18randy18:I would like to pick other players / owners opinion on how to keep Country Club fresh and interesting, seems ours has hit a slump with just a handful of players participating and contributing daily XP points.
I read this and instantly identified with it. As a CC owner, how do you keep everybody's interest? It took me a year to realize you can't, you only drive yourself crazy trying. The best you can do is get creative and use your forum to pull members together.
In the past year I have done several creative tournaments with really good results. The creative part is what makes it fun because you try to level the field with natural conditions for all. Here are a few that were fun. (You need to be able to post a scorecard in the forum for the first 2.)
- No GIR tourney. You get penalized for hitting the greens in regulation. 2 strokes-make it hurt. LOL
- No fwy tourney. You get penalized for fairways off the tee.
- Tournaments with widely different conditions-greens and tees. (Red tee tourney with 20 speeds was a riot.)
- Club ladder
I set the tournaments up as single play 9 holers, 4 rounds, 5 day turnaround. If I start one on a Tuesday or Wednesday I can catch the players that only play on the weekends. 5 day rounds get a tournament done in 3 weeks so it's not dragging on.
The forum benefits, too, because you have to post your card there and can't help but follow what's going on. Best part is, the restrictions dramatically level the field so you get better participation. Learning to post that card is very simple.
On the club ladder, it's not as hard to administer as I thought it would be and we are having insane results because of it. I posted this in our forum on Jan 9-the Pyramid Ladder.......
- CHALLENGE ANYBODY IN THE ROW ABOVE YOU.
- OUTSIDERS CAN CHALLENGE ANYBODY IN THE LAST ROW.
- WIN=TRADE PLACES, LOSE=STAY PUT.
- TIME TO GET CHALLENGE PLAYED IS ONE WEEK
- COURSE IS PICKED BY CHALLENGER
- CHALLENGED PLAYER PICKS FORMAT--STROKE, MP OR SKINS. (# of holes up to the players.)
- REPORT CHALLENGE RESULTS HERE OR PM ME.
I seeded the ladder with a single play 18 hole tournament using the leaderboard. 3 weeks later the forum thread is 17 pages long, there have been 27 matches with pending challenges all over the place! 1/2 of the club immediately jumped on board!!
I set the pyramid up on a spreadsheet, copied it into my first post in the thread and now all I have to do is edit the post and I can swap the names when they report a result. You can add levels as you need and the "last update" just follows the reporting in the thread so players know who's available to challenge.
Our Pyramid has turned into a massive success. This is what players see in the first post of the pinned thread..........
THE 1ST TIER NOW CONSISTS OF THE YELLOW LEVELS. ANYBODY IN THE 3RD LEVEL CAN CHALLENGE ANY YELLOW. TRADING PLACES IS THE REWARD FOR WINNING. THE OTHER LEVELS REMAIN THE SAME.
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*LAST UPDATE-IRZY'S MATCH VS GMIKE REVERSED.
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BK |
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BC |
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Mlevin |
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Sicko |
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Wes |
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Hpurey |
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Gmike |
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Kysun |
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Baggs |
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YJ |
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Doug |
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Irzy |
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Smitty |
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Doc |
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Tyger |
Fred |
June |
Turtle |
Andy |
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Drahl |
Stash |