About Our Program

We started a Men's Night program at my home club, the Brantford Golf and Country Club in 2003 but it was very slow to catch on. As of 2005 we were puttering along with about 50 - 60 players per week but there was no vibe around the club. Looking back now, I can see that, like most league administrators, I was focused too much on the golf and not enough on the entertainment. I wanted a system that rewarded performance, promoted participation and presented the results in an entertaining fashion. With that in mind, we introduced a version of the current system and things took off almost immediately. Just 2 years later we had over 250 players sign for up for our Men's Night, we average almost 190 players per week and you literally have trouble finding a seat in our lounge on Wednesday night. The best part about all this is that as much as the program improved camaraderie and got people more involved, the ultimate benefactor is the entire club through a significant increase in food and beverage sales and the fact that the tangible sense of excitement that surrounds the league has spilled over to other club events. Because of the popularity of the program we now hold a separate opening and closing for our Men's Night and generate in the neighbourhood of $35,000 worth of prizes per year for the Pro Shop.

There are three parts to the system. The homepage, which allows for commentary (an extremely important part of our success in my opinion), the scoring information and, of course, the live scoring for the club TV's. The nice thing about the homepage is that it brings all of the participants together. Some clubs get as many as 1000 hits a day on their league websites during the peak of the summer - extraordinary activity for websites that are dedicated to such a specific group. Players will log on to their league site regularly to see who was the focus of the weekly article, to learn how their team fared, check the standings and to peruse their personal and friends statistics. We've also included a Comments section on the homepage to allow for some good natured back-and-forth between the teams and players.

One of the most popular features of the program is the weekly commentary. When we first designed the system I had no idea just how important this section of the program would become. I usually wrote a brief article recapping the scoring along with a line or two about an odd or interesting thing that took place but I missed a week because of a rain-out. Based on the phone calls and Email I received you would have thought we aerated the greens just prior to the Member/Guest. I hadn't realized how many people put the www.golfscoring.net/brantford into their favourites section and were now checking the site regularly. It was very obvious that the players felt they belonged to the league as opposed to just participating in it and having the scoring information coupled with the weekly articles was the key. Now, before we go any further, I know what you're thinking... "I'm happy to write the odd story but I don't have the time to craft something each and every week." Believe me, I'm with you. Because we feel the stories are such an important part of the program we provide a series of pre-written articles to help you keep your players entertained.

Pat,

"I hate to say it but you know you're a genius don't you?" It was better than I even hoped it would be! Plans are already under way for next year which I'm sure will be even bigger. Oh, and our Women's League want to get in on the action for next year as well."

Bernie Hanna, Men's Night Convener, Beverly G. & C. C.