A short set of expectations, held lightly — and a few held firmly. Everything a Strawgrass member is asked to know.
Membership at Strawgrass is small by design. We keep it that way so the place can pay attention — to the course, to the calendar, and to you. This handbook is the whole of our law: a short set of expectations, held lightly, and a few held firmly.
Read it once. Most of it you already know, because most of it is simply how a person of good character behaves on a golf course that happens to be seventy yards long.
We are earnest about this game, and we ask the same of our members. The fact that the course is short, the balls are wiffle, and the greens would fit beneath a picnic blanket changes nothing. A missed two-footer counts. A generous concession is remembered. The standard is not difficulty; the standard is care.
A collared shirt or a proper Strawgrass tee. No gym wear, no swimwear beyond the Aquatic Center, and nothing you would be embarrassed to be photographed in beside the crest.
Spikes are not permitted on the greens. They are synthetic, they are two to five square feet, and they will remember you.
Eighteen holes at Strawgrass take well under two hours when played at the proper clip. Keep your group ahead of the one behind it. If you are searching for a wiffle ball for longer than ninety seconds, it has done you a kindness by leaving; let it go.
Official Strawgrass wiffle balls only, clearly marked, are permitted in play and in competition. This is the first line of the scorecard and the one rule we enforce without exception or apology.
In the Invitational, each player carries a single club of their choosing. Choose wisely; you will be living with it for eighteen holes.
Our greens are synthetic, firm, and quick — defended by contour rather than distance. Treat them as you would the finest bentgrass: no spikes, no dragged feet, and the flag replaced exactly as you found it. They are small. They notice everything.
Members are welcome to bring guests, and are responsible for their guests in every particular — conduct, dress, pace, and, regrettably, short game. A guest may play the course twice in a calendar season before the membership committee begins, gently, to wonder.
Post every round through the Members’ Clubhouse. We follow the World Handicap System: your Handicap Index is the average of your best Score Differentials from your most recent twenty rounds, and the committee will recognise an official Index once you have posted three.
Scores should be entered as your adjusted gross — each hole capped at net double bogey. We extend you the courtesy of trusting your arithmetic. Do not make us regret it.
Request your times on the daily tee sheet; the shop confirms, usually within a day. Frost delays are observed in full, however absurd they may seem in July. On all questions of weather and playability, the General Manager’s word is final and cheerfully arbitrary.
The nineteenth hole is the most reliably contested on the property. Wagers are settled here, the Calcutta is conducted here, and the Prairie Fire is poured here. Conduct after sundown is governed by the same code as conduct before it, enforced with marginally more sympathy.
Members receive priority entry to the Strawgrass Invitational: a two-man bramble, one club each, a Calcutta the night before, and barbecue throughout. It is the high holy day of the Strawgrass calendar. Enter early; the field is kept short, like everything else here.
Final authority on all matters of membership, play, and interpretation rests with the General Manager, Mr. Arnold Fairways. This handbook may be amended at any time, without notice, and frequently is. Ignorance of an amendment is, as ever, no defence — though it is often forgiven over a drink.
