New Courses - When to add to DGCR?

[Gblambert]

We've been working on a couple of new courses and have gotten the smaller mini course to the point where it's playable, but not yet complete. It still needs concrete tees, better signage, and benches, but we probably won't be able to put these in for another year or so while we focus all of our efforts on completing the full size course. We've had a couple of tournaments already and are getting a steady stream of players that seem to like what we've done so far. So, I'd like to go ahead and put it on DGCR, but don't want to start with a bunch of bad ratings due to its unfinished state.

So my questions are - if we go ahead and add the course to DGCR, should we expect a lower course rating due to the remaining unfinished work and if so, is it possible to get the ratings to climb back up in the future after all of the unfinished work is completed?

Here's a thread I posted about the course when I thought we would have time to finish all of the work before adding it to DGCR:

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113641

 

[johnrhouck]

If you want to let people know about the course, but it's not ready to review, you can put it up and disable reviews for a while. I've done this on a couple courses -- you just need to write to Tim.

That way, people can see what it looks like and know it's there, and it gives you the opportunity to let them know that it's still under construction.

 

[goosefraba1]

It would be cool if ratings were automatically disable for say 6 months... or a certain period of time. Although, I don't think Tim really cares to do this for us.

 

[DavidSauls]

It would also be cool if, at some point, a course designer could disable ratings before a certain date, but keep the reviews. Perhaps with a notice inserted among the reviews, that older reviews are not included in ratings.

That way people could review it and describe it for others, even rate it accurately during its early rough stages, and we'd keep their descriptions while not including their ratings in the rating of the finished course.

Alas, besides the extra work that would entail, it would be open to abuse. Imagine a course, with its various fans constantly contacting Tim to change the rating exclusion date, to give their course its best possible rating.

 

[Gblambert]

If you want to let people know about the course, but it's not ready to review, you can put it up and disable reviews for a while. I've done this on a couple courses -- you just need to write to Tim.

That way, people can see what it looks like and know it's there, and it gives you the opportunity to let them know that it's still under construction.

Thanks, John. I didn't know this was an option , but it sounds like a good way to get the course on the radar without penalizing it for the unfinished amenities. Great advice, as usual!

 

[jdawg24]

I'd hold off on it, if you can, or disable the reviews. You will get negative reviews and it will distort your rating. I've actually been going back and forth with Tim on this the last week.

Courses are often installed very slowly, especially when done in part or full by volunteers or in the case of a limited budget, which is many courses. It's advantageous for several reasons to attract players to the course during the development phase - you might need to attract more volunteers to help build it, or show a city/county that people will use the course, or need to raise substantial money to complete a course. Having a rating, especially a good rating, helps do all of those things. But - nearly all reviewers will knock the rating for the incomplete status. Some people will update their review later, but others will not or may not play the course again for years.

I've turned it on from the start in two cases, and both are stuck with negative reviews that don't reflect the finished course as it currently plays.

We built Perkerson Park in Atlanta GA by hand with a small group of volunteers and this site was very helpful in getting people out to play the course, which helped us attract more help in building it and ultimately completing it. We financed that course with a nearly $50k grant and had to raise a matching amount in donations / labor credits. This site was very helpful in driving traffic and attention and helping us raise the money, get the grant, and build the course. Still - for that course (which is rated 3.95), the three lowest reviews now (a 1.0 and two 3.0s) all reflect the pre-construction course. I figured we would reset the course after completing the main construction installation, but was not allowed to do that.

With another course I've just finished, Frog Rock in Austell GA, the city installed the course in two 9-hole phases due to their budget and needing to clear land for the course. The first phase opened two years ago in 2013, and the 2nd nine holes opened yesterday. I again thought the course would be reset, since from 9 to 18 holes constitutes a major change, but that was not allowed. 8 of 9 reviews on that course knock it for being just 9 holes. A handful will probably get updated, but some won't, which distorts the rating and provides misleading information.

Point being, under the current setup, if you'd like an accurate rating for your course, wait as long as possible to allow reviews on this website.

It would be nice if there was a temporary status you could tag the course under so people could review it to some degree while its under construction, or if there were better and more consistent guidelines for what constitutes a major change that warrants a review reset.