executive tee times
 

Is anyone having trouble finding a tee time? It seems to me all the times are taken. Never saw that in the last three years.

I just had the same problem on a championship for Friday. I put in a request last Friday for 3 golfers between 11:56 and 1:30 at 8 courses and we're got nothing. When I went and looked at the open times for Friday for a single golfer, there were many, but all were for one golfer with a threesome. I know the new summer rates kick in, but this seems like a clitch.

Very, Very busy.


Last week before the April snowbirds leave.

executive tee times
 

Most of them are taken because many snowbirds are staying down here because the situation is more severe in their northern states. Also another reason is most of the other activities are closed down so most people are defaulting to golf when there is nothing to do including shopping.

April renters will have to be out Thursday. Friday is May 1st, the only difference is the price went down half. Some snowbirds staying later does make some sense. However, when I put my name in as a single and look at times for Friday, I can find 50 open teetimes on a championship course, there seems to be an abundance of threesomes. Plus the fact, I put in the request 7 days in advance and gave a 2 hour window for 6 courses. I can't imagine all those teetimes are priority members, because our threesome is not. It just seems fishy.

Part of the problem is the golf closes at 4 pm. That takes a lot of tee times away.

All our other activities have been shut down, so now my husband and I are golfing. My husband has golfed every day for the last 3 weeks. I’ve played twice as much as I have ever played. When they open up pickle ball, tennis, and water volley ball I’ll go back to playing once a week, and he will probably drop to twice or three times a week.

I’m pretty sure we are not alone. Once they open up other activities the courses will open up.

Courses closing at 4:00, 27 hole Championship courses only having 18 holes open, Mallory closed, and not much else being open all have to part of the problem.

Mallory opened up this week

Before everyone hits the links on friday expecting rates to be cut in half - not accurate. Example today Palmer's $47 premier member May 1 Palmer's $36 premier member. That's a reduction of 23%.

I'm no priority, resident member only. I only play in the afternoons, after 11:56. May 1st that's $36 up from $34 last year, we've been over that. If I played Thursday April 30th at 12:30 it's $64, not quite double, but a big difference. I think you meant priority member, it should be $29 instead of $36 for that.

Yep. The SnowBirds stayed. Why go back home to NJ if you can't play golf there?

Not really.

If tee time are every 8 minutes, that’s a lot of tee times on every executive from 4pm til 6 or slightly after

Yes really, to the tune of appr. 2300 tee times per day...execs only

On the champ courses we gained 20 teetimes that didn't exist. From 9:26 to 11:56 there were no times before because of the wave, but now with straight times we gained those. However we lost teetimes by having only one staring tee instead of three. Still from 7:30 in the morning until 4pm a teetime every 8 minutes on 12 courses, I would expect to see something, and there's no way they're are all priority members. I put in a request for our threesome for Saturday, I'll see how that goes tomorrow.

Thanks I didn’t want to do the math:coolsmiley:

We are priority, it’s not any easier

There are a lot of exec courses closed for maintenance right now.
Sweetgum and Pineallas are closed; only Mangrove is open. Both Bogart and Bacall are closed today. Probably others all across The Villages. All traffic goes to the open courses, making tee times scarce.

The "only game in town" right now is golf. I know a lot of pickleball players that are playing more golf now. Also, a lot of golfers that want a guaranteed championship tee time in the winter are priority members. In fact, I know a number of groups that play and you have to be a priority member to play in the group.
Exec? Forget it... everyone is going for tee times. If you don't get a tee time when the tee times are released there is usually nothing available (except for singles).

The season of green airification is also about to begin. Besides everything else already mentioned in this thread, building thousands of new homes without keeping pace on adding sufficient new golfing opportunities certainly compounds the problem. It’s the perfect storm for difficulty getting t times.

When I was coming back from Walmart at Colony and I looked over at Kilimanjaro and the 7th green was covered in white sand and the sprinkler was going full blast.

Yes, pain in the butt trying to find a course!

Snowbirds last hurrah

Part of the problem is all of the championship courses are only doing 18 holes now. They are not teeing off from all three courses at the same time. Just One nine holes is open for front nine and one 9 is open for the back nine.

Snowbirds not leaving, just too many people and nothing else to do.

More roof tops and fewer golf courses.

Exactly
 

Before COVID I golfed 2-3 times per week. Now, every day.

~15%, at the lowest usage time of the day, with fewer golfers because of the virus.



Not really.

New Golfers
 

True most Snowbirds leave April 1 and May 1. The two executive courses I played last week it quickly became obvious that “new golfers” were playing. Easy to tell as they roam all of the course and their golf cart is rarely parked in a place an experienced golfer would park. Play very slow and at times very frustrating. These were level 4 and level 3 rated executive courses. A couple of guys were playing from the “tips” and took forever to finish a hole. Of course the Ambassador was of no help. One can only hope they are snowbirds and will be heading back home in a couple of days. I don’t think they were having much fun and we didn’t either.

Yes and yes! Apparently all the soft ballers, pickleballers, grounded snowbirds and non-golfers are playing. Plus shortened tee time to 4pm, which doesn’t make any sense, given it’s daylight savings time. Why can’t Villages golf employees work an additional two hours? Senseless.

They're also only opening 2 nines on each championship course, so there are less times available and no waves. Overflow may be going to executive courses

It's 25% of the tee times to be precise. Also adding to the problem is that residents are not allowed on the golf courses after 4:00pm. I used to go up to my local executive courses at 7:00pm in the summertime and play until dark. People that were doing that are not being allowed on the courses.

What is the reason behind cutting out 25% of the tee times and not allowing residents to play golf for which they are paying?

Talked to a golf ambassador. About half of them chose not to to work during this virus. Hence, no tee times after 4.

The difference was Friday and Friday being May 1st and summer rates. I put a request in for our threesome (non-priority) last Friday, seven days in advance for 7 championship courses between 11:56 and 1:30 and got nothing.

When I saw we had nothing yesterday, I put in the same request for Saturday one day later but only made the request yesterday. Today we found out we have Havana at 12:24. Big difference by one day.

YES! What is happening? Put in a week ahead and said they couldn't accommodate the request. I know that the hours have changed and they are closing some courses, but really?

Let's be honest about this ... The Villages is saving money by refusing to staff the courses after 4 PM. It's that simple. Why pretend there are any other explanations?

We used to be able to go out after the courses were "closed" ... now they say they will send the sheriff after you. Why? Pretty awful.

You really think so? I bet they get rich off the savings.

:blahblahblah:

Strange, our group of 16-18 plays twice a week and never get shut out. But we are not nearly as restrictive on time or course as some folks. And we don't let anyone with more than 5 points on the requests for the week.

Maybe there are other people recently unemployed who need the work.

They are every 10 minutes south of 44