here's what the brillant minds in my county did to single walk-ups

A lot to explain.
Our county courses have what they call walk-on times. They're held every hour and anyone can show up in the morning and gobble them up for groups of 2 or more only and which is always done. The person can leave with their tee time to come back later with their partners. No problem with that here. The other thing they always have/had is a singles list for singles (like me) who show up and get on the list and out in order of arrival as the no-shows fail to come.

But also they keep what they refer as starter times about every hour and 20 minutes. The starter times are used for few reasons. It allows a cushion for things like frost delays, mistakes with the reservation system, etc....but mostly used to help the singles list move along. On weekends very many single players use this avenue as a means to play. The list is always long. Sometimes you can wait just 15 minutes and other times an hour and a half or more but most usually you are out within an hour if you arrive fairly early enough. The singles lists do get long but it works fairly well for many years.

So they decided all of a sudden to do away with the starter times therefore releasing them to the reservation system. This has absolutely killed the walk-up singles from getting out. I waited 3 hours one day last year because of this. I waited over 2 hours other times. I waited almost two hours one day when I was actually only #2 on the darn singles list early in the am. that's when I first finally found out what the heck had changed

Many people are going home now because of this and not golfing. I have left a number of times last year. The only thing keeping singles moving at any at least somewhat respectable entry was the starter times. If there were not enough no-shows and/or a long singles list the starter times really helped tremendously because besides the singles filling in for the no-shows, 4 singles would also move every hour and 20 minutes regardless. But now, without those times a single can only now head out via a no-show. Which is usually just a 4some where one person didn't show. But there are mornings where no-show slots can be hour or two apart. It can literally take 2 to 3 hours to move even just the first few singles on the list. Show up and be number 9 and you may as well pack your bags and leave. As said people are leaving for home and not even playing at all.

This is terrible for the very many single walk-up customers who been using this avenue for years and bring a lot of money in greens fees. The workers at the courses are also feeling really bad towards us customers for the decision. They don't understand it. Said it couldn't be a matter of guaranteed reservation money because those slots and greens fees were filling every weekend with singles anyway.

Many people don't have groups to play with nor can they always know when they can golf. Everyones life is very different and for many different reasons play as a single and need the flexibility to be able to show up and wait a respectable amount of time and play a round. Many golfers have been supporting the courses and playing golf via this avenue for years. Now they just killed this and absolutely ruined it. I now must show up in the dark and hour before first tee just to make sure I am one of the very first on the list and even then hope I don't wait another 2 hours after. many people upset about this and I just emailed the county about it and now wait (lol) for a response. Anyway just venting and sharing. Comments are welcome.

I just called one of my local courses because I want to play as a single tomor and can't make that reservation via the website because it's only twosomes or more. So I called, the pro shop told me he can't make single reservations either, lol.he told me he could pair me with somebody which is fine, but couldn't give me the web discounted rate, lol. Ridiculous! Ill just go hit range balls tomor instead, I need the practice.

So thankful to live in rural Indiana and where you can show up as a single at just about any area course, anytime and get on, alone if you like.

They're doing everything they can to grow the sport.

Or are they doing everything they can to show a loss and justify sale of the land for development?

If it gets like that I find a new activity.

We're fortunate enough to have a men's group. You sign up during the week and then show up on the weekends and get split up into however many groups there are. Never know who you are going to play with but always have a group to play with.

There is one course around here that does not book singles so I don't play it. I just don't get it.


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I don't know if this is gonna work in your county and country, but what if the club offers caddies? They don't have to be so expensive and good, they can lug your bag around to lighten your load, bear witness to your score, the club and the kid or guy or girl gets some income, and you get to golf the minute you step on the course.

theoverswinger said:

I don't know if this is gonna work in your county and country, but what if the club offers caddies? They don't have to be so expensive and good, they can lug your bag around to lighten your load, bear witness to your score, the club and the kid or guy or girl gets some income, and you get to golf the minute you step on the course.

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with due respect, I'm not sure I understand how any of that relates to the topic.

While I have a regular group that plays every Sunday the other times I go out it its as a single. I generally go after work so I don't have to wait. In your situation, I wouldn't be too happy.

You would think a course knowing they have that many singles on a list hold 2 tee times per hour (or one per hour depending on amount of singles) and then group the singles in those tee times to form foursomes.
Courses can and do manipulate the times without us knowing anyway.

fwiw there are times I do use the reservation system and it charges an extra fee for ding so which I think is bogus too but is not the reason I don't always use it. But while it does allow a single to book, it wont give a single a slot in an open 4slot time. It will ony offer you the times where there are single or double slots. So there may be an open 4some slot that canceled at say 8am but it will only allow you to fill in at a (for sake of discussion) 11am slot if that's the only one with less than a 4some.

But I just don't know when I can always go and play so I usually just wing it the night before or when I get up in the morn. So many singles have done it this way for years and there are never a shortage to fill spots and tee times via singles. It just doesn't make any sense they are doing this. Some people just have to make decisions for sake of feeling important because I guess their place of authority is the only place they are important.

cnosil said:

While I have a regular group that plays every Sunday the other times I go out it its as a single. I generally go after work so I don't have to wait. In your situation, I wouldn't be too happy.

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Yea, I may at times (when its lighter later) (summer) play after work weekdays if I get home earlier and usually this is not much a problem. But the weekend mornings the singles list can vary between 6 or 7 deep up to 14 or whatever and as 2 or 3 get scratched off another 2 will show up and the cycle continues throughout the morning and into the early afternoon. It will shorten in the afternoon but that's somewhat offset because there are less no-shows. There is just never a shortage and in fact quite enough people depend on it in order to play.

mski said:

You would think a course knowing they have that many singles on a list hold 2 tee times per hour (or one per hour depending on amount of singles) and then group the singles in those tee times to form foursomes.
Courses can and do manipulate the times without us knowing anyway.

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This is more or less what was always done, but some overzealous person thought too hard for how to screw up what was working well for years.

If it's taking 2-3 hours just to get out, I'd take a fraction of that time to drive to another course that will book a single.

I feel this pain as there are a grand total of ZERO courses here that will book a single ahead of time. My home course is my home course mainly because they have two 18 hole tracks and lots of clowns who book for 4 when they only have 2 or 3 - thus making it relatively easy to get on as a single.

ArmyGolf said:

I feel this pain as there are a grand total of ZERO courses here that will book a single ahead of time. My home course is my home course mainly because they have two 18 hole tracks and lots of clowns who book for 4 when they only have 2 or 3 - thus making it relatively easy to get on as a single.

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My county actually charges a small penalty for no-shows. Which I actually don't have issue with because otherwise people will just book without any care whatsoever that they wont show up. I do have a chance sometimes at booking a decent time the night before at the cancelation deadline time. I been fairly lucky with that for some of my golf. But it may not be the course I wanted nor the time I needed and wouldn't always work out.

Showing up in the morning was really a pretty good thing and wasn't perfect, I mean ya still had to get there early if you wanted to get out in a somewhat respectable time frame. If I showed up a bit late I could still wait quite a while but it worked fairly well most the time. But now since this BS they created if you aren't one the very first few on the list there is no telling how long one could wait. Its all completely dependent on no-shows only.

I really think they probably feel theyd rather sell (via the res system) those starter times they would normally hold so as to guarantee the sale of them. But I could understand that... if this was a place that found it hard to fill those tee times with walk-ons. This just is not the case as they are always filled. Heck, the county itself brags on its website that over 200,000 rounds a year are played throughout all their courses. 5-18 holers, 2 execs, and a par3-9holer. Very rare that there would not be enough walk-on singles to ever leave those starter times empty on the weekends. They weren't even every hour, they where something like 1 hour and ten or 20 minutes apart. But jeeeeeze, I mean the first 3 or 4 through noonish would easily be filled by 12 singles even while other singles filled in the no-show spots. Just wasn't an issue on an average Sat or Sun morning to have any blank tee slots empty.

This seem to have been done mid season last year. At fist I just thought I got unlucky and had to wait a long time as may have happened sometimes. But then as it happened a couple more times and especially when I was #2 on the singles list and still waited almost 2 hours I then inquired and found out about this situation which came as asurprise. But it explained why I got stuck waiting so long 3 times in a row. Thankfully I got a good amount of late day weekday golf last year after that point. But that's not always going to be my option due to work and life in general. I guess we'll just have to see now how this goes this year come spring time when things are back in full swing. If the problem is going to continue I don't know what I'll end up doing. Fingers are crossed

Wow, I would be so upset if I couldnt play as a single..None of my close friends play golf so I play a lot of solo rounds.

I feel for you bud.

Sounds like the lovely mess you get trying to get off at Torrey Pines South

I understand your situation. While I was working, the only golf time I had was an occasional weekend, and I played as a single. Many times I had to wait a few hours until a "no show" occurred, and more than a few times I had to leave without playing.

Why can't a course keep a few slots open, and allow singles who call in for a time, fill these open slots? So, if I call in for a tee time I may be told there's a slot open at 10:00, for example, with three other singles. I know there are issues with this, but there has to be a way to get single golfers out on the course without the course losing revenue - because golf courses do need to fill tee times with foursomes to make money.

Plinyyounger said:

I just called one of my local courses because I want to play as a single tomor and can't make that reservation via the website because it's only twosomes or more. So I called, the pro shop told me he can't make single reservations either, lol.he told me he could pair me with somebody which is fine, but couldn't give me the web discounted rate, lol. Ridiculous! Ill just go hit range balls tomor instead, I need the practice.

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That's the same deal with the Cleveland metroparks courses. Can't make a reservation online as a single, have to walk up and hope to get on and pay the higher rack rate. I get that they don't want singles taking up a whole foursome, but on a slow afternoon, you've got to cut singles a break too.

GenErr said:

I understand your situation. While I was working, the only golf time I had was an occasional weekend, and I played as a single. Many times I had to wait a few hours until a "no show" occurred, and more than a few times I had to leave without playing.

Why can't a course keep a few slots open, and allow singles who call in for a time, fill these open slots? So, if I call in for a tee time I may be told there's a slot open at 10:00, for example, with three other singles. I know there are issues with this, but there has to be a way to get single golfers out on the course without the course losing revenue - because golf courses do need to fill tee times with foursomes to make money.

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In an area (like mine) that doesn't hurt for golfers especially on weekends there are always (with little exception) going to be enough singles to not only fill the no-show spots but also to warrant the course leaving an open tee time every so often to accommodate more singles. But this whole new process (if they continue it) is going to result in few and fewer singles. What then may happen is that they may actually begin to lose the ability to fill in all the no-shows all the time. So this could actually mean fewer greens fees collected in the long run.

That whole situation is crazy and I guess I'm fortunate as I've never really had an issue getting out unless it was an oddly warm day for that time of yr.

I completely understand your frustration with not being able to get out because the system changed. It seems as the county has given you the ole California hello sign(Beverly Hill Billy's reference) as a single which is very crappy. If enough singles complain hopefully things will change.


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Rollin' -

While not an ideal solution, you might want to consider asking a few of the single guys who you wait with to make a "regular" tee time, fill it with the guys who are waiting for a tee time, and see if that works.

There is always the option of going somewhere else, especially if you are expecting to wait a few hours.

I understand your frustration. Looking at it from the other side, if all the slots are taken and they can't fit singles in it sounds like this is a revenue generator for the course - all slots are filled by reservations. In my area you basically cannot make a tee time as a single via online systems or by calling. There are a few exceptions, but that's generally the deal. However, you can always call the course and get added to an existing group. And there are enough courses in the area that you can find a time somewhere to your liking. We don't have these starter times, at least that I'm aware of. If I had to wait an hour or two before getting out I'd never play...that's ridiculous.

Spivey said:

Rollin' -

While not an ideal solution, you might want to consider asking a few of the single guys who you wait with to make a "regular" tee time, fill it with the guys who are waiting for a tee time, and see if that works.

There is always the option of going somewhere else, especially if you are expecting to wait a few hours.

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Appreciate the ideas. I just have the need to be able to go and wing it. Its just how my life works golf wise at this time. Sure there are plans made sometimes for different reasons. But mostly I fit in my golf how and when I can and sort of spur of the moment type of thing.

I am hoping this doesn't turn out to be quite the disaster I experienced as last year wound down. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm sure i'll be able to golf via some other avenues but just that it may not be as easy to do it the way I've been use to. And maybe wont be as often. Hope I'll here a response from the email I sent.

ntanygd760 said:

Sounds like the lovely mess you get trying to get off at Torrey Pines South

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I remember when I lived in San Diego I would get up at 4AM to be at Torrey Pines by 4:30AM just to stand in line as a single...guys would chain their "old" bags to the railing as to what position they are in line for a tee time. Crazy. But I was always successful and it was worth it because it was Torrey Pines.

I always call for a single tee time and I am lucky enough to live where I can choose where to play with the abundance of courses. I've never tried to walk up for a tee time, but I may try it one day at a nearby course to see if they allow it.