Pennant time coming up and just wondering the ways differnt clubs recruit and select their teams from within their membership base and if its inclusive or not.

Cheers

Our women’s pennant team goes on handicap from what I know. All of the best handicapped players seem to get on the team unless they count themselves out for some reason.

Maggie

Each year, at my club(s), a notice is putt up in our locker room requesting those ladies who wish to play pennant put their name on a list.

The following is how it works at the clubs (in Sydney) where I have been involved (not sure how it works elsewhere):-

Your handicap will determine which team e.g. Bronze 1 – minimum handicap of 19; Bronze 11 – min handicap of 25; Bronze 111 – min handicap of 30 and so on.

Some ladies may not be available for all games so availability for each of the games in the draw is determined and a team including a couple of reserves is selected.

Each week the team captain selects the team based on availability and handicap of each of the ladies.

On match day the order in which the players are placed is in order of lowest to highest handicap.

I captained a pennant team last year and had trouble fielding a team a couple of times during the pennant season due to illness and travel commitments. Luckily for me, to field a team of 5 I had 10-11 ladies to call on.

If you want to play put your name on the list. From my experience there are ladies who pull out last minute.

No list at my mates club… only some players been invited to join team…very hush hush. Not inclusive at all esp when we know theres often diff finding a full team. She was offended after giving her club much support over the years.

My club follows yr procedure and are very inclusive which is great.

That’s a shame for your mate. I have heard of this happening at other clubs too particularly in the Grade teams. I am not good enough to make a grade team so have not personally experienced this happening. Not sure I would want to be a member of such a club!
The clubs I have played pennant for have been inclusive which has made playing pennant a great experience I would recommend to all.

Good luck to you for your pennant season.

Interesting. I am not in the handicap range to be in the mix for pennant, and I am not available anyway, so there may be a more formal system in place than I know about. I do know that just about anyone who is interested in helping out has a chance – heaps of people who aren’t in the relevant handicap range end up caddying for pennant players.

I was with her deege when she asked the lady cpt how it was organised and if she could be involved (just being out of hcap range) with a view to perhaps playing nxt year and was told very clearly she wasnt in the squad which was finalized already, despite no info ever being provided, so she couldnt be involved! The cpt was very defensive about their process or lack of it, like thats the way all clubs do it. It was very embarrassing for my friend and cpt was inappropriately rude i thought but then didnt know how other clubs approached it – like it was a secret was typical for a small country club.. Very disappointing.

I wonder whose jurisdiction pennant comes under – the district?

It’s entirely up to the club to select their team members. If you don’t like how they do it, change clubs. For a stir, you might write to the general committee expressing your displeasure with the current process, or lack thereof.

At our club, we appoint pennant captains for each team. The captains then seek volunteers and the team members for each event are selected from those. We try and get everybody who volunteers at least one match, preferably two (minimum requirement to compete in the final).

Of course, some members perform better under pressure and at ‘foreign’ courses than others. That’s what the pennant captains are looking for.

not sure how the girls do it at our club but for the men there are 4 divisions based on handicap. 4 lists go up on the board and if your interested you put your name on the list. Not often that they get too many names so they just take those who apply. Captain picks a team from that based upon who is available

I have captained teams before and its a juggling act to make sure you have a team on deck without resorting to naming a reserve and have him turn up and not get a game . being a country area some games are an hour from home.

interesting part this year is that with the new handicap system the majority of members have dropped 3-5 shots off their old handicaps, however the cut off brackets are still the same as before. I have made it into Division 1 for the first time ever as my handicap has gone from 8 to 4. However AI know that I am going to come up against players whose handicap has gone from 4 to scratch or better !! Sooooo I do not have the highest of expectations, but hey , its matchplay and you never know whats going to happen

PS First game today washed out. Does that give me my first half point as a Div 1 player?? lol

Maggie, our pennant season is still nearly four months away.

At my club, there used to be two teams that competed in inter-club handicap match-play competitions. There were a few players that did not compete in those teams as they handicaps were too low to qualify to play… so the club entered a team in the Pennant 3 competition. The first year was a shared team with another club, then we had a stand-alone pennant team. The top and out our pennant team largely picks itself, as they are the ones who qualify only for pennant…the last spot overlaps into the range of one of the handicap match-play teams.. which would make selection interesting.

On opening day for the Winter season there are three lists formed for the three levels of competition… I think there should be one list and let handicap and form decide the team and position a person plays… But who am I… apart from the pennant No. 1

But mekat, its a procedure thats well known, right? Not some secret that only a handful of players know about?

Im of the view that we all pay the same membrrship fee, so these things should be posted before its finalized…so we are all aware of whatever process has been used. I agree, a list for all interested people and then capt choses team on hcap and form….how hard istat?

And some people wonder why many clubs don’t have much of a following for their pennant players.

Playing Pennant for your club is probably the biggest privilege most players will ever get as a golfer. The selection process should be totally transparent and inclusive. Any club that decides it wants to keep it a secret from sections of the membership is doing itself no favours.

If you’re serious about pennant, run proper trials, preferably on away courses where you can give everyone a go and pick your team based on performance only.

Ours used to be a bit of a boys club…to the point where I didn’t make it a year or 2 ago when I was off 1 and a dude off 4 or 5 made it. This year they went off handicap and 2 was too high to make the team. Not jaded this year because at least it was decided on some sort of skill basis, not who was deciding on the team. It would be nice to have trials and so forth, because as we all know matchplay is a much different game to stroke.

The Pennant Manager is elected by the General Committee and the first task in seeking players is to scan the Club’s membership list and create a list of all available players within a specified handicap range. From there an invitation is sent to all players with a firm rsvp to either attend a Pennant player meeting or to make direct contact with the Pennant Manager. All ‘financial’ full members of the club are eligible for Pennant.

The Pennant Manager is elected by the General Committee and the first task in seeking players is to scan the Club’s membership list and create a list of all available players within a specified handicap range. From there an invitation is sent to all players with a firm rsvp to either attend a Pennant player meeting or to make direct contact with the Pennant Manager. All ‘financial’ full members of the club are eligible for Pennant.

“Golf is played between the ears”

our selection process similar….except selecting manager bit…..he puts his hand up

Same at our club, with the exception that, if no-one volunteers, the Club Captain has to do it.

Yes I have seen the Club Captain performing that added duty elsewhere some time ago …... desperate times for that club with no ‘hands up’.

The job of Pennant Manager is just so important and you really need the right person, a person that has his heart and soul committed to the job. In some cases here in Melb’ne he starts collation of players in late October and the season carries on to May in some years…... that’s 6 months for a 7 round season plus hopefully the Final.