Timings of 2 tee starts for 2 balls/foursomes and 3/4 balls

[YandaB]

When I was a lad, I recall playing a handful of times at my fathers course, West Wilts, and they had a board that told people which tee to start at based on the type of golf being played. 2 balls and foursomes would go of a certain tee (1 or 10 I believe) at certain time slots and 3/4 balls from the other tee at certain time slots. I don't recall if those timeslots were exactly the same but presumeably this was all to allow for the quicker format to not be held up by the longer format.

There are a number of people that have really enjoyed their 3 hour 2 ball post-covid rounds but are now only able to do so before 9AM (which is better than before). Personally I prefer the 4 hour 4 ball but it would be great if as many people could be satisfied as possible with as few restrictions as possible (yes I do want us all to have cake and eat it, I like cake ).

Does anybody have an arrangement like this? Does it work and how? Can it be done through booking systems (and will they allow different lenghts between tee times so 2 balls are 8 minutes and 3/4 are 10)?

 

[Imurg]

In normal times we have a 2 tee start
2 and 3 balls from one tee for a couple of hours, 3 and 4balls from the other and then it swaps over..
Seems to work pretty well.
Theres a board near the tees, a notice in the changing rooms and we all get issued with a sheet that has a "traffic light " system that shows when the roll ups go out.
Green is a good ti e to start, amber could be busy with groups coming round the turn and red is no starts...
Works well once you get used to it.
As a 3 ball we can just loom and see which tee is quieter and go with that.

 

[Grant85]

Have to say this has absolutely led me to be playing more golf than I would normally. Can absolutely see the attraction at the likes of Muirfield, Royal St George's and other places who have stuck resolutely to 2 balls most mornings.

My course flows well so can get round in close to 3 hours most of the time anyway. But knowing you turn up, tee off, 3 hours later you are back in the car driving home has been great.

In normal times, I might be 3 hours 30 mins on the course and another hour of chat / coffee / toastie after.

I think it would be almost impossible to enforce this at a club as most will have a fourball culture where you play a match of some kind.

It could work with a 2 tee start whereby you have 2 balls off the 10th for 90 mins and 4 balls off the 1st for 60 mins, then flip it. Would need to be reasonably well organised and of course reliant on 10th tee being close to the clubhouse.