Anyone else finding tee times more and more difficult to get at your desired times? It seems every decent course has a restriction how many days ahead or only between certain times as to when you can get a tee time.
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Anyone else finding tee times more and more difficult to get at your desired times? It seems every decent course has a restriction how many days ahead or only between certain times as to when you can get a tee time.
Membership has its privileges. As most courses are semi-private the members get and should get the first crack at the tee times. While the financial contribution of daily players is appreciated, this revenue is only a small portion of the average semi-private course's budget, most of which obviously comes from the members.Quote:
Originally Posted by mully
The other reality is that today, 99% of your members are active golfers who play several times a week. Years ago, it was common to be a member somewhere, and play a lot less than the average member plays today. The net result then is that most courses are much busier than previously and daily play times are more scarce. Many golfers are retiring earlier than years ago and now play golf more often, again reducing time availability.
With more taking up the game, it will be busier. I even find myself playing about twice as much now as last year and wishing I could get out more often. Limit myself to 2-3 games a week. Have to work sometimes to pay for it all :-)
I understand the point that members should have priority. Unfortunetly, I joined one of those memberships programs where you get cheaper rounds at many courses. Well with that comes the reality that you can't necessarly play where and when you want to. It seems these members don't get rewarded as well as regular course memberships (even though they probably pay much more for the membership). Maybe it just the owner of my program hasn't negociated very well the advantages for his members but it seems every week, it's a struggle to get a tee-off to nicer courses.Quote:
Originally Posted by BC MIST
One course which I don't want to mention offers only tee times on weekend to regular golfers out of the 7:30 to 10:30 times and on weekdays don't let others get tee-offs between 12:00 and 4:00. Another course doesn't let get a tee-off time more than 48 hours in advance.
Membership does have it's priviledges but it's also very expensive for the lesser ends of the world.
Most of these memberships use corporate memberships which sometimes are more limited than a personal membership depending on the course. The other issue that comes into play is the number of memberships at each course vs. the number of memberships that the group resells. For example (made up numbers):Quote:
Originally Posted by mully
15 courses with 4 corporate memberships at each course = 60 membershipsNow if you have 500 members fighting for 60 playing spots every day, you will be limited to what you are able to get. This is the experience that I had when I belonged to Corporate Golf a few years ago. If you didn't watch the days in advance that you can pre-book, and then call first thing in the morning that you can book, you never got a course you wanted. Sure there was courses available, but not close to town, and not the ones I wanted to play.
60 memberships at $2500 = $150,000
$150,000/300 for a resold membership = 500 members to pay off capital
There was lots of room out at Eagle Creek, bring the bug spray though. We teed off at 7:54am on Saturday, give or take a couple of minutes, and it was like we had the course to ourselves.
Good luck on finding what you want.
If you call 4 days in advance, you have a good shot on the time you want. Most courses let you book at least that early.Quote:
Originally Posted by BC MIST
99% of members, as you say, ARE NOT active golfers who play several times a week. Nowadays, Corporate Memberships with pre-booking advantages as well as tournaments have priority. Most courses have at least one tournament per day. Unfortunatly, they take the prime times.
My advice is to call a week to the course you want to play and ask if there is a tournament going on that day. Then, at least you will know the availability of tee-off times. Now you can book accordingly.
Mind you, I'm just a kid who's been working in the industry for 15 years... so what do I know?
Good points Shtick, but I think he's talking about a club such as our ReservationMasters Club, Golf Ala Carte, or Corporate Golf
Quote:
It seems these members don't get rewarded as well as regular course memberships (even though they probably pay much more for the membership).
These types of memberships are heavily used, much more than a regular membership. With respect to advance booking privilages, typically the course members get "teir one" advance booking, say 7 days. Then comes Corporate Memberships at say 5 days, then the Green Fee players at 3 days. Some courses only allow the same privilages for corporate members and green fees, and some the same for all.
Quote:
Maybe it just the owner of my program hasn't negociated very well the advantages for his members
Time of day restrictions such as these are imposed by the courses. If the corporate membership offered includes such restrictions, then the only option the club owner has is to take it or leave it. There is no negotiating that will allow club members to access certain courses prior to 12:00 noon on weekends. This is the same for all Corporate memberships they sell. If you want the course in the program at all, you must accept what they offer. In our case we publisize these restrictions and privilages so the members all know the score going in. Fortunately we only have such restrictions at Manderley, Chateau Cartier, and Eagle Creek. The rest are all available to play at any time. Of course there may be others if you belong to another club.
In the case of the Meadows, where booking is 3 days advance for all, thier phone lines and our internet booking system get very busy at 9:00 am on Wednesday when booking opens for Saturday. Tee times go very quickly. That applies not only to club spots, but also choice tee times at the course. This is inevitable when a course has such a short booking window. That's the way they like it.
To anyone who is focused on playing regularly at any one course; I'd recommend getting a membership or frequent player rewards card at that course.
If you want the variety of playing a lot of different courses, using a club like ours effectively simply requires planning ahead and being flexible about where you play. I myself use our system and have no trouble getting on at a variety of courses. I grab a spot when it is available. This approach has worked for me, and I enjoy the variety. I do not like to play the same course twice in a row. I like to get around to all of them, and that alone will take 19 rounds to accomplish.
In any program where you save a lot of money there will be trade offs. If you join a single course you will have to play when they have an opening, since other members also want that 7:00 am Saturday morning tee time.
Good point Dan!
You'd still be surprised on how many people call the evening before they want to play a certain course!! Poor planning indeed!
Unfortunatly, people get upset when they are denied their preferred spot. But as always, from a ProShop's point of view, "if you ask the right questions, you get the right answers".