Tee for two...or two at three?

[billyg]

Apologies, i'm sending 'em thick and fast today .

As ive mentioned in other posts ive embarked on a gargantuan piece of fingertip research of the clubs in my manor to find the right club for me and the missus.

This mainly revolves around the purchase of a OS 'Tour' series map, some of those little round stickers,a copy of the AA guide to Golf Courses, the tinternet, a spreadsheet to log all the results and a fair bit of patience.

Amongst some of the results coming back is this idea of booking tee times for members and guests at weekends(mainly).

Does this actually work?

What's to stop a member from just block booking a nice 9am slot on a Saturday for the whole of 2008 for example?

When we finally wittle the list of prospects down to a handful then this question will be added to the list that we will address to the clubs should they have such a system in place.

I thought I would ask on here though as i'm sure i'll get more pragmatic and forthright answers than I would from the club secretary.

When the whole project is done and dusted i'll probably put up a post with any interesting findings that spring out from the research.

Here's one to be going on with though, roughly 50% of the courses in Herts. don't accept visitors or non-H/C holders at weekends.

Bill

 

[DCB]

Well you seem to be looking at the right things and thinking of the right questions to ask when looking into joining a club.

I'm sure there will be previous threads about booking or not booking tee times and how clubs work it. It is very much up to the club how they want it to work.

As far as your last point, vistors at weekends, I would have thought that most clubs do have restrictions on this as this is when the majority of members will want to play. We have specific times that visitors can play at a weekend (visitors as opposed to guests!) that way we get to play when we want. I would certainly be a bit cheesed off if I couldn't play as the tee was booked regularly on a saturday by visitors or even worse outings!

Hope you do find what you are looking for in a club.

 

[Leftie]

You will probably find that most clubs operate a 1 week or 2 week booking system i.e. if you want to book a tee time for 3 or 4 players for (say) Sat 15th at 9 am, you would probably need to be at the clubhouse on Sat 1st at about 7.30 to stand a chance. Usually less premium times are easier to book either in person or telephone.

I agree with DCB's comments re weekend visitors.

Good luck

 

[billyg]

At the moment I can't make my mind up what I think about the idea.Putting myself in the shoes of a nomad weekend golfer I want the widest choice of clubs to play,a fair price and a warm welcome. As a member I can take the points above that I might be pretty p1ssed off having paid a hefty membership fee only to find myself competing with stroll-on players or pay-and-play prebookers.

Let me run this one past you. Got a reply back from a club a few days ago- membership in excess of £1000 a year(not unusual for these parts). Did one of my usual things and looked at a number of golf course revew sites to get an initial feel for what people thought of it.

Turns out you can stroll up , with a 2-fore-1 voucher on a Saturday and crack on for about £15 a pop. I'm either missing something here or I really can't see what would induce me to go for membership.

I hope this doesn't draw accusatons of elitism(and ive seen the thread about clubs that cost footballers salaries to join and don't want to kick that particular hornets nest). I suppose if you like the club and think you might play it enough to bring the marginal cost of a round to less than a 2-fore-1 deal then no problems. All well and good but it's the competing for space that bit that such offers encourage that puts me off.

I simply don't want to have to think three weeks in advance what I might want to do and gamble for a chance to squeeze in on a crowded course ive paid a small fortune(to me) to shuffle round between groups not showing the same financial commitment.

Got no problem with pay and play- I couldn't have got going without them but a club can't have it both ways....or perhaps they can?

It's a confusing one and i'm not sure where I stand on it. only time will tell.

Bill

 

[GB72]

Seems similar to a course near me. Is probably the best club in the area with 2 courses but one is often closed all day to societies. A hotel has recently been added and with it a tee booking system for everyone so as times can effectively be block booked for hotel guests. Members have to fight for tee times with the hotel guests, pay and players and societies and can only book 1 tee time per day. Needless to say, I chose to sign up elsewhere.

 

[USER1999]

At my course, as a member, yes you have to book a tee time at the weekend if you want to play your 'regular' four ball. However, we also have tee times 'block' booked for the various members swindles (roll ups, what ever you want to call them). This means that if you are not fussed who you play with, and most of the crowd are regulars and good guys anyway, you can just turn up for the draw, chuck your sweep (£4) in the pot, and play with the swindle. This involves no forward planning at all. At the end, the winner takes the pot, but buys the drinks with it.

If you are looking at joining a club, this sort of thing is worth looking into, as it is fairly common, and is a really good way of getting to meet a lot of members in a short space of time.