Private Course Weekend Tee Time Issues

[Ryancolts1988]

So at my club we have 3 courses, with one course being seen as a level above the other two. This causes tee times to be in demand for that course on the weekends, and unfortunately that course happens to be the one I live on and is most convenient. For every weekend we have the same 7-10 people book two back to back tee times two weeks in advance, using up 14-20 of the 25 total pre-noon tee times (which is my preferred time).

It almost never occurs that any of these people use both tee times. Usually they cancel one of their tee times the night before, but regardless keep the whole booking system tied up until usually after 9pm the day before. I know some people would say to just book before them, but it’s like they have a bot booking the times, because they are on the tee sheet as soon as bookings open, and let’s be honest, most of us don’t have the time to be hawking tee times two weeks in advance every single weekend anyway.

So, my question is, have you had this issue at your club , and if so, what has been done to corral the offenders? Is there anything you have found to do to get decent tee times other than either becoming one of these offenders or having to wait until literally midnight the night before to get a tee time?

 

[BigMac]

My club isn't private, but we have several leagues (both men and women's leagues) that tee off early mornings, and they get the prime tee times because the Director of Golf plugs them into the tee sheets before anybody else (members or public) have access to tee time reservations. The leagues grow substantially in size during the winter months when the snowbirds invade us, so if you're not quick on the draw two weeks in advance, you won't get a tee time before 1:00 or 2:00 pm and you'll be fighting darkness to finish.

The Director of Golf stays on top of the leagues, and if they're booking too many tee times and not filling them, he'll either start reducing their slots or disband their league and make them either join another league, or go independent and fight for tee times with everybody else.

 

[Supersport]

Ask your club pro. As mentioned, many times they will do this fora group if there doesn’t seem to be a problem.

 

[tahoebum]

I’d speak to the pro and see if he’s aware that they normally over book and cancel the night before. He could talk to the offending parties. We have a lot of retired guys at our club that do have the time to be sitting at their computer to grab the tee times they want when they open up at 6:30am a week out. If you want a prime early morning tee time on a weekend you have to make it normally in that first hour after the times open up.

 

[Golfers Anonymous]

Ask the club, they are the ones probably assigning the tee times as soon as they are available to the others so should be simple to do the same.

 

[xThor]

Oh man. Having used to be a member where @Ryancolts1988 is referring I recognize this pain. It’s a 100% digital tee sheet, so a member can book any open slot, and there are no limits. Obviously the pro/staff can go in and make adjustments, but that’s adding manual work to an automated process and let’s be honest that doesn’t always work out.

BUT, knowing the pro and staff there, it’s certainly worth a conversation with them. Make sure you take some screenshots and documentation though!

 

[baylrballa]

I hate it when I see the same few members booking the same few tee times every week with multiple TBDs. Even more so when they bailing last minute.

It's not quite that widespread or more people would complain I'm sure.

 

[captaincaution]

So at my club we have 3 courses, with one course being seen as a level above the other two. This causes tee times to be in demand for that course on the weekends, and unfortunately that course happens to be the one I live on and is most convenient. For every weekend we have the same 7-10 people book two back to back tee times two weeks in advance, using up 14-20 of the 25 total pre-noon tee times (which is my preferred time).

It almost never occurs that any of these people use both tee times. Usually they cancel one of their tee times the night before, but regardless keep the whole booking system tied up until usually after 9pm the day before. I know some people would say to just book before them, but it’s like they have a bot booking the times, because they are on the tee sheet as soon as bookings open, and let’s be honest, most of us don’t have the time to be hawking tee times two weeks in advance every single weekend anyway.

So, my question is, have you had this issue at your club , and if so, what has been done to corral the offenders? Is there anything you have found to do to get decent tee times other than either becoming one of these offenders or having to wait until literally midnight the night before to get a tee time?

Oh man. Having used to be a member where @Ryancolts1988 is referring I recognize this pain. It’s a 100% digital tee sheet, so a member can book any open slot, and there are no limits. Obviously the pro/staff can go in and make adjustments, but that’s adding manual work to an automated process and let’s be honest that doesn’t always work out.

BUT, knowing the pro and staff there, it’s certainly worth a conversation with them. Make sure you take some screenshots and documentation though!

Wait a minute... you're saying that a single member can book out 2 entire foursomes 2 weeks in advance? That's bananas.

At our club, two courses, you are restricted to booking yourself only one tee time a day. You need to call the shop if you want to get a second 18 in later in the day for example. A single member can also have up to 3 guests at one time. You have to call the shop if you need a bigger group.

Then we have weekend restrictions in the prime season, Memorial Day to Labor Day. Members can only have one guest before 10am. However, a member can block out the entire foursome with "TBD" players, but those automatically open up 72 hours before the tee time if you don't firm up the group.

Just sounds like the club needs to have some tighter control of the tee sheet, particularly on weekends.

 

[Just_Brad]

I would 100% be talking to the proshop. You are a member, and live on that course. Those alone should at least get you heard.

Should you automatically get a tee time? Of course not. Should double booking like that be looked at and stopped? Definitely.

 

[Canadan]

We have this issue at my club.

The solution they came up with this year is to make the people booking list out their players by noon on Friday for both saturday and Sunday tee times. If they don't populate the tee time with names, those slots are opened up. Additionally, late cancelations are getting penalized in an escalating fashion.

As much as it seems like it'd be a bandaid, it actually made things quite a bit better.

 

[RayG]

If it's the same guy doing the reserving, then I would call shenanigans on somebody in cahoots. To get the same times, week in, week out? Or I should say the same TWO times, then cancel one? CC's are known for their somewhat Draconian enforcement policies, are they not? Then it's time to pull his privilege's for a bit.

And even if they have a system where a different guy is 'making' the times, something still smells a bit fishy.

Several years ago, a group of (I think) 12-16 people would get the exact same tee times, every week at a local municipal course. After awhile, others started to notice that the same people were teeing off at the same time every week. Names for the reservations were always different, though. Inquiries were made, and after quite some time they figured out one of the group had hacked into the reservation system with help from the inside. If I remember right, they did some fiddling with the reservation systems clock timing so they had access to it while everybody else was still locked out. Didn't take that long and would reset it after they were done. Rotated the names used so it didn't 'Look" weird when the sheet was printed out.

 

[Bryndom]

Not a private club but fortunately I know the staff well and they know me and will even call when a preferred tee time for me comes open.

 

[MtlJeff]

Oh man.....I can't believe a private course is allowing this. If that happened at my club regularly those guys would get called out to a secret meeting in the woods behind the 8th green, and get treated like Joe Pesci at the end of Casino.

We used to have a guy who would show up as a single and go off before the first group of the day without telling the starter. Like i said we "used" to have that guy. I believe he is buried next to Jimmy Hoffa right now. Plus the course sent out a memo that no one is to go off without checking in with the starter or having their name on the tee sheet

That's ridiculous...I would definitely talk to the pro or GM. Tying up and not using weekend times is really bad

 

[Matthew]

It's usually the same guys every Saturday & Sunday morning waiting in line, no online booking, so we just started warming up and whenever 3-4 were ready we'd go. There's only a smattering of members that play that early anyway. Plus being an equity club has it's advantages.

The biggest real issue is the standing games on Tuesdays that get pulled to Monday for holidays (Memorial, Labor...) They get their normal spot and we work around it.

 

[Briton G]

Probably best bet would be to go to the members and punch them in the nose and tell them to stop.

But safer option might be to go to the pro

 

[Matthew]

Probably best bet would be to go to the members and punch them in the nose and tell them to stop.

But safer option might be to go to the pro

Raise he!! to the golf committee.

 

[Canadan]

Oh man.....I can't believe a private course is allowing this. If that happened at my club regularly those guys would get called out to a secret meeting in the woods behind the 8th green, and get treated like Joe Pesci at the end of Casino.

We used to have a guy who would show up as a single and go off before the first group of the day without telling the starter. Like i said we "used" to have that guy. I believe he is buried next to Jimmy Hoffa right now. Plus the course sent out a memo that no one is to go off without checking in with the starter or having their name on the tee sheet

That's ridiculous...I would definitely talk to the pro or GM. Tying up and not using weekend times is really bad

There are a lot of golf course staff who simply don’t get paid enough to listen to entitled dbags yell at them all day. Enforcing anything is a rough experience but I completely believe in the outcome.

At my course most of these decisions are advisory board driven and we can deflect some of these members to a group of peers which usually goes better.

 

[MtlJeff]

There are a lot of golf course staff who simply don’t get paid enough to listen to entitled dbags yell at them all day. Enforcing anything is a rough experience but I completely believe in the outcome.

At my course most of these decisions are advisory board driven and we can deflect some of these members to a group of peers which usually goes better.

A lot depends on the club. In my area most private clubs are what i would call more serious in the sense that they still have rules and a code of conduct. There are definitely people who complain more than others, i've been on the boards and am good friends with basically the last 3-4 club captains so we all know those names. But the director of golf, head pro and GM are all paid pretty good and they would be expected to handle these situations.

Someone who had a prime spot every Saturday and always cancelled his group would definitely get talked to

Conversely, Dbags yelling at staffers would not be tolerated either, complaints need to be respectful. We've suspended members for yelling at staff multiple times

 

[RealPretendPsychic]

F those guys.

 

[Joshnoble01]

I don’t belong to a private club but I don’t understand how you are allowed to block off multiple. One I could see. I would be annoyed by that.

 

[Canadan]

A lot depends on the club. In my area most private clubs are what i would call more serious in the sense that they still have rules and a code of conduct. There are definitely people who complain more than others, i've been on the boards and am good friends with basically the last 3-4 club captains so we all know those names. But the director of golf, head pro and GM are all paid pretty good and they would be expected to handle these situations.

Someone who had a prime spot every Saturday and always cancelled his group would definitely get talked to

Conversely, Dbags yelling at staffers would not be tolerated either, complaints need to be respectful. We've suspended members for yelling at staff multiple times

At the top end I do think it’s a suitable payment for extreme conduct expectations. I’m talking more about the rest of the clubs who don’t have that kind of budget.

Path of least resistance is a common practice I would think.

 

[Canadan]

I don’t belong to a private club but I don’t understand how you are allowed to block off multiple. One I could see. I would be annoyed by that.

Guys group together and play in games every weekend, and one or two of the guys are designated bookers of the tee times they use.

I agree that no club should tolerate unused tee times. It’s a plague.

 

[MtlJeff]

I don’t belong to a private club but I don’t understand how you are allowed to block off multiple. One I could see. I would be annoyed by that.

How i understood it (maybe i am wrong) is that let's say a group of 12 guys books 3 foursomes, but knowing that several of these guys are unlikely to play, they are just putting their name in "in case".

Now Friday night rolls around and 8 of them are like "nah i'm out this week"

So the group cancels 2 of the tee times friday night or saturday morning and just plays one of them as a foursome

 

[willplaysgolf]

I don’t belong to a private club but I don’t understand how you are allowed to block off multiple. One I could see. I would be annoyed by that.

My regular Saturday group has maybe 30 guys in the pool and typically has maybe 16-20 guys that play each week. One guy books 4 tee times for the group and then based on who is in makes the teams for the game. Most of the time we use all 4 times, occasionally we have to squeeze 5 groups into 4 slots. In our case though we're members "taking" spots from the general public so the dynamics are a little different.

 

[Joshnoble01]

Ok. That makes sense. Still annoying but less so. I would definitely want the club to start monitoring.