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Getting around credit grabbers!

• zzturk 150 Posts

  Sun, Aug 5 2012 4:42 AM

  There is a certain logic in the players that, perhaps after having spent many dollars (or hours, earning credits the patient way), would want to avail themselves of the opportunity to recoup credits by finding it easy to scoop up whatever money er, credit tournaments their CC is running and/or ready-go's; and to deny them the opportunity can run afoul of many state and national laws - so I understand WGT's reticence to get deeply involved in the matter - you can't pay lawyers with WGT credits!

  So, as many of you have pointed out, there are players who go beyond "accidentally" when it comes to entering CC tourneys clearly marked as for players BELOW their tier.

  In my CC, the only immediate steps I could take were either A. Stop running credit tourneys entirely; or B. Make sure that all credit tourneys are single play.

  Well, even that doesn't stop excellent legends who seem to be able to break 60 at will.

  Since you can't chance running afoul of laws by excluding them, I have taken a small step extra on my own - consolation prizes.

  I pay out the consolation prizes myself, and in the form of a sleeve of WGT B-XD  or  WGT B-ES 10 credit balls, somewhat inexpensive because my funds (credits) are limited. 

  Since I have arguably the top of line clubs, my need for credits in the future is restricted to just purchasing balls - perhaps expanding my CC in the future.

  Currently, I am running a pre-Barclays at Bethpage (real Barclays will be there in 2 weeks). Single play - two rounds - tourney greens - but low wind and easy pins.

  Winners will get credits, but I reserve the right to award consolations to Tour Pro, Pro, and Amateur (we have no Hacks) who finish at the top of their tier.

  And most of my tournaments now are free (so that any sandbagger or highly skilled player can have their trophy), but the same consolations can also apply.

  Short term result - I've seen players enter who never had done so, priorly.

  It's a stop-gap measure to give lesser accomplished golfers a real chance at achievement, albeit if only in a small way.

  One person questioned such an insignificant prize as the 10 Cr  WGT ball, but I could honestly state that one of my 9 hole 29s last month was using the WGT B-XD and I'm not even a legend tier. It was my call, anyway.

  Just a thought. maybe we could lobby WGT to give CC operators "chits" or "ducats" to award such free sleeves .... limited of course, by only so many per month (and never for themselves)? Ducats could only be used in place of gifting and they expire at the end of each month.

• SHRUDE 5,835 Posts

  Sun, Aug 5 2012 6:48 AM

  zzturk:

  I have taken a small step extra on my own - consolation prizes.

  We have been doing this in our club for a long time, I think you will find many other clubs also fund their own prizes.

  Some have a PayPal link on a 'Club Website'  for donations even the smallest is apprciated.

  We have a series of members we call Club Supporters, who regularly are happy to offer a sleeve of balls or more and sometimes MUCH more for the benefit of the club.

  This support is not only monetary, but some members spent time creating spreadsheets and running tourneys on their own, posting concise results and really showing some professional form.

  There are threads in the WGT Forums with suggestions asking  WGT for a support of some nature to provide these prizes.

  eg; Monthly percentage of club earnings paid to a proxy account in which can only be gifted to other players in goods from the Pro Shop.

  
  Ability for members to sell unwanted clubs to a Country Club pro shop, This scenario would have WGT earn 3 times from a transaction.

  1. The original retail sale
  2. A cut from  the sell 'back' to the CC pro shop
  3.  A cut from the 'rebuy' out of the  CC pro shop

   

  In our club we avoid Premium tourneys of Unlimited Play. They are usually single play.

  Unlimited play will attract the 'Credit Grabbers' as you call it, Simply playing over and over and over until their victory. 

  These tourneys don't attract the lower tiers.

  Mostly though we hold tourneys for 'Credit Value'

  Eg; Winner receives 500 cr, in way of gift/s from the pro shop.
  Or 250 cr, or simply a sleeve of Callaways or Nikes etc 

  We encourage the lower ranked Tiers as much as we can, :

  They don't play 18 holes or Multi rounds, we set up what they all play - 9 hole tourneys and CTTH .

  We actually suggest a pair of wedges to Hacks and Ams, Pros, instead of 250cr in balls

   

  • We current have a sweepstakes in which the out right Winner gets the WGT pixels Trophy, and a player at random is chosen for 500cr.
  • We have a monthly Tour Pro challenge, each new Master for the month receives a set of Callaways
  • Also running currently is another free tourney with 250 cr paid to the top: Pro, Amateur and Hack. Each.
  • Every month we have a club 'Championship' apart from the Champion receiving 1000cr, we also prize the best ranked Tour Pro, Pro &  Amateur  or below.
  • Every month we also have a Handicap Tournament this also has similar random 'encouragement' credits offered.

   

  We rarely recruit anyone over Master, all of our Legends have grown with the club and the club is a community of people helping people to do their best. Because of this culture we tend to have a high retention/ participation rate and loyal, High Tiers 

  We may not have big earnings as a Country Club, but we got big soul.

  It's impossible to run Tier based tourneys until WGT come to the party and offer CClubs the option to create these Tourneys WITH the option of selecting multiple tiers.

  EG:  Hacks and Ams only - etc

  When we do hold the occasional Tier Based tourney it has to be closely monitored for non eligible's to be informed they are disqualified.

  And no matter how you name the tourney, "PRO's & BELOW ONLY" there is usually 1 player with higher tier that enters it.  

  :/

  Heck we even have a premium tourney running now for LEGENDS ONLY and a lesser tier has paid credits to enter and is being clobbered.

  We NEED WGTs help with this, until then, many CC owners like you and me will find less time for playing the game, while we spend more time administering the fallibilities of the Club setup.

   

• cycle1979 1,555 Posts

  Sun, Aug 5 2012 1:09 PM

  East Coast CC offers freerolls with over 15,000 credits as of now in the donation pool.  This system has worked out very well....  Check my profile for details.  

  http://www.wgt.com/user/Profile.aspx?UserID=2027896

  As far as eliminating the ability for players to enter a tournament out of tier... you can't but you can quickly remove them from the club after an offense or two.  We honestly don't have a lot of problems at East Coast regarding this issue but if WGT would give a tier option in their CC tourney setup that would certainly be nice.