The BTG Member-Guest Guide

Share Details: Send your guest the tournament schedule, format (match play, scramble), dress code, and any special events (dinners or awards ceremonies) well in advance. Just common courtesy. If you have questions on the dress code read How to Dress When Playing Golf.

Be a Host: Don’t split the bill, it’s poor form. You’re a host, act like it and pay for everything.

Choose Your Guest Wisely: This is for the guys who like to change up guests each year. My general advice is to avoid bringing someone too far on either end of the skill spectrum. You want to bring a solid, sociable guest who is a good enough player to get around and stay competitive, but not too good to draw unwanted attention and accusations of questionable handicap behavior. Make sure you can put up with them for 54 holes. It’s a marathon.

Confirm Details: Don’t be the guy who is a total ghost and then shows up to the first tee. Confirm all travel plans a week or so ahead of time, and show up with a gift, no matter how small.

Follow all Club Rules: Confirm with your host if there are any club-specific rules that you need to follow. More formal clubs will likely prohibit phone usage etc etc while more laid back clubs won’t care as much. Don’t be the guest breaking rules, it makes you and your host look bad.

Respect the Staff: Don’t be the guy mouthing off to the golf staff, or anyone at the club for that matter. They are logging 15+ hour days to make the tournament go, don’t be an asshole. This deserved it’s own bullet.

Drinking: Don’t be the drunkest guy at the dinner (if there is one). Trust me, it’s not a frat party.

The Country Club Stick: This guy will certainly be in the first flight, and has been playing with the same member for a decade. They’ve won at least 5 times, and the member takes the tournament as seriously as the Masters. You can easily identify these players by reading the guide Signs of a True Country Club Stick.

The Bachelor Party: Two thirty-somethings who never grew up. They both have a few young kids, and mark this tournament on their calendar on January 1st every year. They count the minutes to when they can leave their wife for 3 days and “crush beers” with each other. They will lose every match, and a self-sourced 30-rack will be in the cart each day.

The Class Clown: You want to be paired with this guy (and his member). He’s usually a close relative or high school friend of the member, and he’s absolutely hilarious. He wields a cavernous bag of jokes (most are offensive and/or sexual in nature), and his delivery is so good that he could tell the same joke 3 holes in a row and it would still hit. He’s usually about 5’6 and putts with a bullseye. As a team, they have played in 25 consecutive member guests and know each others games better than their own. In rare cases the Class Clown can be more beloved than the member himself.

Matching Outfit Teams: Some overlap here with the Sandbagging Bandit team. Matching outfits don’t play —your matching PM summer comfort shirts and tour visors aren’t making you an elite net better ball team. You’re an adult, an individual! Have some self respect!

The Grinders: Usually found in the top 1 or 2 flights, this team believes they are playing in the US Open. Neither player will strike a putt nor pull a club without a full blown Spieth-Greller conversation. I’m all for competition in these events, but there’s a fine line between country club golf and competitive amateur golf, and you’ll always find a group or two that can’t tell the difference. They are middle-management types that have nothing else to show for themselves outside of the glassware they bring home from this event every few years.

The Trust Fund: This is the top 50 version of the Bachelor Party archetype. If you can solicit an invite to an elite member-guest, these groups are all over the place. The guys “work for their Dad” in some niche manufacturing business you don’t understand (neither do they). This team will have 2-3 logos showing per person, and the total sum of the course rankings on display will always be below 20. Transfusions and cigarettes are always in play with these guys.

Team White Belt: As much as we push back, they persist.

The Sandbagging Bandit Team: They’ve won the 8th flight 12 years in a row, and you’re having a hard time remembering which guy is the member since both guys logged 50 rounds at the club last year. (only posted 20 scores).

Concession Nuances (Rule 3.2b): You can concede a hole or match at any time, but once conceded, it’s final and cannot be withdrawn, even if you later realize a rules violation (e.g., opponent played the wrong ball). Amateurs might miss that conceding a putt doesn’t carry over to the next hole.

Order of Play Errors (Rule 6.4): In match play, playing out of turn doesn’t incur a penalty, but your opponent can recall the shot, forcing you to replay it. This is often overlooked, especially in casual matches.

Wrong Ball in Match Play (Rule 6.3c): If you play a wrong ball, you lose the hole automatically, unlike stroke play’s two-stroke penalty. Amateurs might not realize the severity until it’s too late.