To Book or Not to Book........

[fundy]

Fragger

not sure if you are aware but the seniors tend to have the tee on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at AVGC and on all of them are likely to be teeing off when youre preferred slot is

 

[Slab]

Can’t see why it has to be one or the other!

At mine the tee times open up for booking no more than 48 hours in advance & is booked by calling the starters box (also stops same slots getting booked well in advance) or you can just roll up & wait/slot in

Everyones happy

 

[papyt]

We don't have a booking system and it works out fine all comps are in the diary so only have to check to see what is on,never really had a problem waiting best time is SUNDAY afternoon never a sole on the course,we have limited society days and normally mid-week so does not interfere with my golf.

 

[sev112]

We must be lucky
We runa booking system, but it's not needed, small club small membership, so you can most parts of the week turn up and get pff pretty much most times. i quite like the informality of it

 

[Iaing]

We've a booking system that works great.
Every third tee time is non bookable for folks that just want to turn up without booking.
i.e 8.00 and 8.08 are bookable but 8.16 non bookable and so on.
I've never had to wait any more than half an hour for a game.

 

[richart]

No booking system at our club, just turn up and play. Saturday mornings can be busy, but still never waited more than about 20 minutes.

 

[Captain_Black]

Deffo in the no booking camp.
I work shifts (4 on 4 off) days & nights.
I sometimes go to the course straight after a nightshift & play if I feel ok, other times I get up after lunch & head for the course.
Just being able to rock up when I like suits me & it was one of the reasons that I joined this particular club.

 

[Evesdad]

I prefer a bookin system so I know exactly when I'm teeing off. We use the brs system though it is only in operation on Tuesday's and Friday-Sunday.

 

[daymond]

We only have to ring the Pro who deals with bookings. It's a great system and provides certainty.
I would hate a no booking system.

 

[Crow]

We use the BRS booking system and for me it's great.

It opens 10 days ahead, if I forget to book and it's full then I just monitor it for a few days and spaces appear in the run up to the day and I just slot into a time that suits me, all groups are fourballs. The memebrship is very friendly and you're always made welcome by the group and it's a great way to meet new people.

Being a Billy Nomates I don't have a set group I play with so this suits me perfectly.

 

[Dodger]

Anyone with BRS care to tell me that they are pish??

Thought not......market leaders for a reason eh?

 

[thecraw]

Pitch up and play, join the queue if their is one.

Medal you enter online, book your preferred tee time.

 

[Slab]

I wonder how much (if anything) does roll-up contribute to the 'slow play' legends that so many threads discuss?

It's less likely that there will be proper spacing (major contributor to pace of play) especially in varibale group sizes
It's more likely that players will add the Q time to their round time when at 19th (or on the forum later)
Do any of the let me through gang play roll-up (with an unknown/unexpected delay at the 1st) & are then stating that they only have x time to play so that other commitments can be met?

 

[Imurg]

Never an issue about getting off with a bit of foresight

But with a bit of foresight could you not book a tee-time..?

We have no booking system and that suits me perfectly but that is through faults of my own not the club. Most of my rounds are sorted out on Thursday or even in the pub on Friday night. If we had a booking system then I would not be able to get a tee time until early afternoon if I left it that late to arrange anything.

I know when the busy times are and I know when the course is quiet so we know when there is going to be a queue and can plan accordingly. Most of the people I play with left their last club (Greetham Valley) because they intorduced a tee booking system and it was difficult to get on the course anywhere near to the times that they wanted to play.

The queue is never more than half an hour at the busiest time and we run a ball chute in the Winter to keep people out of the cold so it suits me perfectly.

I can see the positives of non-booking if it's a busy club and booking could be an issue but what would happen if you rocked up Saturday morning to find you had at least an hour's wait before going out..?
Maybe that's not an issue with you but it would be for me. With a booked time you know when you're playing. You don't have to turn up at Sparrow-fart O'clock and wait around to get your weekly game. I appreciate that some, maybe most, don't have to wait long but the chance of a long wait is always there.

I guess it's a question of what you know and what you like.
I can roll-up to APGC at certain times and walk stright out but weekday mornings are busy and as Fragger and myself organise work in the afternoon we need to have some idea of finishing time. Rocking up at 9am to find we're at the back of an hour long queue just wouldn't work.
At AVGC last week, if we'd turned up around 11 there would have been 45 minutes wait on the tee and no real chance of going off the 10th as there was a steady stream coming down the 9th.
And in this World of mobiles, Facebook etc etc , organising a game a week in advance can't be that tricky can it?

 

[bluewolf]

no booking works for me at the moment. I work nights so cant tee off before lunch anyway. I can get out of bed, roll up to the course, have a warm up and practise while I wait (usually no more than 10-15 mins) then tee off. Fortunately, at this time the course is usually pretty quiet. I don't have to be away till 15:30 so I usually have plenty of time... I do understand that people who play in the morning require a booking system, but it wouldn't make any difference to me.. On the rare occasion that I play in the morning, then I know when the relic roll ups are on and I can avoid them. A booking system wouldn't work on these occasions anyway as the roll ups at our place are set in stone (ironically)..

 

[Tommo21]

What I laugh at is the people who say roll up is okay for me……when they don’t have a booking system. How do you know a booking system wont work for you.

Who wants to turn up a wait. It’s a nice day, everyone that’s everyone turns up to play and you hang around for ages before you get off….sod that.

Book a time, turn up have some breakfast, go hit a couple of balls, go hit some putts, go to the pro shop 10 min before your tee time and bobs your uncle.

I see both sides of this ever week and a good booking system is miles ahead of anything that went before.

People who argue the case not to change will never change as their first thought is to down the proposal instead of giving it some thought or trying it.

If the course is busy you can only get a certain amout off at a time. You cant get more off because you have a roll up, all you'll get is slow rounds. If the booking system is busy then your course is being well managed.

 

[bluewolf]

What I laugh at is the people who say roll up is okay for me……when they don’t have a booking system. How do you know a booking system wont work for you.

Who wants to turn up a wait. It’s a nice day, everyone that’s everyone turns up to play and you hang around for ages before you get off….sod that.

Book a time, turn up have some breakfast, go hit a couple of balls, go hit some putts, go to the pro shop 10 min before your tee time and bobs your uncle.

I see both sides of this ever week and a good booking system is miles ahead of anything that went before.

People who argue the case not to change will never change as their first thought is to down the proposal instead of giving it some thought or trying it.

If the course is busy you can only get a certain amout off at a time. You cant get more off because you have a roll up, all you'll get is slow rounds. If the booking system is busy then your course is being well managed.

I don't know whether a booking system would work for me, it probably would, im fairly flexible. But I do know that a roll up system works for me.. Im not against change, and if the club proposed it, I wouldn't automatically be against it, but if the current system works fine for me, then why would I volunteer to change it?

 

[Tommo21]

Sit on the fence......lol

 

[bluewolf]

Sit on the fence......lol

I genuinely don't mind... If the club introduced it, I wouldn't mind. Like I said, Im in the fortunate position of playing most of my golf midweek, early afternoon. Its the quietest time... If you want me to put myself in the position of someone who plays in the morning, then in all honesty, I would probably want a booking system... There you go, im off the fence.... I don't like it...i'm getting back on it before the next thread kicks off..

 

[sweatysock41]

We have a booking system but its only usually required from Friday through Sunday. The only issue I have with it is when members book times and don't have the courtesy to say if they are not going to turn up. We have a regular Saturday roll up usually around 10 and there have been instances where these tee times have been unavailable so we will generally book a later time. Now I go up the same time and hit the practice area if that's the case but there have been a few instances over the past year when I have gone back down to the shop at or around our normal tee time and the first 2 holes have been empty - I asked in the shop if anyone had gone out no one for the last 30 minutes came the reply :angry:.

Don't get me wrong I don't have any issue with people booking tee times we would prefer but if you are not going to use them at least cancel them.