Hylands Tee Times

[Officer]

New member this year...impossible to get a tee time. Course is always packed. Will be looking at somewhere different next year.

[spackler]

1600ish members will pack a course for sure. I play there a few times a year and always enjoy it. Even when it's busy, the pace of play is usually pretty good.

[Michael]

I was a member for a few years as well and suffered the same problem. Ended up playing early bird on the weekends, arriving at the course around 0500 or 0530. Not an ideal solution but they do have a lot of members, that seems the largest issue that I can recall.

[MarcArt]

Hi Officer (spackler and Michael). As of March 31 when I was considering becoming a member, the Hylands wrote me to say this...


"We have around 1250 members now and we are trying to keep it 1500 members and booking tee time is not a problem. In the past years we had 1500 – 1600 members and waiting list of 300 people."


So with bookings in question here, they must have reached the upper limit. Also, when I asked about any reciprocal agreements they might have, they said none were available. Which seemed strange for a course that could have had a reciprocal with Kingston's Garrison club, or others. The other strange thing is, they don't let prospective members try the course without being invited by an existing member. One would think they would have a slot or two a week to allow those interested to get a preview round in on the course...

[nice_lag]

Michael, exact same thing I used to do as a member.

[Muddler]

This is my 5th year as a member at Hylands and I don't really have a problem getting tee-times. When are you trying to play? And how are you trying to get a tee-time?

They have a computerized booking system. You can reserve a tee-time up to 10 days in advance. Its a lottery system, so you find out your exact tee-time 4 days beforehand. Within the four days, you can just go on the system, see the complete tee-time sheet, and slot yourself in whenever there's a spot.

If you're looking for something within 4 hours, then you'll have to call the starter.

I find the computerized system very good. It's controlled by an algorithm and I find I tend to get my preferred tee-times.

I play a lot of earlybird on weekends, but only cause I have non-member friends I play with.

Plus it's ball-in-the-rack starting at 5:30. So on a weekday I can just show-up after work and play 18 (at the height of summer like now).

Hylands has many problems, but I don't find getting a tee-time is one of them.

And I find most of Hylands' problems come from being owned and run by the federal government.

[Muddler]

1600ish members will pack a course for sure. I play there a few times a year and always enjoy it. Even when it's busy, the pace of play is usually pretty good.

Pace of play is excellent this year. They've moved to a 9-minute interval for tee-times and it's really kept things moving. I played a 3:50 round on a busy saturday morning recently.

[BobMcBobson]

I agree with Muddler. I've been a member for a few years now and I almost never have an issue getting a tee time. A few times a season I'll get a time I don't like, but that's the nature of the algorithm that tries to balance everyone's requests. When that happens I'll either play early bird or just keep an eye on the tee sheet online and look for a cancellation.

With a large membership (it's more like 1250, not 1600, BTW), getting tee times at the last minute can be an issue if you like to play early, but I imagine that's the case at a lot of clubs. If you like playing later in the day, it's usually fairly wide open. If you are entering reservation ballots in advance and are not getting tee times around your requested time, I suggest you talk to the admin staff. Maybe there is an issue with the way you do your requests or perhaps even a bug in the system.

[allen]

I agree with the gentlemen above. Typically I get the tee-times that I want, however you have to be proactive and book in advance. If you are a last minute planner then you will have a hard time getting a tee-time.

[cruxradio]

I booked in advance this saturday for 8 to 8:30am tee time OR LATER, on either course. Our foursome (all members) ended up with a time at about 2:30pm.
Several groups with 2 guests and 2 members got times ahead of us too.

I rarely try to book for times on weekend mornings- there should be a priority for people who don't often request these times to be able to have them.

[Muddler]

I booked in advance this saturday for 8 to 8:30am tee time OR LATER, on either course. Our foursome (all members) ended up with a time at about 2:30pm.
Several groups with 2 guests and 2 members got times ahead of us too.

I rarely try to book for times on weekend mornings- there should be a priority for people who don't often request these times to be able to have them.

Well this Saturday's a little unusual as they have the senior club championships, so there's only one course available. I asked for 12:30 and got 2pm.

I'm not saying the system is perfect, but I feel most of the time most of the people get a mostly agreeable tee-time.

[justsomeguy]

I briefly considered a membership at Hylands - I'm glad I chose elsewhere.

I'm not retired, so I can really only golf on Saturdays and Sundays and I have other things to do on weekends too. I'm sure a lot of other people are in the same position. I typically book my weekend rounds on Wednesdays or Thursdays depending on weekend plans from SWMBO and weather forecasts, and I have rarely had to book a time more than 30 minutes from my preference.

I can't even imagine having my golfing life controlled by an algorithm, let alone the thought of not being able to play golf last minute as a single at a club with 36 holes. Jeez, I showed up unannounced at St. Andrews Old Course as a single and teed off within 45 minutes! It looks like a nice course but clearly they have too many members.

[Muddler]

I briefly considered a membership at Hylands - I'm glad I chose elsewhere.

I'm not retired, so I can really only golf on Saturdays and Sundays and I have other things to do on weekends too. I'm sure a lot of other people are in the same position. I typically book my weekend rounds on Wednesdays or Thursdays depending on weekend plans from SWMBO and weather forecasts, and I have rarely had to book a time more than 30 minutes from my preference.

I can't even imagine having my golfing life controlled by an algorithm, let alone the thought of not being able to play golf last minute as a single at a club with 36 holes. Jeez, I showed up unannounced at St. Andrews Old Course as a single and teed off within 45 minutes! It looks like a nice course but clearly they have too many members.

Well of course you can just show up and talk to the starter and he'll slot you in where there's a spot.

[cruxradio]

I think anyone wishing to join Hylands should be aware that many tee times on Saturday and Sunday morning are reserved for a certain group of players, they usually have about 1 hour worth of tee times. Doesn't leave much left for the other 1200+ members.

[jmwhite]

Funny that the original poster has not been back since his first post. Hit and run.