Golf Directory - good idea or not?

Following on from the promotion thread earlier last week, I said I would suggest a "golf directory" for you to have a look at and consider.

The purpose of it is to set up a listing of courses that the members of 606v2 have played. Viewers who are considering playing these courses in the future would then be able to either comment or add to the already listed material.

Over time, we would be able to geographically map the UK for many of its courses. obviously, this will require input from yourselves and the ultimate goal would be to attract golf courses/ clubs to eventually manage their own pages on here, and offer v2 members discounts.

I have put up a poll for you to vote on whether you think that this is a good idea worth pursuing.

Below is the kind of thing, that I would imagine for you to use.

CAWDER GOLF CLUB

Image of clubhouse in spoiler tag

Spoiler:

The Cawder Course has a par of 70 and measures 6,297 yards. The Cawder is a great test of golf, with stunning views afforded over the Campsie Hills and golf holes that test the best of golfers. With its mixture of lush fairways, woodland and water features, it presents a wonderful challenge of golf for every standard of golfer.

The Cawder has a wide variety of holes of differing designs presenting new challenges for the golfer especially the picturesque 14th and 15th where water is a main feature.

The signature 18th hole, a par three of 209 yards, overlooked by and downhill towards the clubhouse, brings a wonderful round of golf to a perfect end.

Image of 18th Approach in spoiler

Spoiler:

Directions

Driving from Glasgow leave the M8 at Junction 15 and follow directions north for the A803(Kirkintilloch). Drive for approximately 4.5 miles (7.25km), firstly through Springburn, then Bishopbriggs. After about 4 miles (6.4km) you will pass an ASDA store on your right.

Pass through the next set of traffic lights and Cadder Road is the next turning on the left hand side just across from the petrol station. Follow the road taking second exit at the roundabout then over the canal bridge, and into the main driveway to the clubhouse.

Shortly after passing through the entrance and house on the hill please look-out for golfers on your right tee-ing off at the 3rd hole immediately followed by golfers playing into the 2nd green again on your right and crossing the road from your left. As you go across the stone bridge please be aware of golfers on your left playing across the road to the green of the 1st hole on your right. Thereafter continue your journey until you see the clubhouse at the end of the drive.

Visitors

Cawder is the perfect venue for corporate or society golf outings or indeed for a group of friends arranging a day's golf. We have two wonderful golf courses and the day can be arranged to suit your wishes.

We can organise the whole day, including full catering in private surroundings, help with 'nearest the pin' competitions and such similar, help with scoring if required, etc. In fact, we can have someone on hand the whole day to ensure the smooth running of your event if you so wish. Also, if a customer wishes something a bit more special - for instance, video on the first tee, an outside barbecue, halfway house or bar - this can also be arranged.

A days outing at Cawder is geared to satisfy every golf party's needs which is why we, at Cawder, have many groups who return each year.

The Club runs Open competitions throughout the year in all categories where members of other golf clubs can participate.

For full details please contact our Match Secretary on 0141 761 1288.

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Review by member in first post

"I played this in May and the greens were in fantastic condition. The longer of the two courses was a challenge as it was very hilly but rewarding on the home stretch - the last 3 holes in particular being very scenic. The course had some very tough holes on it and I would recommend it thoroughly. It cost me £12 as a guest playing with a member. Here is a picture I took from the 4th tee.......etc"





So let us know if you think that you would like to try this out and have its own subsection on the golf board.

Hi Hobo

I've refrained from voting for the time being. I think in principal, the idea is good but have a few reservations. First, there are a few websites out there already doing this type of thing. Secondly, how would it be maintained? Things like green fees, visitor access times, contact details etc can quickly become outdated.

Also, if I was to list all the courses I've played in the above format, I'd be here for the next 6 months solid

So, in principal it's a great idea, especially with the commercial aspect and what that could lead to but in reality, not sure of the best way to approach it.

Unless you want to employ me full time to do it? £50k pa, car, pension, play courses to assess them both home and abroad.....I'm your man!

drive4show wrote:Hi Hobo

I've refrained from voting for the time being. I think in principal, the idea is good but have a few reservations. First, there are a few websites out there already doing this type of thing. Secondly, how would it be maintained? Things like green fees, visitor access times, contact details etc can quickly become outdated.

Also, if I was to list all the courses I've played in the above format, I'd be here for the next 6 months solid

So, in principal it's a great idea, especially with the commercial aspect and what that could lead to but in reality, not sure of the best way to approach it.

Unless you want to employ me full time to do it? £50k pa, car, pension, play courses to assess them both home and abroad.....I'm your man!

You can have the same package that I am on.

Hobo wrote:
You can have the same package that I am on.

Let me guess..... £0, no car, no sick pay.......??

drive4show wrote:

Hobo wrote:
You can have the same package that I am on.

Let me guess..... £0, no car, no sick pay.......??

Thats the one but if you prove yourself, I will double it.

That's the best offer I've had today, let me think it over and I'll get back to you

My biggest concern would be how we handled negative reviews.

Let's say Forest of Arden came onboard with it and had a thread of their own. IMO that course is the most disappointing of supposedly higher standard courses, I've ever played and I'd want to tell everyone what a pigpen it was.

I could see this being frowned upon if it was against someone we were trying to do deals with. Would only favourable reviews be allowed?

Davie wrote:My biggest concern would be how we handled negative reviews.

Let's say Forest of Arden came onboard with it and had a thread of their own. IMO that course is the most disappointing of supposedly higher standard courses, I've ever played and I'd want to tell everyone what a pigpen it was.

I could see this being frowned upon if it was against someone we were trying to do deals with. Would only favourable reviews be allowed?

This is actually a good idea but it will be very hard to beat the likes of Top 100 course ( http://www.top100golfcourses.co.uk ). The one thing we have that they don’t is a thriving forum, so there is at least some difference.

As for negative reviews I think we should be as open and honest as possible when reviewing the courses. I would rather have a course reviewed accurately than have us skip over weaknesses in order to get a small discount. In fact would it not be a better project if we kept it as neutral as possible.

Since this idea was mentioned I have started to write up a review for a course I played last year which may be of interest, I hope.

I think the main point I am trying to make is that the goal should be to create a great source of user submitted reviews rather than to gain green fee discounts. I would think establishing a strong base of trusted and neutral reviews would serve the site better in the long term.

McLaren wrote:This is actually a good idea but it will be very hard to beat the likes of Top 100 course ( http://www.top100golfcourses.co.uk ). The one thing we have that they don’t is a thriving forum, so there is at least some difference.

If they don't have a forum then perhaps a linkup with them would be a better option? They have links to us, we have links to them, and we don't try to beat something that you say is already pretty well established?

Davie

The thing is on that site they write the original review, what we would do is have the regular punter write the reviews. If we have a set naming convention for the titles of course reviews it would be easy to see peoples general thoughts of a course just from the title. Would could have a star rating system for the courses reviewed. So in the title you might have

"The old Course, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland 5*"

Or depending on the structure of the directory the courses may already be categorized by location.

You could set up each course review as a poll, so that people could rate it.

The link up may be a better idea, as it would give them the problem of negative reviews. However, would they extend special offers to us, if available?

hobo

Why are you so concerned with special offers? The whole point of this site is to discuss golf, the best way to do that is to give people an open platform to express opinion and read unbiased points of view(well as far as is possible).

If all you want is a site where people get some cheap golf offers then join groupon or something similar.

Id you would prefer to be a site renowned as a place for frank discussion and a source of reliable reviews then forget about the deals.

I dont have the slightest concern for golf special offers to be fair - I believe it was a question you asked on the primetime thread though.

I do however, believe that getting offers for members, will encourage new people to join.

As I no longer play, getting cheap green fees is not in my self interest - it was more for you guys/ gals.

Hobo

Sorry for the confusion but my question was more related to gaining members and not getting deals or special offers.

If we agree that you have no interest in creating the golf directory for the purpose of getting deals, can we agree it should have no barriers to bad course reviews.

Whether in time the site gains such a status that some benefit from the odd reduced green fee may attract some new users to the site but a great source of information will attract a lot more.

"bad course reviews":
Perhaps there might be value in requiring more than one review before publication?

For instance, other reviewers might not mind the traffic and noise alongside Forest Of Arden fairways and just focus on the quality of the test of golf. Not disputing Davie's assessment in any way, but it might be more reasonable to allow it to be tempered with another view. If every review is unanimous that it is an overpriced pigpen then so be it.

Wouldn't mind a review site along the lines of Trip Advisor, Mac could have a Doak Scale slider on it.

super_realist wrote:Wouldn't mind a review site along the lines of Trip Advisor, Mac could have a Doak Scale slider on it.

I almost thought of mentioning trip adviser as an example, but does trip adviser provide the depth of analysis we would like to see for a golf course review?

Have no fear my reviews will have a doak rating,

Course it would have the depth. We don't need a reconassaince debrief on it, just a brief review and a few opinions.

I have chosen not to vote, as I don't think it is neither a good nor bad idea dependant on how it's worked.

I do not think that we could have clubs managing their own page, as this would lead to what i think would be favourable reviews only on their part. Yes many course will accept open and honest opinion but many others would not like a less favourable post being put up about their courses.

I've even seen some things where similar ideas to this have been tried and many of the clubs got their own members to post favourable arguments for playing there..

As for special offers i'm too with Mac on this there are plenty of sites that do groupons or 2-4-1's that really this not be an issue. I would much rather see someones honest opinion of a course, it's set up, the playability for all levels of golfer and the hospitality of the place.

So while it can be a good thing if we allow the users of the site to create the directory and add what they think is relevant and also allow others to be open about what they think of the course then great.

Okay, look at it from a wikipedia version of UK golf.

Edited and ran by the members of the forum - forget about club owned pages and discounts.

I still think that the opening post of each course should be a standard unbiased view (like the one I posted) but everything after that is fair game.

Brings a little consistency.

The way I see it a club/course would not have a page rather anyone can submit their own review of any course no matter how many times that course has been reviewed. So there would be no need to worry about a club managing its own page.

If we has one sticky titled "directory" within that we could create the directory using subsections of the forum.

So within that have sub sections for UK, Europe, N.America, Australia etc. Then within each of those have further sub sections for regions for regions.

That way if you know what area you are visiting it is easy to find all the courses reviewed for that area.

I assume the site search engine would find a course if you used the search function and searched topic titles for the course you want?