Tee Times - Staying or Going

[BiMGuy]

Except you could only not play because of the tee booking in place. If your club was ‘turn up and play‘ today then you could have rolled up; put your ‘ball in the chute‘, and waited until it was your turn. If there were too many balls in the chute I.e. too many ahead of you for you to be bothered or have the time to wait then you would have just gone home. If not so many in the queue and you had time to wait then you would have played.

At least he knew. Who wants to go all the way to the club, only to find it rammed and have to turn round and go home?

Like I said previously. Fine if you have nothing else to do. Which is mostly theseniors, and they will be the group who complain the most.

I suddenly found myself with time to play today. I looked on the booking sheet and found a slot that was ideal. It meant I could plan some other things I needed to do around the golf, get everything done I wanted to and know the dog wasn't going to be left on her own for too long.

When I play with my son. There is no way he would be interested in playing if we had to wait for an hour before playing.

There is no downside to booking. Other than its not what some clubs used to do!

 

[Jamesbrown]

Surely the clubs should/would like a vote now they’ve seen the other side?

 

[TheDiablo]

Except you could only not play because of the tee booking in place. If your club was ‘turn up and play‘ today then you could have rolled up; put your ‘ball in the chute‘, and waited until it was your turn. If there were too many balls in the chute I.e. too many ahead of you for you to be bothered or have the time to wait then you would have just gone home. If not so many in the queue and you had time to wait then you would have played.

My club is waiting until we know what’s going to happen on the 21st and then the board will make a recommendation to the members. There will be very significant and heated debate. Some 5 yrs ago the club piloted tee booking for a 3 month trial - at the end of which the members voted strongly against its retention.

I think the vote will be much closer this time, especially as we have a load of newer members who are used to being able to book a tee time - either new to club membership or moved from clubs with tee booking. I think an element of turn up and play will be retained...most probably for weekday golf and possibly also for weekends after maybe 3pm. Weekend golf to mid-afternoon and midweek roll ups i can see being tee booking. But there is a possibility that 100% tee booking will win the day, and that will cause ructions in the membership especially amongst members of longer standing.

I heard you guys are up to 90(!!) on your waiting list. Potentially looking at introducing a 5 day membership for some of them.

At West Byfleet I'd be surprised if we didn't go back to the old school. Booked tee times on Sat until 11.30am. Other than that rock up and play with some set times for roll ups each day.

I can see the benefits of both. Would personally sway to the tee booking remaining if they keep gaps at 10 mins which I wouldn't have thought last year.

 

[richart]

Hope they go at my club. Fed up with being beaten to the decent tee times and ending up playing after 11.30, and missing lunch at the club.

Before bookings never had a problem teeing off around 9.30, perhaps waiting for a couple of groups to tee off at most.

I hate change.

 

[Blue in Munich]

I heard you guys are up to 90(!!) on your waiting list. Potentially looking at introducing a 5 day membership for some of them.

At West Byfleet I'd be surprised if we didn't go back to the old school. Booked tee times on Sat until 11.30am. Other than that rock up and play with some set times for roll ups each day.

I can see the benefits of both. Would personally sway to the tee booking remaining if they keep gaps at 10 mins which I wouldn't have thought last year.

Are you finding benefits with this; and what were your timings before?

 

[fundy]

Hope they go at my club. Fed up with being beaten to the decent tee times and ending up playing after 11.30, and missing lunch at the club.

Before bookings never had a problem teeing off around 9.30, perhaps waiting for a couple of groups to tee off at most.

I hate change.

get with the plan, no downsides to booking

 

[GG26]

Except you could only not play because of the tee booking in place. If your club was ‘turn up and play‘ today then you could have rolled up; put your ‘ball in the chute‘, and waited until it was your turn. If there were too many balls in the chute I.e. too many ahead of you for you to be bothered or have the time to wait then you would have just gone home. If not so many in the queue and you had time to wait then you would have played.

My club is waiting until we know what’s going to happen on the 21st and then the board will make a recommendation to the members. There will be very significant and heated debate. Some 5 yrs ago the club piloted tee booking for a 3 month trial - at the end of which the members voted strongly against its retention.

I think the vote will be much closer this time, especially as we have a load of newer members who are used to being able to book a tee time - either new to club membership or moved from clubs with tee booking. I think an element of turn up and play will be retained...most probably for weekday golf and possibly also for weekends after maybe 3pm. Weekend golf to mid-afternoon and midweek roll ups i can see being tee booking. But there is a possibility that 100% tee booking will win the day, and that will cause ructions in the membership especially amongst members of longer standing.

I had not arranged to play with anyone else today and in the past I would have turned up in the afternoon knowing the course would be quiet. If I had turned up today, I would have been a single playing behind several 3 or 4 balls, which is not appealling. You also don't know how far I live from the course. It could easily be an hour round trip, which would be wasted time as well as unecessary use of fuel etc.

The advantage I have found with a booking system is that I can occasionally find that there is a two or three ball with a group I know which I can join them and at our cllub adding to another booking is perfectly acceptable. I have met a number of new people that way. Last week I ended up in a two ball with a new member and I marked his first card for him (also turned out his boss was someone I knew as one of the parents from my son's former football team - it is a small world)

 

[davidy233]

Walk out the door - fire up the BRS app on the phone as i walk round the corner to the course and book a time - that's how I normally do it.

 

[TheDiablo]

Are you finding benefits with this; and what were your timings before?

Definitely quicker to get around on busy days. Would guess 15/20mins, maybe even more.

We were 7/8 mins, which is basically tee off as soon as the group hit their 2nds. Course on busy days completely choked up right from the start

At 10 mins you're teeing off with the group on the green. Much more space between groups

 

[Robster59]

Our club was always roll up and play. When the restrictions started they went to a booking system. Two things prompted this.

• Maximum two players a tee time.
• A lot less non playing members and a lot more playing members meaning demand is far higher than it has ever been.

I used to enjoy roll up and play but I doubt it will come back. Not while we have so many playing members. I'm not complaining about the number of playing members. It's great for the club. It's just change.

 

[BiMGuy]

Definitely quicker to get around on busy days. Would guess 15/20mins, maybe even more.

We were 7/8 mins, which is basically tee off as soon as the group hit their 2nds. Course on busy days completely choked up right from the start

At 10 mins you're teeing off with the group on the green. Much more space between groups

This is an important point to consider.

I've played at places where you just roll up, and the pace of play is glacial when busy.

Off the first. As soon as the last player in the fairway has played, the next group starts.

 

[Blue in Munich]

Definitely quicker to get around on busy days. Would guess 15/20mins, maybe even more.

We were 7/8 mins, which is basically tee off as soon as the group hit their 2nds. Course on busy days completely choked up right from the start

At 10 mins you're teeing off with the group on the green. Much more space between groups

Thanks, that pretty much mirrors what we have found, pace of play certainly smoother, if not necessarily quicker (depending on who is first out), and our tee timings were the same as yours. ?

 

[Doh]

Our seniors have an hour 9am-10am booked Monday to Friday anyone wants to play earlier can get on 8am-9am.it seems to work well not heard of any issues.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

Not heard from any of the clubs what they are doing.

I quite like the hybrid system (early morning no tee times and then tee times after that or only tee times at the weekend), provided member numbers are workable with it.

 

[FourPutt]

Ours seem to have a hybrid system in place at the moment anyway. We usually book through the IG app and there are sometimes a block of tees booked out for certain things but generally it‘s just pick a time and click on it in the app.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

We have had a booking system for several years now, my previous club didn't. I see the argument for both sides but I think there is plenty of scope for a hybrid to keep everyone happy.

 

[r0wly86]

I didn't realise how prevalent ball in chute was, I've only been at one course that has used it. Hated it as well.

If I have a booked time I know when to arrive at the club, have a drink, warm up, few putts and when to make my way to the tee

 

[nickjdavis]

Doubt there will be any change for general play...we've always had to book tee times (Ok in quiet times like late afternoon/early evening you could just turn up and play) and nothing changed through Covid except the fact that no one was allowed to block book a consecutive block of tee times and the seniors and ladies lost their traditional fixed blocks of tee times on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Comps have seen the biggest change. Previously players would put their names down on a list, a draw would be done and everyone in the comp would go off in a block from Sunday 7.30am until 12:00 (or whenever the last tee time was that was needed). This way folks would play with different people every week and newcomers would integrate into the club more readily. Now comps are "all-day" affairs, you book your tee time whenever you like, turn up, pay your entry fee, play and stick your card in the box. Seems to be popular as competition fields have grown significantly...easily up by 50%.

I hope we go to some sort of hybrid for competitions in the future that allows some block booking/organisation for comps with the flexibility of bookable tee times outside of the block for those who don't want to be tied down to playing on a Sunday morning.

 

[IanM]

We were always "no starting times" and the convention of not teeing off until the game in front leave the first green to manage flow. Worked well, except for on a Saturday morning you had no idea how long you'd be waiting to tee off.

Everything is booked now, so we have less waiting around, we know who is playing. No idea if this will stay if and when restrictions ease further.

 

[Deleted member 3432]

Where clubs have attracted newer and younger members they risk losing these very quickly if they return to 'no tee times'

Perfect for retired people who have time to spend all day at the golf club but useless for those who have commitments outside of golf.