Booking your competition slot online

For those who cannot easily get to the Clubhouse to book their competition times, the Club is introducing the facility to book one slot in each hour online.

You can enter your names via the website for Saturday competitions starting with the Stableford on Saturday August 5th. (The facility will be activated at the same time as the paper starting sheet is placed on the Club Noticeboard.)

One slot will be available for online booking each hour, at 6 minutes past the hour.

Go to the Diary page of the website, then go the date on which the competition is being played and click on "bookable event". This will activate the normal registration process; to prevent non-members accessing the system you will be required to enter your username and password.

The bookable times will then appear. Enter your name in the slot you want. Note that you cannot enter anyone else’s name – if you have arranged to play with a partner, they will have to enter their own name – or provide you with their registration details.

The paper form on the Notice Board will continue as normal for all other tee times. If any online slots have not been filled by 5.00pm on the Friday before the competition then these will be available for booking on the Saturday via the Professional.

Web – or maze?

Recently heard in the Clubhouse - ‘What are they doing to the 5th green ?’ and ‘What member of the Committee is responsible for catering ?’ Both answers are on the website. So we asked Roger Duffett, editor of the Magazine section, to provide a duffer’s guide to www.liphookgolfclub.com.

A website and a Sunday paper have much in common and we each have our own theories on which sections to ignore, which to read first and which to save for later. This can only be resolved by experience and we can all profit by exploring the Club website. The ‘Home Page’ provides access to the latest items of interest and to the following six major sections.

‘About the Club’ comprises History, Visitor Information, Society Information and Links (to other golf websites). Although it is essentially static and intended mainly for the information of visitors, members can still enjoy reading it.

‘Course andClubhouse’ comprises information about The Course and Clubhouse for visitors. ‘The Course’ contains a regular feature by David Murdoch. Ian Mowbray ensures that the Professional section is dynamic and all members should look at it regularly.

‘News’ is essential reading for members. Club News, Committee (members of the Committee and what they do), Committee News, Ladies Section and Junior Section deserve regular inspection. The Club Magazine is an ever-changing source of mildly eccentric articles about what goes on in the Club and is an unusual feature of Golf Club websites.

‘Membership’ provides essential information for anyone wishing to join the Club – or to sponsor potential members.

‘Notices’ should probably be your first point of regular call. The Bulletin Board is used by the Secretary for any housekeeping notices and appeals for prompt action by members (e.g. players for matches), Members Details provides members only (via a password issued to members on e-mail) with contact information for other members, Diary provides the daily programme of the course usage and gives access to ‘howdidido’ (individual handicaps, results of Club competitions).

‘Diary’ provides a more direct route to the same section under Notices.We shall soon be adding the facility for members to book one of two slots in each hour of most weekend competitions.

It is extremely tedious to struggle through all the highways and by-ways of any website on a regular basis. The most convenient approach is to use ‘bookmarks’ or ‘favourites’ to provide you with direct access to the sections that you wish to use most often (e.g. Diary, Members Details, Bulletin Board, Committee News, Club Magazine). It is well worth looking at each of these at least once a week and, preferably, more frequently.

The structure of the Club website has recently been substantially amended and improvements are continuously in hand. If you have any suggestions for further improvements, please contact Michael Blakstad on michaelblakstad@btinternet.com