Work days on pay to play courses?

[xdzt]

There's a pay to play course near me that's trying to drum up volunteers for a work day. I'm curious how other disc golfers feel about this.

Personally, I'm of a couple minds on the issue. The notion of putting hours of hard work into something that I'll have to pay for the privilege to enjoy seems fundamentally wrong to me. On the other hand, it's only $5 a day, which probably isn't netting the owner much income, and the more support disc golf gets across the board the better for us all. I just worry that it's a troubling precedent, a "have your cake and eat it too" for p2p owners.

 

[bhuff]

Ask if the volunteers can get a free month/ year pass.

 

[Jay Dub]

I have a private PTP course 20 minutes from me. I've known the people who own it since I started playing disc golf. People are always going there to help them with the course. They give you some free time on the course for helping. Sometimes it's a year, which is $25. They charge $5 a day.

Even if they didn't give free time on the course people would still help keep it up. I mean it gets no better than a private disc golf course. :thmbup:

 

[HotPinkBeast]

A month pass sounds fair.

 

[rwmurrow]

The only p2p course here is owned by the city. It is in a pay area of a city lake. There is one workday a year and if enough people show up, we don't have to pay to get into the area on the day of the tourney. (the workday is to prepare for the tournement) I don't mind this situation, as more are likely to come for the event if they don't have to pay extra.

In your case, the only reason to go to a p2p for a casual round is if the course is worth it. It is up to you if it is worth it for you to help at the workday.

 

[JRW III]

Better to have a ptp course you have to work on than no course at all.

Would be appropriate to get some sort of free play out of it, but not necessarily expected.

 

[vonDrehle]

/Looks up volunteering in the dictionary

/Looks at thread


Hmmm...

 

[1978]

Volunteer is Volunteer. You do it because you like the course and care about it's look regardless if you get a prize. Food banks don't give you gas card vouchers so that you can drive to them to serve... In the end unless you built or own the course, you are never doing as much work as those individuals. Maybe get some tree love Karma for yourself too. A handshake, a smile, appreciation, or just others enjoying the course is all I have ever needed to volunteer.

 

[1978]

Oh that monkey!! Thats the guy that throws in on me when I am working or complains because my tools are in the fairway. Lol. Dumb monkey!

 

[Steve West]

Just because there is a fee doesn't mean it is fully supported by the fees. A pay to play owned by a park board may not be able to survive without volunteers AND the fee.

 

[Jay Dub]

The private course here is only open when their paint ball business slows down. Nice thing about that is that includes the summer time because it gets too hot and humid here for paintball.

They make decent money with the paint ball, the $5 a day fee for golf barely helps. Most times when you go there you will have the course to yourself.

Edit: this course was used in the '98 Worlds so it's nice enough.

 

[xdzt]

Just because there is a fee doesn't mean it is fully supported by the fees. A pay to play owned by a park board may not be able to survive without volunteers AND the fee.

This is a private course on this guy's own land. I don't know what kind of traffic this course gets (never been myself, it's an hour's drive), but at $5 a day, I have a hard time imagining that the course is breaking even -- so I don't see a problem with volunteer labor in this particular case. But I do worry about it when (if) DG blows up and we have wonderfully manicured courses at $15 p2p that are always packed, but oh yeah, could you all come and do our job for us on saturday? thanks.

 

[DavidSauls]

Speaking as a private course owner, not yet pay-to-play but taking donations---

We ask for help on workdays and are grateful for the help we get. Even if we collected $5 per round, it would only take the edge off the cost, and the effort, of making a course available to area and travling disc golfers. However, the labor is more valuable to us than cash, so we don't ask donations from those who help on workdays, and wouldn't charge them if we went pay-to-play.

If you play a course and like it and want it to continue and improve, yes, join the workday.

If the disc golf course is a for-profit venture by itself---which I haven't heard of---then perhaps you'd have reservations about volunteering.

 

[vonDrehle]

I know lots of private courses have a mix n match basket style but for fun lets say they have 18 Discatchers. That comes to $5850. Just looking at people paying $5 per day that would be 1170 different times people had payed just to break even on the baskets. That's a good bit of traffic for a private course. That's not factoring in basket installation, tee pads, tree clearing, benches, tee signs, etc...

 

[Haynes]

I would help just to help improve the course. but thats just me.

 

[MikePinchico]

Lava Creek DGC is my home pay to play course and I spend lots of time up there volunteering my time. It's a ball/disc golf course and is run by some of the nicest folks I know. It's 4$ for a round for DG and I usually get a bunch of free rounds on the course for the time I put in. If you love the course a few hours of your time every once in a while is not a big sacrifice.

 

[DSmith]

That $5 fee covers equiptment upkeep not labor. If you were to hire someone to do the labor Im sure fees would increase (ball golf courses). I personally volonteer alot of my timeto make our courses more enjoyable not only for myself but for others. Even if it was pay to play I would still help cause $5 doesnt cover everything.

 

[Todd Wiley]

I volunteer countless hours a year doing course maintenance on free to play dg courses in my area. I host dg mini-tourneys in order to raise the funds to be able to do the maintenance. I donate money, plastic, time, time, time, and more money every year. I still pay to play in my OWN events..... If you love the sport, you won't care what the cost is. Just do it for the good karma it creates.

 

[DavidSauls]

It's worth pointing out that "pay-to-play" covers a lot of different circumstances.

---Course on private property owned by a disc golfer.
---Course on private property, not owned by a disc golfer.
---Course on commercial property, such as a ball golf course or ski slope.
---Course in a state park.
---Course in a local public park.

You might choose to volunteer work on some of these because you want a better course for yourself, or others, to play on. Or in gratitude to the owners for allowing a course on the property.

 

[DiscChainBasket18]

Will work for golf!

I've done countless work days for my club at all our local courses (& even some that were not in my club). We usually get a free lunch or a T-shirt. But it's not about all that. I think its good to support the club & putting in some work will benefit many besides myself.
I think a pay-to-play course would be a different story. Normally a land owner who wants to clear property would have to hire somebody (labor) to do this work.
If the work is on a golf course & the workers are golfers, then it could mean letting them play for free a couple times or something like that.