Casual players on course during tournament.

[JeremyKShort]

I've only been involved with running ace race type events, but we've always gotten a permit to use the course exclusively. We have two courses we work with. One is on a university campus and we have to clear any event we do there with them. Since it's their course that pretty much gives us it to ourselves. The other is a course in a city park. They don't charge for the course, just the baseball fields and concession stand. We get the course to ourselves, but not the whole park. Jogging paths, playgrounds and sports courts are still open so we have to work around those, but it's not a it deal. Most anyone that shows up to an organized event isn't going to throw on a group of people, especially if we point it out at the players meeting.

 

[filobedo]

Most TD's, whether they are playing or not, usually try to get casuals to play at lunch or after the final rd of the the day. I have only seen a couple of incedents when casuals refused to play after the final round and tried to play during a sanctioned tournament. The worst was when two sixty year olds went off on the TD about the park being a public place and they could do whatever they wanted although the course was reserved and closed for the tournament. Hopefully no one would do this but with that mentality, I guess if someone reserves a pavilion for a wedding or bday party in a public park, anyone can tell them to leave if they pay taxes in the area. A few years ago one of my club's former BOD members made some regulation looking stop signs out of wood with "course closed..." that is now used at most of our tournaments.

 

[phantom51]

A few years ago one of my club's former BOD members made some regulation looking stop signs out of wood with "course closed..." that is now used at most of our tournaments.

We had an official sign posted at the course's main parking entrance next to the trail that leads to the 1st tee. The sign clearly stated the course had "Special Event Use," had the weekend's date posted, and indicated that Dynamic Disc was hosting the Frostbreaker.
I'm clearly not upset by what happened. I just wanted feedback on this as most players in my group were playing in their first tournament and it was my third. I just felt like it was my responsibility to do something and politely informing them seemed the correct method. The other player's on my card were just shocked when the casuals kept trying to interfere.

 

[Monkeypaws]

Anyone that would want to play while a tournament was going on must be a LOT more patient than me - I hate waiting.

 

[Tim_the_Enchanter]

When I've run events before, I've tried to set out signs with plenty of warning for any locals coming through. I'd also post the dates on any online resources I knew, but I didn't really expect any casuals to be checking that. At one of the courses I used to host at, it was actually in the parks department's stipulations that the course could NOT be reserved, which made things a little tricky. In my "warning signs" that I set up beforehand, I kind of implied the course was reserved, but never explicitly stated it. It seemed to work.

Another time, I was helping out with an event at another course, which at the time, was one of the bigger ones in the area. The TD hadn't bothered to set out any kind of signage that there was a tournament in progress because naturally everyone knew about it. Just before the first round was about to start, I jogged out to the farthest tees to make sure everyone was in place, and saw a group of casuals playing up the middle of a fairway. Great. I didn't want to be the bad guy, but since I was the assistant TD, the onus was on me.

I walked up to the guys and told them that unfortunately, they'd have to find somewhere else to play because a tournament was about to start. They asked if they could just play between people, and I told them it wasn't really an option because the course was completely full, with 5 people on each tee. They started to get a little hostile then, saying stuff like "well, you can't stop us anyway. It's not like you can close the course down." To which I told them that actually, we could--the players in the tournament had paid money out of their entrance fees in order to reserve the course (which was true in this case). I told them that they could try to play during the lunch break if they wanted, but the course would be slammed most of the day. The guys weren't too happy about it, but moved on. They'd driven an hour and a half to play, and were rightfully upset.

Sure, they could have found out that a tournament was happening if they looked online somewhere, but these guys probably had no idea that there was even a place TO look. I mentioned it to the TD after the tourney got under way, and he was like "oh good point, maybe I should do something next time." It hadn't even occurred to him before that that people might be oblivious. A lot of times, "serious" discers and even moreso DGCRers get caught up in the bubble of the scene, and don't realize how little the rest of the DG population knows or cares about tournament golf.

 

[knettles]

We had this year's Ice Bowl at a local golf course with a temporary set up. It was super awesome (despite my score) and even had the push of the mayor to get the course closed to golfers that day. Wouldn't have been a big deal if the temps hadn't been in the high 40's. I remember one golfer who showed up muttering something like "Most ridiculous thing I've ever seen; people throwing frisbees all over the place!" I do kinda understand how some people would be upset to have a course closed by a sport they don't know exists. But goes to show it's moving in the right direction if the mayor's willing to close a golf course for a day for us disc golfers. Sorry if I got off track.

 

[DougCrawford]

I think Infinite Discs sells a product specifically for your problem.

https://infinitediscs.com/Products/Retrievers/3/Small-Wrist-Rocket

 

[ru4por]

Really, closed course or not, there is not much anyone can do. If casuals want to play a closed course during a tournament, they should be discouraged, then if they persist, welcomed. It is not worth a confrontation. There are likely a couple jerks actually playing the tournament (they are everywhere, as it turns out) that will make it uncomfortable.

 

[JC17393]

Really, closed course or not, there is not much anyone can do. If casuals want to play a closed course during a tournament, they should be discouraged, then if they persist, welcomed. It is not worth a confrontation. There are likely a couple jerks actually playing the tournament (they are everywhere, as it turns out) that will make it uncomfortable.

Absolutely not worth a confrontation from players in the tournament, but the casuals should be referred to the TD or some club official who can handle the "confrontation" if it comes down to it. A closed course is a closed course, particularly if there's a fee that comes with closing the course. If paying for permission to close the course doesn't actually allow for the TD/club to, you know, close the course, what's the point of paying the fee?

I know the idea is to be welcoming to all players, but if after a friendly explanation of the situation, the casuals insist on playing and basically disrupting the tournament that everyone else paid to be a part of, I don't see why they should be welcomed. Sucks that their timing isn't better, but that's life sometimes.

 

[DiscJunkie]

I've been on both sides of this issue.
A few years back I went to play Richmond Hill and the NC/SC Doubles Tourney was going on. There was nobody at the first tee, which was open, and no signs up to announce that a tourney was going on and the course was reserved. My son and I live a few hundred miles away, and this was our only chance to play, so we started play and kept playing until we got through all 18. Some of the groups were annoyed, but we just joined up with the first group that would not let us play through. Obviously, the course had not been reserved, and if the signs had been up at the first tee, we would not have started.
As a TD, when we hold a tourney at our DG course, we reserve the park, post signs up at the Park entrance, and sit someone at the first tee to keep people off the course. If you do't do this, in my experience as a player and TD, you are asking for trouble.

 

[Pbmercil]

If the course hasn't been reserved the casuals have just as much of a right to be there as you do. The odds of anyone actually insisting they play when they realize how excruciating the pace will be are low. But if the course isn't reserved for your tournament you have no justification to tell someone they can't be there.

 

[Pbmercil]

In this day and age of internets and all that why anyone would be completely uninformed about a tourney is beyond me.

You're kidding me right? If I'm not involved in a local tournament scene do you seriously think I'm going to check on the off chance there is a random C tier one weekend?

 

[tom12003]

We try to post that the course will be closed on the given date both with signs and social media (we can legally kick casuals off but they leave because of the congestion). The closest course is usually a 4.0+ and its within 4-5 miles or less.

 

[DavidSauls]

It's about this time that I'm bound to post something like:

Support Your Local Private Course.

And with that out of my system, I'll join in the clamor for putting up signs that the course is closed. Lots of them. Even if not actually true---and it's not always possible to have exclusive rights to the property----I'd do it anyway. Such signs will do more good than harm.

 

[thrembo]

Educate and recruit. If all else fails and 100+ people have too wait to let a couple of casuals play through, so be it (on a public/non reserved course). Let them play through, but frown and make them feel guilty as they pass by.

 

[DavidSauls]

Educate and recruit. If all else fails and 100+ people have too wait to let a couple of casuals play through, so be it (on a public/non reserved course). Let them play through, but frown and make them feel guilty as they pass by.

No, let them play at the same pace as everyone else. Don't let them play through. Even if we concede that they have equal rights to the course, they don't have greater rights.

 

[thrembo]

No, let them play at the same pace as everyone else. Don't let them play through. Even if we concede that they have equal rights to the course, they don't have greater rights.

I disagree. From my own personal experiences, it seems to me that it flows better to let them get through quickley. We are going to be waiting anyway. Hopefully they decide to bail on their own.

 

[Ender175]

Seems to be two different issues being discussed in this thread. One is letting casuals play during a tournament, which I'm kind of ambivalent about. If the parks not reserved, fine, hop in the queue. If it is reserved, its an issue for the td to deal with.
The second issue is how to deal with a bunch of jerks who, upon being informed about the tournament, proceed to heckle the players and even throw into them. This is where my passive ambivalence runs out. If I'm on a crowded course and an errant throw comes rolling into my group, fine, it happens. I might throw some shade their way but thats about it. But if some guys that I've already had an interaction with start INTENTIONALLY throwing into my group, there's going to be a problem. Good on the OP for ignoring it and letting the jerks pick up and leave on their own.

 

[scarpfish]

In this day and age of internets and all that why anyone would be completely uninformed about a tourney is beyond me.

Doesn't shock me in the least. There's a whole lot of people in the world who don't do internet, and even if they do, they don't always stumble across that information, because sometimes TD's don't promote their events very well, online or offline.

 

[RistoS]

Some of the stories here are kinda funny from my point of view, because this kind of casual player interference during a tournament would not be possible in Finland. The reason is the field is virtually always full!