Does anyone play at a private course with no tee times or some open tee times? I know Olympia doesnt have tee times and it works for them. I've heard some courses leave a tee time per hour open for those showing up trying to get a game. Does your club do anything unique with tee times and does it work?

By the way, the reason I am asking is because my club is thinking of a way to get our new members more involved. We figure if we leave an open tee time once an hour that might encourage singles and newbies to show up on a regular basis on the weekends.

My club has normal tee times but the starter on the weekends always has 1 open tee time per hour in his back pocket which gives him the flexibility to get people out whether they just show up or if some reasonable outside force causes someone to miss their tee time.

Frank, my club accepts tee times only 3 days a year: Memorial Day, fourth of July, and Labor Day. Other than that, just show up and play. Even the busiest times, Friday afternoons and weekend mornings, there is never a problem getting off the first tee. Counting jrs and srs we have about 275 members.

Joel

My club is usually just show up and play, but they take times and it is usually needed on weekends. Another club right down the road from me (Sahalee) does not take tee times and you have to show up and put your name in with the starter. Not real fond of that system.

The club I play at is just show up and play, some of the guests that come just dont get it and it is funny watching them trying to argue to put down a tee time

My course is generally "walk-up-and-play" on NIGHTS (after 5:30pm or so), but they'll take tee times anytime.

I'd be deathly afraid of what might happen if they open it up to anytime - it would probably look something like THIS...........

My course has no tee times, and it's great. You show up and play. If there are a bunch of people wanting to play at the same time, then the Pro starts a list, and people are let out first come, first served. It is a great way to handle things--works very well.

Thanks guys if you could name your course, city and state that would be appreciated. I'm going to use this info at our next golf committee meeting.

The course I used to work at tried it for about a month, and stopped because it ended up being a massive clusterf**k. What we discovered basically, is that when you have set times, if someone calls wanting the 12:15 and the closest one you have is 12:55 they are okay with that because they accept the rules. But when you have no set times, and 3 groups that want to go off at 12:15, all sorts of arguments and problems start if they don't get their way.

Doing it first come first served didn't make it any better, because people thought if that was going to happen we might as well go back to having tee times.

Of course, this place is extremely busy. Its generally people teeing off every 7 to 10 minutes during the times they are allowed(there's a gap so that people making the turn from the morning don't hit the people teeing off on 10).

My course is tee-time free during the week and on the weekends they leave a foursome open for the walk-up traffic. The weekdays are slow anyway so it's not an issue as I generally play in 2.5 hours.

Aurora Country Club, Aurora, IL

Frank,

We've NEVER had tee times at our club - Kankakee Country Club.

Cardo

Depends on the members, really. I mean, in the Club I used to belong to we could just show up and play with relative ease (occasionally we'd have to hit at the range for a few minutes) and this caused little problems.

However, at a rather smaller type course nearby uses the same system where as someone posted earlier, causes arguements and whatnot.

So I guess it really depends on where you're playing.

It's always good to try new things, especially for the new members!

James

All of the courses here require a tee time booking. Also a lot of the courses will only allow members to book 7-10 days in advance and then non members 5-7 days in advance. In additon to this some of the courses actually block certain hours (ie early mornings at weekends) for members only and these times are only opended up late the night before or that morning if they have not been taken. And finally if you want to play at the weekend unless you are a four ball there is a 60/40 chance that you will get put together with another group.... i wouldn't like to think of the chances of getting a round if you just turned up at the weekend, but you might get away with it during the week.

The advantages are if you are willing to play in the middle of the day you can usually get a tee time and secondly because of the structure of the Arabic working week the weekend is actually spread over three days....

the course i worked at for a long time (exclusive private) has never had tee times and it works very well. show up, tell them you're playing and they get you off. it's a busy place but it gets everyone out in an orderly manner.

All the course in northern Michigan that I am familiary with require an advance tee time. My home course has various leagues that have times allocated to them but you still must book a tee time to play in the league. They usedto be a walk up and play course but that was total confusion, and alot of ticked off players waiting during peak hours and off peak hours with no one there. With the advance booking it has really smoothed out the play and has speeded up the round.

My Club, Southern Hills CC in Tulsa, Ok has no tee times. They do however on the weekends use a lottery for Sat and Sun AM slots that seems to work well for the Championship course, our other nine is always show up and play 6 days a week.

Both the clubs I belong to have starting times, but I have never not been able to get on when i wanted to.

My course in St. Louis has tee times that can be reserved a week in advance. However, they allow two times first out Saturday and Sunday for whoever shows up. If more than 8 people show up, the number of times expands and everyone else gets pushed back. Most that I have seen this summer is 12 people playing.

the only time my club has tee times is wednesday and saturday afternoon because those are our comp days.
every other day you can just walk up and get on the course with no problem.