A club near to me is offering membership of their club as a prize in a tournament.

Assuming the value is not more than the Amateur prize limit, is this an acceptable practice, or is it regarded as equivalent to cash? Would the club offering such a prize be breaching any Amateur Status guidelines, and would an amateur be able to legitimately accept such a prize?

There is a restriction on a player accepting membership of a club as an inducement to play for that club (Amateur Status Rule 6-6) but it only applies to players of “golf skill or reputation”.

Are you saying you have no skill or reputation? 8)

I would check with your local association or even the PGA, one of them would be able to tell you definitely one way or the other.

Cheers
Brett

I’d ask the club themselves, hopefully they have already run it by the state association.

Most have stayed away from this thread and probably with good reason, breaches of the amatuer status rules are not pursued by ROs or club committees (in Australia anyway) but by State or National governing bodies. My intitial thought was that if it was within the prize limit it would have been ok (prize limits 500 quid in the UK, $1200 Aus), but the following decision seems to supply the answer:

Amatuer Status Decision 3-2c/3
PRIZE OF YEAR’S SUBSCRIPTION TO GOLF CLUB

Q. Will a player forfeit his Amateur Status if he accepts as a prize a year’s subscription to a golf club even if the amount of the subscription payable by other club members is less than the prize limit permitted by the Rules?

A. Yes. In the same way that an amateur golfer may not use a voucher to pay for his golf club subscription, he is not permitted to accept a prize of a year’s subscription to a golf club as this would be the equivalent of converting his prize into money in breach of Rule 3-2c. Acceptance of a prize of an honorary membership of a club would also constitute a breach of Rule 3-2c. (Formerly 3-2c/5)

Thanks. I was doubtful about it, and I know it was not a mainstream Rules question, but I thought some knowledgeable person here might have an answer.

Actually, your answer referred me in a round about way to the Amateur Status decisions on the R&A website, I didn’t know they had been put up.

I’d ask the club themselves, hopefully they have already run it by the state association.

I wouldn’t assume anything with a club. Some of them work on hearsay, some never bother to check. Some would be naively ignorant.

I wouldn’t assume anything with a club. Some of them work on hearsay, some never bother to check. Some would be naively ignorant.

And from the decision quoted by thieftaker above it would appear that they haven’t checked or are naively ignorant as you say. It’s a worry.

The rules of Amateur Status are not well policed at all in my experience.

I think the state associations treat the issue like the proverbial three wise monkeys (hear no evil, ... ). It is pretty rare to see players lose their amateur status for breaches.

Every year events take place with prizes that exceed the limits (eg cars) or are probibited by the amateur status rules (eg cash and certain sweepstake/calcutta type events). There is also the questionable practice or free memberships to recruit star pennant players.

Cheers
John