We just started a new club on a 9-hole course where 6 of the nine holes are 200-270 feet in length. All but one of these is in the open.

At our club meeting we were determining our weekly and monthly buyin rules and it was decided that the non-members could enter the ace pool, but would only be eligible to win what was added that day (probably $10-20). When I asked why the non-members could not win the entire pool, the response was that we do not want folks coming to our weeklies when the pool gets up to $300-400 just to win the pool.

What are your thoughts on this? Do other clubs have a similar rule? I realize that aces are going to be more common on our course, but I am not sure this plays a huge role in the decision. Our pots will probably never be tremendous in size...but do we need to "protect" the pool from outsiders?

Oh, one other fact. The initial buyin will be $3 and every buyin after that is $1 until the pot is won. This is true for non-members also.

The ADGA (one of the longest running clubs in TX) requires a club membership to shoot at their ace pots. Since the ace pool grows to $750+...and as high as $2,500...it's nice to know that a club member is going to walk away with the cash. It also boosts memberships once it gets up there in value. For instance, the Dallas golfers start to come over and must be a current Arlington DGA member to even have a crack at it. We have hosted weekly minis with attendances of more than 90 players!

We let whoever plays take it...weather or not they play every week....I hve beter odds playing every week...We also cap it at 150$ so that if its hit, there is a another ace pot waiting.

also with the course being so short and open there is a good chance the ace pool will never get that high. i am seeing aces out there being relativley common.

We also cap our aces, but it's more like "progressive" capping. We build an ace pot to $500, then cap it. We then build a 2nd ace pot to $250, then cap it. Once the second one is capped, the original one then builds to $750...it is then capped again. Then the 2nd ace pot is brought up to $500 and capped and a third ace pot is started. Once the 3rd ace pot reaches $250, and we have 3 "capped" ace pots at $750, $500, and $250....WE THEN FINALLY let the $750 build until it gets popped. Once it is hit, there is $500 right behind it ready to build to $750 again. Just think...last summer we had an ace pot get to $2500 with a $500 and a $250 in reserve......$3200 total between the 3 pools.

Other clubs sometimes do 80%-20% splits. Basically, build the ace pot to "X" amount and when an ace is hit, the thrower gets 80% of the total pot, leaving 20% for next week. This can yield some decent ace payoffs as long as there aren't too many aces in a short amount of time.

25 hunge man i need to move to texas and start running at everything :D

I bet there were some ugl scores when the ace pot got that big!!! people running at every hole....

Having to be a member of any club to run @ an ace is silly..
It does promote membership , but then all you get is a bunch of members who only want to run @ the ace.

How about Club Members get 100% of the Ace Pot if hit and Non Members get 50% of the Ace Pot and the rest goes to the Club Fund?

How about Club Members get 100% of the Ace Pot if hit and Non Members get 50% of the Ace Pot and the rest goes to the Club Fund?


This is one of the new ideas the club is kicking around.

sounds very reasonable.