Sorry for a rant here but I had an unwelcome first yesterday playing at a golf club in North Wales that I'm a member of... I was playing with my Brother in-law (a member for 5 years) and one of my neighbours (guest) and had a major issue with a 3-ball behind us.. We found out later that two of the 3-ball (Father and son) are good players at 5.9 and ~9 handicap respectively and they have been club members for 24 years according to the son.
We were on the 4th and had called a 2-ball through as we were in no rush. It's a par 4 and we'd all got to the green when we called them to play.. They drove and got to the green with no issue. When we then were about to walk to the green a ball clattered through the trees (still airborne) close to us and landed to our side... The group behind did shout "fore" so even though we thought it was pretty dangerous play we said nothing...
Fast forward to the 5th and we're on the green. Our guest thinks he's found his ball at the side in the rough but realises it's not his (his went in the adjacent water hazard) and goes into his bag for another ball to drop... Cue the 3-ball who have laid up behind us to start shouting abuse and gesticulating to us about slow play... we continue and give them some hand signals to say (as politely as possible) "fuck off" and walk to the 6th tee....
As we walk past the 5th green, the 3 ball are there and I say to the oldest guy (The father) "so firing balls at us didn't prompt us to let you through so you started shouting abuse at us?".. we then get into a slightly heated debate about etiquette as we both believe the other party is in the wrong... Cue the guy's son storming round to us from the 5th green shouting "come on then who wants a fucking go?".... he's right in my face telling me to shut the fuck up and he's been a member for 24 years blah blah blah... He tells me that we can sort this out in one of two ways, we go to the secretary's office and discuss it with him or we go off the course and he give me a fucking hiding :-D...
My brother in law is next to me discussing the rules of golf with this dickhead's Dad and numbnuts who I am stood with says to my brother in law Mal (who's from Ellesmere Port) "Are you from the Wirral? You're sort aren't welcome at this club" Mal's been a member at the club for 5 years.... I tell the guy that his comment is a little xenophobic and I'm not sure if it was the big word or something else that tips him over the edge but he comes at me.. Mal puts his hands between us as this ****'s clearly lost it (I later found out he's a rag which explains a lot) and he pushes Mal's arms away... The guy then pushes me in the chest and backwards off the cart path I was stood on... He's also threatened to rip my fucking hand off for pointing at him by this time too.. After he's pushed me I say "that's assault where I come from fella" then he shouts to a 3-ball close by "did you see that lads... he assaulted me"... They tell him by name to "back off" so it seems obvious that he has previous...
Anyway we move on to the green on the hole we're playing and leave these dickheads to it... Mal and Ian my guest are pretty shocked at this behaviour (we've never seen anything like it to be fair) and we decide it's ruined the day and we walk off the course...
We discussed the incident with the pro and he says put it all in writing and mail the secretary / captain... While we're speaking with the pro the bar manager is earwigging.. She asks who we're talking about and when we tell her his name she rolls her eyes and says "there's a surprise"
Cutting this long story short, I sent a very detailed email to the club, the captain replied today and tells me that this is a formal complaint and the member in question will be the subject of a meeting with the disciplinary committee..... Whatever their findings and if they uphold the complaint he can either accept their ruling or opt to go to a full committee hearing and then the outcome is final.. I have no idea what he would have said when he finished his round so there is every chance that i'll be accused of something but I can deal with that...
My question is, what outcome should I be hoping for? (assuming he coughs to the accusations... a stretch for a rag I know) and what do we do re the suggestion that the English aren't welcome at the club? To compound this, recently our club ended a reciprocal agreement with some "English" clubs where we could play at each others courses because members were wanting to come to our club to play and some of our members complained.......
The decision now , regardless of the outcome of the disciplinary, is do the three of us (me and my two brother in-laws) stay beyond October when our green fees run out and fight our corner or do we assume that there are others like this dick and leave to join an English club????
I don't like the thought of one bad apple spoiling the cider but there could be more of them than him flying the Welsh Nationalist flag and this could quickly get around that I (we) complained about him....
All this because they think we're playing slowly...