Fastest finger first. Booking tee times

[Springveldt]

Using a script or bot to book for you is absolutely not okay. I'd go so far to say that those that think it is are cheats.

Before you try to justify it to others (or yourself) answer this: would you be happy sharing this scrip with all other members at your club? Would you publicly post it here? Would you walk into the pro shop and tell them that this is how you book your tee time?

It also annoys me that clubs won't do anything about it. It's not that hard. Look at the tee sheet for the last 4 Saturdays 1 minute after signup has opened and phone those members and give them a warning

1 minute? At my club and my old club if you look after 1 minute of tee times opening every tee is booked before 12pm.

I know I book our tee times manually and I've grabbed a tee, stuck our names down and back to the main page with 15 seconds of it opening. Would you think I'm a bot?

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

We have a regular group of between 16 and 20 of us.....we play every Friday teeing off roughly around 11am, and every Sunday at around 10am.

When the booking becomes live for the following week, four of five of us agree which tee times each of us will book so we get consecutive tees. We just wait for the appointed time and as soon as the booking goes live we book the tees. No tech involved...just being prepared in advance and reasonably quick on the draw....and should the unthinkable happen and some other person quicker on the draw manages to get one of our desired tee times, we just have a quiet word via email, or, on the day, asking if they would be willing to swap with either our first or last slot. i reckon that as a group we get our 5 tees in well under 30 seconds.

Just because tees are booked quickly doesn't mean a script is being used....so you would be wrongly persecuting a group of golfers who choose to organize themselves to get the tee times they want. It’s no different to the old days where folks would stand with pencils at the ready, waiting for a physical tee sheet to be pinned to the noticeboard.

We have a group similar to yours who block book many prime times then slowly cancel once they have decided which they will take. Unfortunately they play at the same time on a Sunday morning I wish to play. They feel that’s their time and get annoyed when someone breaks up their groups. To the point they will try and push in or tee off early to try and fore playing through.

Having access to some of the best agentic AI systems means I don’t have to worry about getting a tee time. I have a lovely assistant that books them for me. I don’t even need to be sat at a PC or interact with it in any way unless I want to book a different time. And there is no way the club would know it wasn’t me doing the booking.

Share the fact that you use a script to book your tee time with your club pro or on your club whatapp group. Post back here with the results. I dare you

I don’t know if my club has one. I certainly wouldn’t want to be part of it if there is. The lads in the pro shop know how I book my times and have no issue with it. Maybe because I’m polite and respectful rather then behaving like I own the place and the staff are servants?

 

[NearHull]

Is this the first admission of using a software booking ‘intervention’?

I’ll go and get my popcorn.

 

[rudebhoy]

We have a group similar to yours who block book many prime times then slowly cancel once they have decided which they will take. Unfortunately they play at the same time on a Sunday morning I wish to play. They feel that’s their time and get annoyed when someone breaks up their groups. To the point they will try and push in or tee off early to try and fore playing through.

Having access to some of the best agentic AI systems means I don’t have to worry about getting a tee time. I have a lovely assistant that books them for me. I don’t even need to be sat at a PC or interact with it in any way unless I want to book a different time. And there is no way the club would know it wasn’t me doing the booking.


I don’t know if my club has one. I certainly wouldn’t want to be part of it if there is. The lads in the pro shop know how I book my times and have no issue with it. Maybe because I’m polite and respectful rather then behaving like I own the place and the staff are servants?

Am surprised the pro shop is ok with you using an automated tool to book. Do you think the committee and the members would also be ok with it if they knew?

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

Am surprised the pro shop is ok with you using an automated tool to book. Do you think the committee and the members would also be ok with it if they knew?

I don’t care what they think. The committee are a spineless self serving bunch who let a small number of people get away with behaving poorly just because they can’t be bothered dealing with them.

All members have the opportunity to do what I am if they wish. There is nothing in our club rules to say we have to physically book a time, and there is no way they could know it wasn’t me even if there was.

 

[Mandofred]

I can see this issue from both sides.....but I don't see how you can stop someone using a computer to book times better than another person using a computer....or even whether you should. The computer world marches on........telling people to stop using it just isn't going to work. The golf world has a long history of not wanting the status quo to change.....but then eventually does.

 

[NearHull]

I think it’s a morality/honesty issue. We play a game where we have a rule of acting with integrity ( a rather oversimplification of Rule 1.3) and I’m sure that we all try to play with integrity.

If a committee decided (and legislated) that it was not acceptable to use such a method, would you comply?

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

I think it’s a morality/honesty issue. We play a game where we have a rule of acting with integrity ( a rather oversimplification of Rule 1.3) and I’m sure that we all try to play with integrity.

If a committee decided (and legislated) that it was not acceptable to use such a method, would you comply?

What is immoral or dishonest? How is it worse than block booking times then either not using them or cancelling last minute preventing because the weather looks like it could be bad? Or trying to bully other members who happen to have booked to play at a time these people feel they are entitled to.

Would I stop? Maybe, if they first enforced rules that are already in place.

In the not too distant future, everyone will book their tee times using agents.

 

[NearHull]

What is immoral or dishonest? How is it worse than block booking times then either not using them or cancelling last minute preventing because the weather looks like it could be bad? Or trying to bully other members who happen to have booked to play at a time these people feel they are entitled to.

Would I stop? Maybe, if they first enforced rules that are already in place.

In the not too distant future, everyone will book their tee times using agents.

My question to you was,

If a committee decided (and legislated) that it was not acceptable to use such a method, would you comply? I think the answer should be yes or no.

You have reiterated your views of whether it was immoral.

(I need to back out for a while, off to the hospital.)

 

[WGCRider]

If someone has faster internet than someone else are they cheating ?

Don't be obtuse, that's not the same thing. Neither is sitting there waiting for the clock to tick over or grouping together. However you justify your actions to yourself is your business but there is clearly a line and you know it.

 

[Mandofred]

I think it’s a morality/honesty issue. We play a game where we have a rule of acting with integrity ( a rather oversimplification of Rule 1.3) and I’m sure that we all try to play with integrity.

If a committee decided (and legislated) that it was not acceptable to use such a method, would you comply?

I would hope by now that you realize there are plenty of people who don't play with integrity......Thinking that golfers are "special" and don't do anything wrong is crazy. If there is no way to prevent people from using the bot method of booking tee times....why make the rule? Now....if they have a way of doing so fair enough. IFFFFF I were using a computer program to book my tee times so that I didn't have to just sit there hunched over the computer waiting for exactly the right moment to attempt getting a tee time.....and no way that anybody would know.....yeah, I'd probably do it......Just so I didn't have to play the stupid fastest finger game.

 

[WGCRider]

Having access to some of the best agentic AI systems means I don’t have to worry about getting a tee time. I have a lovely assistant that books them for me. I don’t even need to be sat at a PC or interact with it in any way unless I want to book a different time. And there is no way the club would know it wasn’t me doing the booking.

Yeah - there's nothing wrong with taking the odd thing from the shop. Look - if they expect me to scan my own shopping they should pay me. Me "forgetting" to scan a snickers bar isn't stealing, it's payment.

 

[Slab]

I don’t really use online booking. I assume the tee times for a complete day/week open up at the same time 7/10/14 days before and it’s a free for all to grab the one you fancy

Would it help/hinder that if instead of the tee times opening for the whole day, it only opens for that hour, and an hour later the next hours tee times open up and so on
i.e if you want a 7;20am tee time you can log in from 7am 7/14 days prior, but if you don’t intend to play till midday you login from midday for that hours’ tee times etc

 

[The Squirrel]

Interesting that block booking a whole massive block of tee times you don’t actually need, only to release them later once you’re all sorted - so nobody else can plan their golf 7 days in advance other than you (a behaviour which IS antisocial) has attracted less ire than getting your home PC to automate 3 of the mouse clicks when you quietly book and then use a tee time same as anyone else.

Funny old perspective.

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

Yeah - there's nothing wrong with taking the odd thing from the shop. Look - if they expect me to scan my own shopping they should pay me. Me "forgetting" to scan a snickers bar isn't stealing, it's payment.

What on earth are you blathering on about?

 

[nickjdavis]

We have a group similar to yours who block book many prime times then slowly cancel once they have decided which they will take. Unfortunately they play at the same time on a Sunday morning I wish to play. They feel that’s their time and get annoyed when someone breaks up their groups. To the point they will try and push in or tee off early to try and fore playing through.

We dont get annoyed when someone else beats us to the punch...as I said...it does happen sometimes, but we work with them (if we know who they are and we certainly dont "bully" them) to reach a mutually acceptable solution. Although we play at "the same time" on Fridays and Sundays, we aren't precious about whether the first of our groups goes off at 10am or whether its a couple of slots earlier/later...we just get on with it and book ourselves in based on the tee times that are free when the booking opens.

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

We dont get annoyed when someone else beats us to the punch...as I said...it does happen sometimes, but we work with them (if we know who they are) to reach a mutually acceptable solution. Although we play at "the same time" on Fridays and Sundays, we aren't precious about whether the first of our groups goes off at 10am or whether its a couple of slots earlier/later...we just get on with it and book ourselves in based on the tee times that are free when the booking opens.

The mutually acceptable solution is to leave people alone and let them play at the time they have booked.

 

[D-S]

Is it against the rules as laid down to use a bot or some programme to jump the queue ahead of people doing the way the club assumed when setting up the system? - Probably not.

Can the club prevent members doing this even though it is not the way they thought it should work? - Probably not.

Does it see fair, open and honest? Not really.

A bit like hiring someone to wait in the queue outside the Pro Shop from 4am in the days when it was a physical sign up, against the rules - no, sneaky - yes.

A bit like dress codes, I would never throw someone off the course for not wearing what someone else thinks is correct or appropriate but would I think they looked like a wally and a bit of a disappointment? Yes.

You can stick to rules not the spirit and profit from it despite knowing that you are gaining an advantage and feel happy or smug about it, however it doesn't stop you going down in others' estimation.

 

[IanM]

What on earth are you blathering on about?

People misusing systems perchance?

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Don't be obtuse, that's not the same thing. Neither is sitting there waiting for the clock to tick over or grouping together. However you justify your actions to yourself is your business but there is clearly a line and you know it.

I don’t use a script

I’m more than capable enough to book a tee time without one

But I’m not silly enough to not understand that there are many ways to ensure that someone gets the tee time they want