johnnylongball Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I've had an unusual conversation this afternoon. I'm a member of a club here locally. I'm gonna be traveling later this year to the west coast so I called a highly regarded club in the area (Top 100) to see if they offer reciprocal play with members of other clubs. I spoke to their head pro and was honestly expecting him to tell me that they don't, that I have to know a member. He said no problem, have my pro call and set it up. I then inquired what the guest fee would be. He said there isn't one. They only require that we play with an assistant pro and compensate him for his time. I've played other clubs via reciprocal arrangement before, but never heard of $0 guest fee. Anybody ever run into this? And what would be a satisfactory payment to the asst pro? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey2aces Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 wow... that's a tough call. Depending on the course and what the pro gets for his hourly rate I'd say $250-350.. especially if "highly regarded" is accurate. Quote Ping G400 Max AD IZ 6s 2016 TI M2 HL AD IZ 7s M2 4h AD DI 8s Ping G400 5hy ADDI 9s 718 TMB 6-Gap Modus 130s Scratch 53 Modus 125 Scratch 57 Modus 125 PXG 03x 60* Modus 125 Scotty Cameron Custom 009 HHH [url="http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/982109-joes-witb-set-for-2014-update-2015/#entry10682349"]WITB Link[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG5 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 $200 is the norm Quote Ping G425 Max Driver - 10.5* Ping G425 Max 7-wood 20.5* Ping G425 Max 9-Wood 23.5* Ping G425 5 Hybrid 26* Ping G730 irons 6-PW & Gap Wedge Ping G730 Wedges 50* 56* Ping BunkR Wedge 64* Ping Anser 2 PutterWITB Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oregongolf Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Does your club have an actual network of reciprocals? I have access to maybe a half dozen no fee reciprocals, but they're all located 40+ miles away. I agree, this situation is uncommon, but pretty cool. I'm interested to hear what club this was... PM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_71 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I would ask your head pro what you should give the guy. I would think he would have a good idea what that should be. Quote Titleist 913D2 9.5° Diamana S+ Blue 62 Cleveland Launcher FL 15° Adams Idea Tech V3 19°/22° Mizuno JPX 825 Pro 5-GW KBS Tour Cleveland Classic 4 Cleveland 588 RTX 54°/Titleist SM4 58° Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truman Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I would ask about the asst. teaching rate. If he would normally get $75 an hour, I suggest you give him $300. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jptruck Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 This is normal. Sometimes you pay them, sometimes you don't. Depends on the location Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lumberman2462 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 My club has one. The reciprocal club is about 85 miles away and apparently we can even charge to our home club's account. Haven't tried it but we had a handful of players show up at my club one day last summer.....they were slow. Quote SYard T388 TaylorMade RBZ 13-15 Miura CB-57 3-PW Miura 51Y, 52K,56K, 57C, 60K Old Titleist Blade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagles1 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Hmmm....seems like many of the responses are likening the pay equivalent to a 18 hole round playing lesson - which it is not. Really don't know the answer but I would guess around $100. However, I could be way off base. Looking forward to responses from those who have experience with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saggysag Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I tend to overpay for this type of experience....you never know what may happen....exchange numbers, go back every year...etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oregongolf Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 [quote name='jptruck' timestamp='1393762195' post='8776772'] This is normal. Sometimes you pay them, sometimes you don't. Depends on the location [/quote] It's normal for a normal course... I wouldn't consider this normal for anything but a top 100 course. Lots of places have you pay an unaccompanied guest fee, but I've never run into a club that sends you out with an assistant. Cool stuff though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardian5 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Our club... the member pays the guest fee and the player goes out with a pro (if available) and a caddy - a caddy is mandatory for every player, we are walking only. No unaccompanied guests at certain times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jastac Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Have your pro inquire when he calls to make the tee time, it won't be as awkward for him of a conversation as it would be for you. That way you won't have to guess or be unsure if you went to high or low on the fee. Quote Titleist 915D3 / GD Tour AD DI7s TM RBZ 15* Diamana BB Titleist 910H 19* 21* Diamana Kai'li Titleist 714 AP2 4 - PW Cameron Studio Stainless NP2 Vokey SM 52* 58* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLiver Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Our pro can get us on most courses. The fee for play can vary quite a bit. Sometimes we get stuck with the unaccompanied guest fee, sometimes we get the accompanied guest rate. I can't recall the fee ever being $0. Our pro generally works with the hosting pro a bit on the price so we end up paying a reasonable fee. I've never run into the "play with the assistant" scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jptruck Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 [quote name='oregongolf' timestamp='1393797476' post='8780656'] [quote name='jptruck' timestamp='1393762195' post='8776772'] This is normal. Sometimes you pay them, sometimes you don't. Depends on the location [/quote] It's normal for a normal course... I wouldn't consider this normal for anything but a top 100 course. Lots of places have you pay an unaccompanied guest fee, but I've never run into a club that sends you out with an assistant. Cool stuff though. [/quote] I'd say it's a fairly common practice at the Northeast clubs. They don't want groups "unattended," even with caddies present. It's just their way of keeping an eye on players to make sure they don't go to slow or violate some rule of the club (that the guest may not even know about). A bigger club like Baltusrol might have a bunch of assistant pros that help out with lessons and make side money playing with guests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PreppySlapCut Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I've been in this situation a couple times, as one of my former clubs did not allow unaccompanied guest play. Typically the club will tell you what the suggested rate/tip is. It's win/win, really. You aren't paying a guest fee and you're being allowed to play a course you wouldn't normally have access to. The assistant has the opportunity to make a little cash. $200 is pretty standard. Quote TaylorMade SIM 10.5* w/ Ventus Blue 6 (X) Ping G440 17* w/ Ventus Blue 7 (X) Ping G440 21* w/ Ventus Blue 8 (X) Titleist T200 23* w/ Atmos Black HB 95 (X) Titleist T200/150 5-PW w/ Steelfiber i110 (S) TaylorMade MG4 50*, 55*, 60* w/ DG115 (S) TaylorMade Spider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cristphoto Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 My club had a reciprocal agreement with several clubs in the area whereby the golf was free if the head pro set it up. If you ate there after the round they would charge the food back to my home club. We had agreements with other clubs in the area where you could get on (again the head pro had to set it up) but you paid a guest fee. I guess these different scenarios happened since I'm in the DC area and we have lots of private clubs of varied economic status. There was another thread on this site about the value of joining/not joining a club. Repeating what I stated there, a great benefit I found was being a member of the golf team and when we would play the other clubs in the area, it was always total gratis (golf and food) wherever I played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oregongolf Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 [quote name='jptruck' timestamp='1393862913' post='8787198'] [quote name='oregongolf' timestamp='1393797476' post='8780656'] [quote name='jptruck' timestamp='1393762195' post='8776772'] This is normal. Sometimes you pay them, sometimes you don't. Depends on the location [/quote] It's normal for a normal course... I wouldn't consider this normal for anything but a top 100 course. Lots of places have you pay an unaccompanied guest fee, but I've never run into a club that sends you out with an assistant. Cool stuff though. [/quote] I'd say it's a fairly common practice at the Northeast clubs. They don't want groups "unattended," even with caddies present. It's just their way of keeping an eye on players to make sure they don't go to slow or violate some rule of the club (that the guest may not even know about). A bigger club like Baltusrol might have a bunch of assistant pros that help out with lessons and make side money playing with guests. [/quote] That makes sense. It seems like the clubs here aren't quite as traditional in that sense. I have never run into that here on the west coast... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shemp Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I've played a few and the practice varies. At one very exclusive club we were required to take caddies. At another we played for free but paid to use carts. At another everything was on the house. It depends. I agree about having your pro inquire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnylongball Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Thanks very much for all the responses. I was really confused by the $0 guest fee. I'd never heard of that before. My past experience has always been to pay the unaccompanied guest fee in this situation. $0 guest fee was a curveball. But this club definitely is not in need of cash. We have no problem with paying the asst pro $150 or $200 each rather than paying a guest fee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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