Man sues Hermitage Golf Club for Lowering his Handicap

[DrinkingHarp]

This could have been in the WTF or Golf threads but I think it needs its own thread.



http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/mans-sues-golf-club-13-2-million-lowering-175136549.html
..

Man sues golf club for $13.2 million for lowering handicap.

.By Jonathan Wall | Devil Ball Golf – 7 hours ago.. .

How much is your handicap worth to you? For one golfer in Ireland, it's apparently worth €10m (about $13.2 million USD). In a bizarre story that, honestly, belongs in The Onion, 75-year-old golfer Thomas Talbot is suing his former club, Hermitage Golf Club, after the handicap secretary reduced his handicap by 7.7 shots between 1999 and 2004.

As the Irish Independent reported, Talbot claimed the handicap reduction took a personal toll on him over the last six years, as friends at his former club refused to play with him and labeled him a cheat.

The golf club claimed  that based on GUI Rule 19, it had an obligation to lower his handicap if it felt it was too high relative to his ability on the course. But Talbot didn't see it that way, and so here we are ... talking about a guy suing his golf club for a lowered handicap. A LOWERED handicap.


"This case has been going on for the past six years. It has been hugely stressful. I didn't care so much about the handicap issue, it is more the principle of it.

"I'd turn up for a competition and there would be nobody to play with. I have learned the hard way that friends are a funny species -- they're never there when you want them.["]

On one hand, I feel bad for Talbot because playing golf with friends is one of the best things on earth. But on the other hand, I want to know how he went five years without questioning his handicap. If this was such a big deal back then, why didn't he just talk to someone at the club and get things cleared up? That's the real question that needs to be answered.

[thebigfella]

Read some background on this guy, he's a hateful cnut.....

[Mayo4Sam]

I'm thinking of sueing the club for highering my handicap, nobody wants to play with me either

[Billys Boots]

Read some background on this guy, he's a hateful cnut.....

I thought they only had those type of members in The Hermitage?

[Mayo4Sam]

The last paragraph is gas

Lovers united after three decades apart now fight over house
By Ray Managh
Tuesday June 24 2008
A COUPLE who split up in the 1960s after they married different partners and then were reunited following 28 years apart are locked in a legal battle over the house they share after "splitting up" again.
A High Court judge heard that the couple, Marie Sheehy and Thomas Talbot, now lived in an intolerable situation in which they share the same roof but barely speak to each other.
Counsel for Ms Sheehy, Martin Gleeson, told Mr Justice John Edwards the couple had lived above a shop his client owned in Sutton, Dublin until they jointly bought a three-bedroomed house, Inbhir Ide, in Malahide, Co Dublin,
Mr Gleeson told the court how his client had originally asked the Circuit Civil Court to determine ownership of the €500,000 property in Malahide. The court then ruled that the house should be divided 50-50. But Mr Talbot, a retired insurance official, had appealed the Circuit Court's decision to the High Court.
Judge Edwards heard that, following the break-up of Mr Talbot's marriage and the death of Ms Sheehy's husband, the couple had been reintroduced by a mutual friend and became lovers. They had contributed almost evenly to buy the Malahide property for €48,000 in 1992. They had rented Inbhir Ide out until 1995 when Ms Sheehy (64) had sold The Tuck Shop and they had moved into it themselves. Ms Sheehy said that following a kitchen extension Mr Talbot would have owed her just under €12,000.
Mr Talbot (71) said he had raised a €28,000 mortgage towards the purchase of Inbhir Ide and had carried out a lot of work to the house and gardens, caring for Marie following her two hip operations.
He told Judge Edwards he estimated he would need €350,000 from any sale of the house, giving him a split of 65/35 in his favour. Mr Talbot, when cross-examined by Mr Gleeson, agreed it would be impractical to physically partition the house which would cost in the region of €200,000 to give them separate apartments.
He said he was currently involved in court cases against his former employer as well as Hermitage Golf Club, the club secretary and the Golfing Union of Ireland as well as a company of solicitors he claimed had defrauded him. He was also disputing his mother's will.
Judge Edwards reserved his decision on apportionment of interest in Inbhir Ide.
- Ray Managh

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lovers-united-after-three-decades-apart-now-fight-over-house-1419967.html

[deiseach]

Read some background on this guy, he's a hateful cnut.....

I thought they only had those type of members in The Hermitage?

Aye, that was a tautology if ever there was one

It's some crazy tale. Hermitage and the GUI are respectively €200k and €300k in the hole (ho ho) in legal costs, all for a man who plans to spread his winnings  - there's no other word for it - among his children who 'for personal reasons' won't have anything to do with him. As the original report above noted, The Onion would dismiss this as being unbelievable.

[laoislad]

I only live a stones throw from this Golf Course. Played there once and found it to be a place where they are all very much up their own arses.Nice course but not very welcoming patrons.

[brokencrossbar1]

Be careful what you say about this cnut, ye never know where the Board might end up for defamation of his "good" character!

[Hardy]

OK - I think it's dawning on me why people won't play golf with him and it's got nothing to do with his handicap.

[Bingo]

After years off been constantly ungraded by the club and left as a Junior B & C player and been overlooked by senior management as a result, I'm going to sue my club and the GAA. I turned up at County training with my gear on several occassions but they wouldn't play me cause they said I wasn't even playing with the club seniors. 

[LeoMc]

Must remember that excuse the next time I bump into someone I don't like, "I can't talk to you because you got your handicap lowered".

[heffo]

After years off been constantly ungraded by the club and left as a Junior B & C player and been overlooked by senior management as a result, I'm going to sue my club and the GAA. I turned up at County training with my gear on several occassions but they wouldn't play me cause they said I wasn't even playing with the club seniors.

You should move to Straffan and declare for Kildare - McGeeney will let you train with Kildare!

"If he wants to play for Kildare, the same as anybody else wants to play for Kildare, I've an open door policy," McGeeney said on KFM.

"He can come here, turn up, play, train and I've never stopped anybody who's wanted to play for Kildare.

[leaveherinsir]

Very much a true story. I was on the Handicap Committee in my club last year.  We had the GUI into do an audit of handicaps (all clubs are getting this done at minute).  The two boys told us about this story, one of the upshots is that you can only cut players under the "General Play" rule once a year now, when you are completing the Annual handicap review. Also you must inform the Provinical Branch in writing about any players you increase or decrease in the Annual Review.

I remember years ago the Handicap Secreatary just picked a number of thin air for new members.  It was normally .. "aye that boy has played a bit of soccer/rugby/gaelic, he'll be handy enough, give him 14"

[Bingo]

I see this guy has lost his case and won't get his 10m in damages. In addition he faces a 500k legal bill 

Crazy stuff.

[Tony Baloney]

I see this guy has lost his case and won't get his 10m in damages. In addition he faces a 500k legal bill 

Crazy stuff.

Sounds like it couldnt happen to a nicer chap.