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The Ashton Standard

SampleA sample house. The name is fictional; the standards are real examples from our library.

Sample manual

See what your club would get.

Wexcombe Golf Club is a private golf club we made up. This is the manual we would write with a house like it: three of its standards, a lesson built from one of them, the knowledge check that follows, and the certificate at the end. Nothing to sign up for.

House Standards

Wexcombe Golf Club

Outside services and clubhouse

Edition one · 2026

Written with The Ashton Standard

SOP 1 · Caddie

The First Meeting with Your Player

Introduce yourself, learn how this player wants to be caddied for, and settle the terms of the next four hours in under two minutes.

Why it matters

Two minutes on the practice green decides whether the round is a partnership or a long walk with a stranger carrying the clubs. A caddie who never asks what the player wants spends eighteen holes guessing, giving full reads to a player who wanted only a number. The player will not correct you on the second hole; they will simply stop asking, and the loop dies quietly. Ask once, at the start, and you never have to guess again.

Wexcombe Golf Club · House Standards

The procedure

Role
Caddie
Checked by
Caddie master
Section
SOP 1 of 3
Revision
Edition one, 2026
  1. Meet the player where they arrive, at the drop, the practice green or the first tee, and go to them rather than waiting to be found.
  2. Introduce yourself by first name and use theirs back: "Good morning Mr Ellis, I am Tom, I will be with you today."
  3. Ask the three questions that shape the round: how much they want on the greens, whether they want a club or only a number, and whether they play a particular ball.
  4. Confirm the ball by make, number and personal mark, repeat it back, and write it on your card.
  5. Ask about the game. Match, medal, or nothing at all, and whether anyone is keeping the card.
  6. Tell them what you know that they do not: hole locations, green speed, which way the course is playing, any hole out of play.
  7. Offer the practice green: hand them three balls, take the bag, and stand off the surface while they roll putts.
  8. Give them one number before they leave the putting green, the carry to the corner or the hazard on the first, so they know you are already working.
  9. Walk to the tee alongside them, not behind them, and be at the marker before they are.

Common mistakes

  • Waiting at the bag for the player to come and introduce themselves, which sets the loop up as staff rather than partnership.
  • Not asking how much they want on the greens, then delivering full reads to a player who finds them a distraction.
  • Failing to log the ball make and number, which turns the first lost ball into a guessing game.
  • Opening with a story about yourself instead of a question about them.

The house standard

The player is met before they reach the bag, greeted by name, and asked three short questions that decide how the next four hours will run. By the first tee the caddie knows the ball, the game, how much talk is wanted and how much read, and the player has already been handed something useful. It feels less like being assigned a caddie than like being met by somebody who was expecting them.

Manager's checklist

  • Went to the player rather than waiting to be found
  • Introduced by name and used the player's name back
  • Asked how much help was wanted on the greens
  • Ball make, number and mark recorded on the card
  • Hole locations and green speed offered unprompted
  • At the tee marker before the player

SOP 2 · Starter

The First Tee Address: What Every Group Is Told

Give every group the same short address so all four players leave the tee knowing the course setup, the pace expected of them, and where to find help.

Why it matters

Whatever a group is not told at the first tee becomes a question asked of somebody else later, usually of a person with less time to answer it: a ranger on the seventh, a halfway house attendant with four groups waiting, a beverage cart driver who does not know where the flags are. Worse, a group that was never told the pace cannot be held to it, and the ranger who tries at two in the afternoon is enforcing something the member never heard. Ninety seconds at the tee is the cheapest minute and a half in the operation.

Wexcombe Golf Club · House Standards

The procedure

Role
Starter
Checked by
Head golf professional
Section
SOP 2 of 3
Revision
Edition one, 2026
  1. Stand two paces in front of the markers, facing the group, so all four can see you at once. Never address the group from beside one player.
  2. Wait until all four are together and have stopped talking. Do not begin over conversation, and do not raise your voice to get above it.
  3. Open with the club and the day: "Good morning, gentlemen. Welcome. Three things before you play."
  4. Give the setup in one sentence: which tees are in play, whether the hole locations are front, middle or back, and any hole under maintenance or out of play today.
  5. Give the cart rule exactly as it stands: path only, ninety degrees, or open, and say whether it is expected to change later in the day.
  6. Give the pace as clock times, never as a duration: "You should be at the turn by ten forty and finished by twelve fifty." Nobody converts four hours and ten minutes in their head.
  7. Give one line on where help is: the ranger on the course, the halfway house at the turn, and how to reach the shop.
  8. Close with the honour and a name: "Mr Ashton has the honour. Play well, gentlemen."
  9. Keep the whole address under ninety seconds, and give the last group of the day exactly what you gave the first.

Common mistakes

  • Growing the address as the day goes on, or shrinking it to a nod for a group you know well.
  • Giving pace as a duration, which no group ever turns into a time it can be held to.
  • Talking while players are still arranging clubs, so half of it is delivered to two of the four.
  • Reciting it at speed with no eye contact, so it is heard as noise rather than as information.

The house standard

It is the same ninety seconds for every group on the sheet, delivered from in front of the markers with four pairs of eyes on the starter. It sounds like a briefing rather than a recital: the course, the carts, two clock times, and where help is. It ends with the member's name and the honour, and the group walks onto the tee knowing precisely what is expected of it and feeling welcomed rather than instructed.

Manager's checklist

  • Delivered from in front of the markers to all four players
  • Tees, hole locations and any closed hole stated
  • Cart rule stated exactly, with any expected change
  • Turn time and finish time given as clock times
  • Where to find help covered in one line
  • Same address, same length, first group to last

SOP 3 · Clubhouse F&B

Serving a Member Who Arrives Straight Off the Course

Look after a member who arrives hot, wet or thirsty, in golf clothes, with nine holes still to play or none at all.

Why it matters

A member walking in off the course has been outside for two or four hours and arrives in a physical state no restaurant guest ever does: dehydrated, sun-tired, sometimes soaked through the shoulder. What he needs in the first sixty seconds is not a menu. He also arrives in shoes and clothing that some rooms in the clubhouse do not take, and being told so at the door by somebody who has not yet offered him a glass of water is how a member decides the clubhouse is against him.

Wexcombe Golf Club · House Standards

The procedure

Role
Clubhouse F&B
Checked by
Clubhouse manager
Section
SOP 3 of 3
Revision
Edition one, 2026
  1. Put water on the table before anything else, jug and glasses, poured for the first person, inside sixty seconds. Do not ask whether the table wants it.
  2. Read the weather off the members themselves: soaked means towels, hot means water and shade, cold means the fire side of the room and something hot to drink.
  3. Bring towels for a wet group without being asked, one each, and take the wet ones away rather than leaving them over the chairs.
  4. Offer the short menu first to anybody still in golf shoes: the items the kitchen sends in under ten minutes, named aloud, rather than the full card.
  5. Route spiked shoes to the spiked areas without narrating the rule: "The grill room is set for you, Mr Ashton, straight through."
  6. If a member is dressed for a room he cannot sit in to the club's policy, offer the alternative rather than the refusal, quietly and away from his group, and take it to a manager if he wants to press it.
  7. Take the whole table's drinks at once and send them before food, and offer water and soft drinks by name rather than only what is behind the bar.
  8. Ask the clock question in the same approach: nine more holes, or finished for the day.
  9. Keep the jug filled through the meal without being asked, checking every ten minutes and refilling any glass below a third.

Common mistakes

  • Handing a menu to a group that has just walked eighteen holes in the heat before putting water on the table.
  • Making a member ask for a towel when it is obvious he needs one.
  • Correcting a member's shoes or dress in front of his guests instead of quietly and to one side.
  • Offering only the full menu to a group that tees off again in twenty five minutes.

The house standard

A group comes in off the ninth, wet through, and finds water already poured, four towels on the end of the table, and somebody who has read what they need without asking a question about it. The menu they are handed is the one they can eat inside twenty minutes, and it is offered as the club's suggestion rather than as a restriction. Nobody mentions the shoes, the state of their trousers or the puddle under the chair.

Manager's checklist

  • Water on the table and poured within sixty seconds
  • Weather read and towels or hot drinks offered unprompted
  • Short menu offered by name to members playing on
  • Spiked routes used without narrating the rule
  • Dress matters handled quietly and away from the group
  • Water topped up at ten minute intervals through the meal
“It feels less like being assigned a caddie than like being met by somebody who was expecting them.”
Caddie · The First Meeting with Your Player

The lesson

Every standard becomes a lesson.

Each procedure in the manual turns into short lessons your team reads on a phone, then a knowledge check. This one is built from The First Tee Address: What Every Group Is Told, the starter standard above.

Wexcombe Golf Club2 min read

Lesson 1 of 3 · The First Tee Address

Ninety seconds at the tee

Whatever a group is not told at the first tee becomes a question asked of somebody else later: a ranger on the seventh, the halfway house with four groups waiting. And a group that was never told the pace cannot be held to it.

Ninety seconds at the tee is the cheapest minute and a half in the operation. Every group gets the same address, first group to last.

Key points

  • Stand two paces in front of the markers, facing all four players.
  • Give the pace as clock times, never as a duration.
  • Keep it under ninety seconds, and the same for every group.
Continue to the check

The knowledge check

Then they show they know it.

Three questions from the same standard. Pick an answer and you will see the right one, and why. Try it: nothing is saved.

The First Tee Address · Knowledge check

Sample. Nothing is saved.

  1. 1.How do you give a group the pace of play?

  2. 2.Where do you stand to give the address?

  3. 3.The last group of the day are members you know well. What do they get?

0 of 3 answered

The certificate

And the record stays with them.

A pass issues the certificate to the person, not to a file in the office. Wexcombe Golf Club can see who is certified on what, and the record goes with them when they move on.

Daniel Okafor

Starter · Wexcombe Golf Club

Certifications

The First Tee Address

Issued by Wexcombe Golf Club

Earned · Sep 18, 2026

A sample certificate for a fictional member of staff, shown as it appears on their profile.

What a house gets

Your standards, written down and taught.

  • A manual in your voice.

    Written with the people who hold the standard now, department by department, so it reads like your house and not like a template.

  • Training from every page.

    Each procedure becomes a short lesson and a knowledge check, assigned to the people who need it, with a date on it.

  • A record of who knows it.

    A pass issues a certificate. You see who is trained on what, and your people keep what they have earned when they move on.

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