Wolves this season......

Now back to the TOPIC (chris/paul).

Hopefully the interest in this will be known by mid october and we can start getting our heads together to progress this further.

Those of you that have considered putting your name down but haven't because your a bit worried you don't have the skills to be involved in something like this can change your thoughts straight away, there are enough people about (phone call away) to assist and possibly even join you at your event (neighbouring counties etc).

So c'mon lets get this on the road.

thanks for the interest john. the more the better. if anyone else would like to show their interest feel free to.

this event isn't to next year so we've all got plenty of time to work on ones game. "chris"

chris as you know i,ve had confidence issues with regards to playing people i,ve just met! i have the ability on my day to kick your sorry arse, ask steve!

so a dual it is! next friday where and what time?

sounds good to me! i'll have a word with steve when we play on sunday,

aylesford @ forest of arden,

west midlands(would like to play that again and we've both played there)

i'll have a browse for any others in that price range. must get sleep now..."knackered"

i enjoyed the west mids! its a challenge, but there are some good opportunities to pick up points! i,ll see what steve thinks and get back to you!

after 15:00 its only £14, is that late for you to tee off? i think the earliest steve can get there for is 14:30.

hello peeps count me in for the east midlands (leicester) - be honoured to play, 

the last north v south event i played in was fantastic.

Update on the unmanned/manned regions Paul? Its a long thread now.

Hi all, this is what we have so far: REGION'S COVERED.

NORTH WEST: Wayne Santorini

NORTH EAST: Paul Cook, & Allan Bostock

EAST MIDLANDS: Lee Miller, & Graham Tweed

WEST MIDLANDS: Paul Williams, & Chris Perry

SOUTH EAST: Colin Astbury.

SO WE'RE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS FROM, THE SOUTH WEST, EAST ANGLIA, WALES AND SCOTLAND IF INTERESTED ( or players if wishing to play  but don't have a represented region & no volunteer can tie in with the nearest region!) IDEALLY IF WE GET MORE VOLUNTEER'S THE REGION'S CAN BE DOWNSIZED TO CUT DOWN EVERYONE'S TRAVEL TIME & DISTANCE.  

If anyone is interested, in volunteering for the above region's there is a thread set-up "golfshake tour regional event's volunteer's" set up in any other business. Just add your name and which area your interested in running.

Hi Allan, thanks for your committment, regards Paul

Hi J P,  thanks for the commitment, all players will be contacted in the new year. VOLUNTEER'S STILL REQUIRED....... Come on SOUTH WEST, EAST ANGLIA, WALES SCOTLAND. or region's we haven't mentioned the more the merrier.

All that we be required from a volunteer is: once all the regions have committed we are to meet up with the golfshake guy's( darren&luke) the sort out rules,format etc. due to distances from each of us, if this is not viable Wayne and Myself will sort this out with golfshake and relay format,dates,requirements to each volunteer. (dec 08-jan-09)

Then each volunteer will invite player's in there region's to make up each qualifier. golfshake as agreed to advertise the event in the weekly round up e-mail. Once players are confirmed, each volunteer is to select a central regional venue, any help needed at all and support will be offered. Each event to set up is only the equivalent to setting up a high handicap comp or north v south. No of players, quotes from venues for society packages(£30-40) this is just an example price, maybe less. then everyone make either deposit or payment via paypal to each volunteer securing venue and tee times. EVERYONE TURNS UP, HAVE A GREAT DAY, MEETS NEW BUDDIES etc. the top three players from each handicap section (0-9) (10-19) (20-28) are then forwarded to the final. Regardless of a volunteers qualifing or not they would be more than welcome to attend final to support their region, that includes everyone. there will be a prize winning ceremony for regional winners, final winner etc,etc. simple really.

please note guy's i,ve not had any experience in this before, not scared at all honest!! seriously through, i think this is a great way to meet new friends, improve ones game and for me anyway the only time i will ever get the chance in a golf tournament on a national level. Any thoughts, suggestions are welcome.

Sounds brilliant Paul!

I'm all up for it! 

I will also highlight this to everyone at HHC4 on 19th October.

Dave, does sound good dosn't it! hopefully with everyones committment we can pull it off and make it the yearly event i hope it will be!

Lee thats a good idea, the more interest better. Once the balls rolling i was thinking of advertising it at work (landrover- massive place with loads of golfers!) but then i thought, should this be an open event or should it be for Golfshake members only? we could get competitors to register before the events!

your thoughts on this please......

I organised the first High handicap Competition and invited guys from work to attend and everyone that did is now registered on golfshake and playing in different events etc. It was difficult though for the first HHC as the winner was not registered to golfshake then.

Learn from my mistakes... I would make sure everyone is registered before they enter. It only takes two minutes and will make your life a lot easier.

As long as everyone is registered to golfshake then it doesnt matter where they work...

When I set up HHC2, I learned from the mistake Lee made and said that you had to be registered on Golfshake to enter.  There was a few grumbles from the technically challenged, but everyone from HHC1 registered so they could enter.  As Lee said (I hate agreeing with him!), it takes two minutes to register, it's free and it makes running the society so much easier. 

And I'm sure Darren won't mind the free advertising......

Lee don't get sucked in by him, we've all learnt but your new to his tactics.

be careful

hi darren, it seems the thread interest is waining! is there anyway of saving all the details of everyone who's expressed interest untill needed?

regards paul.

Your idea is noted Jon, and i'll run it past the rest of the guy's/ or hopefully they will give there respected views via this thread! Thanks Jon.

Paul you could PM the organisers of all the events a note to read out in the comps to get everyone looking at the thread?

Hi Lee, i,ve had contact with darren(golfshake) were still waiting for a few more volunteers as we only have six regions covered at present, and i,m hopefull of at least eight regions. Once we have this covered i will put something together. if after a couple of weeks we still dont have anymore volunteers then i,ll do it anyway!

Also, how would you like it to read? do you want it as a thread to put in the various regions events page? or something to be read out at actual comps etc,etc?

Darren has told me that in the next few weeks golfshake will be putting the feelers out via the weekly bulitin's. I'll get onto it anyway.

R;E Jon Williams suggestion of a dry run run oct/nov, what are everyones thoughts on this? personally i'm in Tunisia last week of oct, 1st week of nov, so maybe a later date! 

GOLFSHAKE TOUR - REGIONAL QUALIFIERS 09

HI ALL, WERE LOOKING FOR GOLFERS OF ALL ABILITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN A NATIONAL "GOLFSHAKE TOUR" EVENT IN 2009. IT WILL CONSIST OF REGIONAL QUALIFIERS, WHERE EACH REGION HOLDS A ONE DAY EVENT, OF STABLEFORD SPLIT INTO THREE HANDICAP GROUPS (0-9), (10-19),(20-28). THE TOP THREE/ FOUR POINTS SCORES FROM EACH HANDICAP SECTION WILL THEN QUALIFY TO PLAY IN THE GOLFSHAKE TOUR FINAL AT A TOP VENUE T.B.C.

SO FAR THE REGIONS REPRESENTED ARE :

NORTH WEST, NORTH EAST , EAST MIDLANDS, WEST MIDLANDS, SOUTH EAST, SOUTH WALES, NORTH WALES.

WERE LOOKING FOR MORE VOLUNTEERS TO RUN/ SET UP A REGIONAL EVENT. THE MORE VOLUNTEERS WE CAN GET , THE SMALLER THE REGIONS WILL BE DIVIDED UP.

ANY ASSISTANCE REQUIRED IN RUNNING AN EVENT WILL BE OFFERED.

ANYONE INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING CAN CONTACT  ME @WWW.paul-j-williams@hotmail.co.uk

ANY PLAYERS INTERESTED IN PLAYING CAN EITHER CONTACT THERE REGIONAL VOLUNTEER, OR LOG ONTO GOLFSHAKE FORUMS PAGES: TOUR TALK.GOLFSHAKE REGIONAL TOUR AND DECLARE YOUR INTEREST THERE.

Lee did you mean something like the above. i've also asked darren if it wuld be possible to set up a dedicated event page where volunteers can register region's and players etc. just have to wait and see?

if you see any room for improve for the above please feel free....Paul.

spoke with one of the golfshake guy's(Darren) and hopefully within the next few days there will be a dedicated events page set-up, initally for the organisers and volunteers to sort out the format etc, then later for players to register. fingers crossed Boys!

Sorry Wayne, i'd forgot you had offered to run to events. i've ammended my mistake, thanks.

Well said Lee. come on Darren lets sort the event out..... and keep in rolling, rolling , rolling....raw hideee! he he... take no notice of me, i,m back on nights again!!! mentality suffers during this two week period..

but it would be v.nice to see "golfshake region tour" suddenly pop up on the events page!!! hint hint, cough cough!