Long story incoming.....feedback is more than welcome!
Two Friday's ago me and my pops went up to our local golf course that we have been playing at for 20+ years now. We had already pre paid for our tee time at 3:10PM (we only planned to play 9). We show up at 2:30, plenty early and go to check in. The starter informs us that the other 2some we are playing with has already checked in as well. Perfect.
The parking lot of JAM PACKED, so we ask if they are running on time, he advises us they are running about 10 minutes behind. No big deal.
We head off to the range and putting green for a little pre round warm up.
Now HERE is where things get interesting, we show back up to the starter shack at 3:05, and I ask the gentlemen if we are on deck. He tells me that the group on the tee was actually supposed to be us and that he had just placed 2 walk ons in our place since we were not on time to the tee. NOW, our tee time was at 3:10, we showed up at 3:05, in prep that they were running 10 minutes behind.
The starter never yelled for our names (as the driving range is about 40 yards from the shack), nor did he go up to the group on the tee box who was waiting for about 15 minutes while this whole discussion of why he gave our tee time away was going on and tell them he had made a mistake, and the walk ons could go off when he found a gap or another 2some to play with.
So now instead of 3:10 we teed off at 3:35, only to get in 6 holes before it got to dark to play.
I grew up on this course and this is the first time this has happened to me, I was taught by the pro here for 2 years and it is by far my favorite course to play, (yes I have already talked with the pro about the situation), he gave me 2 bits of advice.
1. He is glad it happened to me, because he can earn our business back, and if it was someone else he may have just lost a customer for life.
2. It's the big boss of the course to jam pack the course any and every way possible, due to the 77 days they were shut down during the initial COVID quarantine.
but I have never seen someone willingly give away a tee time to walk ons when the 4some had already checked in, to me it doesn't seem like an "honest mistake" as the starter claimed.
P.s. I am not upset one bit by this, but it is quite annoying in the moment. Thought I would share my experience and see if anyone else had encountered something like this before!
Two Friday's ago me and my pops went up to our local golf course that we have been playing at for 20+ years now. We had already pre paid for our tee time at 3:10PM (we only planned to play 9). We show up at 2:30, plenty early and go to check in. The starter informs us that the other 2some we are playing with has already checked in as well. Perfect.
The parking lot of JAM PACKED, so we ask if they are running on time, he advises us they are running about 10 minutes behind. No big deal.
We head off to the range and putting green for a little pre round warm up.
Now HERE is where things get interesting, we show back up to the starter shack at 3:05, and I ask the gentlemen if we are on deck. He tells me that the group on the tee was actually supposed to be us and that he had just placed 2 walk ons in our place since we were not on time to the tee. NOW, our tee time was at 3:10, we showed up at 3:05, in prep that they were running 10 minutes behind.
The starter never yelled for our names (as the driving range is about 40 yards from the shack), nor did he go up to the group on the tee box who was waiting for about 15 minutes while this whole discussion of why he gave our tee time away was going on and tell them he had made a mistake, and the walk ons could go off when he found a gap or another 2some to play with.
So now instead of 3:10 we teed off at 3:35, only to get in 6 holes before it got to dark to play.
I grew up on this course and this is the first time this has happened to me, I was taught by the pro here for 2 years and it is by far my favorite course to play, (yes I have already talked with the pro about the situation), he gave me 2 bits of advice.
1. He is glad it happened to me, because he can earn our business back, and if it was someone else he may have just lost a customer for life.
2. It's the big boss of the course to jam pack the course any and every way possible, due to the 77 days they were shut down during the initial COVID quarantine.
but I have never seen someone willingly give away a tee time to walk ons when the 4some had already checked in, to me it doesn't seem like an "honest mistake" as the starter claimed.
P.s. I am not upset one bit by this, but it is quite annoying in the moment. Thought I would share my experience and see if anyone else had encountered something like this before!