About Player Assistants, Golf Course Marshalls and Golf Course Starters

Player Assistants, Golf Course Marshalls and the Golf Course Starters play an important role on the golf course. Often these positions are filled by volunteers, some may even receive discounts on their golf but some are paid positions depending on the golf club or even the golf pro.

The role of the player assistants is to make sure that the golf course play moves. When courses get busy, it's not unusual for a golf course to let a new foursome go out on the golf course every seven minutes. This is because a typical four hour golf game will take approximately 20 minutes per hole maximum, and many times two foursomes can be on a given hole at any time. With golf carts, the play should precede faster because there is less delay getting to your ball.

Golf Course Starters have the list of tee times. They take receipts from players and help regulate the first tee by ensuring that golfers are paired up into foursomes, informed about rules and regulations on the course, providing directions to how to know where the next hole is, where the pin is, and that everyone is ready to go, where the bathrooms can be found, where to find water, and that everyone feels welcome.

Golf Course Assistants in my experience play a big role, often rescuing golfers on the golf course and thereby making sure the game proceeds in a timely fashion. The most important job they do is reassuring golfers they are welcome and chatting with them while they wait. Other duties include:

• rescuing golfers when golf carts won't go
• providing medical aid for a variety of conditions including snake and alligator bites, heat exhaustion, heart attacks, fainting spells etc.
• providing water and ensuring the water containers are full (sometimes cold and flavored with lemon)
• retrieving lost clubs from previous holes
• delivering golfers to the bathroom or clubhouse
• warning about storms
• providing rakes, flags and other essentials forgotten by golf course staff hurrying to finish their work before the customers show up

Golf Course Marshalls are a different name for Golf Course Assistants and provide many of the same duties, but they also ensure the game proceeds in a timely fashion by asking players to:

• pick up their ball after a given number of strokes
• limit their search for golf balls to a given time
• play best ball when beginners lose too many balls or are too slow
• asking golfers to allow other golfers to step aside and let the players waiting continue their game
• asking players to limit drinks when they are damaging the course or equipment

Golf Course Marshalls, Golf Course Assistants, and Golf Course Starters are their to help everyone have an enjoyable game. If you have a question, they're the right person to ask.

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