Club Bag Tag Etiquette Question

[mcoplea]

I would love to get some thoughts on the following scenario....

Mike is traveling out of state and while on the road he plays in a club's weekly bag tag challenge. He purchases one of the club's tags and ends up shooting a hot round and wins the clubs #1 tag. When the league director hands Mike the #1 tag, he asks Mike if he will be back for next week's tag challenge. Mike states that he is leaving the area the next day and will not be returning to the area. The league director then asks Mike if he would leave the #1 tag and take a different # so it could be in play for future weekly challenges.

What should Mike do in this situation?

 

[Putt for D'oh]

I would love to get some thoughts on the following scenario....

Mike is traveling out of state and while on the road he plays in a club's weekly bag tag challenge. He purchases one of the club's tags and ends up shooting a hot round and wins the clubs #1 tag. When the league director hands Mike the #1 tag, he asks Mike if he will be back for next week's tag challenge. Mike states that he is leaving the area the next day and will not be returning to the area. The league director then asks Mike if he would leave the #1 tag and take a different # so it could be in play for future weekly challenges.

What should Mike do in this situation?

My personal opinion mike should not be a dick.
Trade the tag for a lower one. Have someone sign it be cool buy people beer and leave them with good memories.

I've traveled out of town and like to get tags and play tag rounds when I can. Closest I've come to this story was a 4 tag that was over my head (I was on fire and a few others had horrible days) if that were the last day I was in town I woulda felt a bit guilty. High tags keep things alive and mean a lot for people playing. Taking one permenay out of the mix is not cool.

Just remembered as I was typing this last year in one of our course tag rounds Lewis Bittany took the 2 tag. He's kinda regular bit it's random. He knew he'd be back but also knew he wouldn't be around to be challenged to play for rags on random days and gave it back after rounds the next week. I don't know if he took high number or no tag but that is the classy thing to do.

 

[zendragon]

In my last league there were rules that if you were in the top 10 you had to accept a challenge within a certain time or forfeit your tag. You also had to participate in at least one tag match a quarter or forfeit your tag. I think this is a great rule to go by for high tags. Keeps the league active and ensures people who buy in are going to be serious about it.

 

[cheesethin]

We have a forfeit clause as well. A challenged player must offer two times to play within two weeks of being challenged or forfeit. If neither time suits the challenger then nothing happens.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[biscoe]

Take a picture with it if you want to but leave it behind would be the gentlemanly thing to do.

 

[davetherocketguy]

Kinda sounds like the league director needs to spell out the rules a little better so situations like this are addressed.

So Mike is leaving the area permanently? Or just an extended vacation or what? If the former then he should DEFINITELY give up the #1 tag and not be a jerk about it. The whole purpose of bag tags IMHO isn't who gets the #1 necessarily but socializing with the other players whom you may or may not ever play with on a regular basis and giving everyone a shot at whatever tag number is out in the wild.

-Dave

 

[dysmike]

This Mike travels a lot. This Mike tends to stay in one place at least a month, and it tends to be the same places. This Mike has played a lot of league rounds world-wide. This Mike has never payed into bag tags for this reason. Mike should not be a dick.

 

[Zanguini]

If it is now... and you have yearly tags... it shouldn't matter, let him keep it everyone is getting new tags in a few weeks anyhow....


But if it were me i would have traded who ever came in second.

 

[kenjiac]

I'd like to flip the perspective and show another view. I'm president of our local club. Bag Tags are a great fund raiser for us. I personally don't care if you buy one of our tags and never play for it or that low #s wind up out of the area. Thank you for supporting our club just the fact that you bought one means a lot to me. Once you paid for it we gotten funds that help us install, upgrade and maintain local courses. While I understand the mentality of the coveted #1 tag it also give locals an excuse to travel and try to get the tag back locally. I don't think we ever had someone super far away get our #1 but some high numbers definitely wind up up a couple hours away from tournament players doing well. But then our locals would go to their tournaments and try to get it back. What I don't to happen is what mike says below. Never do I want a player to not support our club because he may feel bad taking a low # tag out of the area. This Mike should be able to support clubs without feeling any shame instead of deciding not to support a club.

This Mike travels a lot. This Mike tends to stay in one place at least a month, and it tends to be the same places. This Mike has played a lot of league rounds world-wide. This Mike has never payed into bag tags for this reason. Mike should not be a dick.

 

[dysmike]

You know, you can donate some $$$ without buying a tag.

 

[kenjiac]

We have also created "club supporter" tags instead of a number in the past for players that want to support us and get a tag without feeling bad for never playing for it.

 

[GMcAtee]

I would love to get some thoughts on the following scenario....

Mike is traveling out of state and while on the road he plays in a club's weekly bag tag challenge. He purchases one of the club's tags and ends up shooting a hot round and wins the clubs #1 tag. When the league director hands Mike the #1 tag, he asks Mike if he will be back for next week's tag challenge. Mike states that he is leaving the area the next day and will not be returning to the area. The league director then asks Mike if he would leave the #1 tag and take a different # so it could be in play for future weekly challenges.

What should Mike do in this situation?

In the past if I won a top ten or top 20 tag from a club I don't visit often, I'd take the highest number. My tag purchase was to support the club.

The last couple of years, I've noticed a change in culture with out of town players keeping the low number tags. I've since stopped buying tags because of this. Totally lost interest in bag tags.

 

[wellsbranch250]

obviously the right thing to do is to take the highest tag with you. I won the #1 wells branch tag a week before leaving Austin. I gave it back to club on my last day in town and took a higher number.

 

[lines]

Of course trade it in for a higher tag... Get a fair amount of trash talk in, during the process. It's the 'Larry Bird' thing to do.

 

[JTacoma03]

Agreed. You are under no obligation to surrender the 1 tag, but it's the disc golf thing to do IMO.

 

[Future_Primitive]

This is a tough one, did the League Director know Mike was an out of towner before selling him on becoming a tag holder? If the LD knew and sold it anyway then I dont see a problem with Mike winning the #1 tag and taking it with him. He was offered membership, he paid for membership and he is entitled to membership perks. League members should direct their frustration to the LD in this case for selling membership to an out of towner stopping by for a round.

But if Mike didn't explain his travelling before hand and bought in knowing he would not be back then it might be best to turn it over. Take a photo with it as someone else posted, sign it or whatever and offer to take a high # tag for memories sake. If the LD didn't know or didn't ask during the sales pitch then it falls on Mike to be honest about the situation. It would be the polite thing to do, offering the #1 tag back to the club before he leaves town.

Either way not the end of the world if the #1 tag is or isn't in play. I have heard of LD's ordering a few #1 tags for scenarios similar to this when somebody wins it and never returns. Keep one stashed away for that last league day to guarantee it is in play for the finale.

 

[ThrowBot]

Obviously NOBODY deserves the #1 tag in this scenario. Let's face it: we're disc golfers.

Paint the tag black, tie some lead weights onto it, and toss it into the nearest body of water.

 

[ShopTom.com]

If you don't want him to take the tag he earned, don't take his money.

 

[gradus]

What should Mike do in this situation?

Mike should trade the #1 for the highest numbered tag available.

 

[davetherocketguy]

The more this discussion goes on the more it looks like we are putting the cart before the horse. The real issue here - to me anyways - what are the rules of the league? In our league the higher numbered tag challenges the lower numbered tag and if the lower numbered tag cannot meet in the area within a week then they have to forfeit their tag. We've defined what it means to be 'in the area' so people know what to expect. We're arguing over ethics but without knowing the league rules all of this discussion is moot IMHO. Well thought out and well written league rules will address situations like this.