Tee times and availability of courses
 

I'm curious how many of you fellow golfers living north of 466 have had trouble getting course tee times for courses south of 466 and if any of you living south of 466 have trouble getting courses north of 466? Our group seems to never get one booked as the tee times on courses south of 466 are solidly booked every day. I don't think the courses are any better but a little variety would be nice.

Your post only leads to questions. Are you putting in requests, are you all priority, do you put in for several courses with a wide range of time?

Never ever a problem. Have no clue as to how your input is handled and not sure anyone can help without detail!

I'm not sure how they handle the whole tee time assigning process but perhaps the 'locals' prefer to play the courses closer to them, rather than traveling north, and request only those courses?

I book a teetime for a foursome every week for play on Friday, usually all the courses from Palmer on south, and a couple of the nines at each course so it's about 10 or 12 choices, and this time of year I ask for 11:56 to 12:59 so we can get in 18 holes.

Two weeks ago I put in our request, none of us are priority members, the computer was unable to handle our request. I put in a new request for the next day, Saturday and we got a teetime.

Last weekend I put in a request for Friday and we were denied again, I put in a new request for Saturday, and it was denied. So I finally took an open time for 1:40 on Saturday.

This week I put in the request, and we got a teetime of 12:52, later than I like but at least we'll get in 18 holes and it was at Belle Glade (Calusa) which was about the 10th choice. I had Bonifay as my first two choices, and Cane Garden next, Mallory and Havana and Belle Glade was last.

Lately I've noticed they have one of the nines closed at every championship in the afternoon, which is killing the afternoon teetimes.

It should get a little better come January 1st when the winter rates go into effect. But then it will be extremely difficult to get a time on the executives.

It's always a a good idea to specify championship or exec. I suggest you call either the tee time office or a particular course and find out if they even offer 9 hole specific tee times at your specified times this time of year.

All I know is for 17 years, minimum twice per week, executive courses, usually two foursomes, we have never not gotten a tee time.

The key is course selection, time selection, how many times individuals in the group play per week, how many points (if any) individuals in the group have.

The wider the time range and less specific course request the better the odds.

4 foursomes, every week. It’s a mixed bag of where we play. But times and courses are open, only been shut out once.

I am in three executive groups. The people running the groups request about 26 courses and about a 4 hour range of times. If anyone has more than three points, they are left off the request, but are added when the tee time is given if we had times with only three people in a time.

Tee Times
 

I don't know if you, or a member of your group. would be willing to get up a little early, but this is what I did this morning. I'm usually up at 4 to 5 a.m., and this Sunday my wife and I are playing with another couple. Today would be the first day that I could schedule a tee time for Sunday, and you would be surprised at how many courses have open tee times at that hour of the morning. I had my "pick of the litter", so to speak, but wanted a late afternoon time so we could couple our nine holes with dinner afterwards. I got Churchill Green at 3:08 pm.

Live between 466 and 466A. Book for a group of golfers (12-20); during high season we end up on courses north of 466 more often than not. Group scheduling can be difficult.

Played Killdeer to Osprey yesterday, 8:24. Played as a threesome in 3 hrs and 25 min, never saw anyone ahead of us or behind us.

Part of the problem mentioned was that there were no priority members, thus 24 reservation points putting you at an extreme disadvantage to groups of priority members with only 4 points

This is one of the areas where the tee time system could be improved. Once a tee time request is assigned an actual tee time (between midnight and 12:30AM, 3 days in advance), the person who did the original tee time request cannot add individuals to what is now an existing reservation. The person who did the original tee time request can create a new reservation with "guests" only to grab any open spots for those left off the request because of too many points. The people left off the original request can then show up and say they are taking the "guest" spots. Or, the individuals left off the original request can create a new reservation for themselves to grab the open spots. The person who did the original tee time request cannot create a new reservation for the individuals left off the original request (because of too many points) because a new reservation with specific names (as opposed to "guests" only) must include the person making the reservation and in this case that person is already on a reservation (the original reservation and you cannot be on two reservations at the same time).

I run a large group (up to 32, average around 20) and if I left off those with more than 3 point then more than half wouldn't be included in the tee time request. I have never found the need to do that. While I am denied a tee time occasionally during snowbird season, I have always been able to go in the next morning and find tee times.

Actually, that's not entirely true. You CAN make a request for a guest only without including yourself. Just put yourself in, then select guest when it asks. Tried it and it works.

Yes, that is exactly what I said. I use that strategy when people change their minds about wanting to play after the tee time has been assigned. See what I stated below:

The person who did the original tee time request can create a new reservation with "guests" only

mea culpa, I misunderstood

No worries. I asked the tee time office if there were any other "legal" options to handle the situation where I want to add golfers and they didn't have any recommendations.

I agree it would help if the actual process of awarding tee times and what courses was defined . We are north of 466 and never get southern courses even though up to 20 courses are requested. Anyone know factually how tee times are assigned ?

Sign up for The Villages Good Golf school and they explain the process very well !!

These may be blocked by the tee time system for Lifestyle guests.

The KIng and his court only build house and apartment house now---- NO more golf courses.

I request tee times as a “single”, always on courses south of 466 and have never been declined, regardless of the time of year. My practice has been to make my request for a two-hour window and ask for a choice between about 6-8 courses. You can select the courses in order of preference and more often than not I’ll get a tee-time on one of my top three choices.

You have a much better chance of getting a preferred time and course in the afternoon, the later the better the chance. Another alternative is to simply “call around” on your date of play. That will often work as well, but with less certainty in “high season”.

Hard to say without knowing how the requests are made but with your limited information, I would say that the person setting up your tee times may not be doing it properly.

I set up executive tee times for Wednesday (4 players) and Thursday (up to 8 players) and never once have we been denied a tee time . And MOST of the time , we get our preferred course at (or near) our preferred time ...

Trust me when I say , there is a method to it (without cheating)

I play Championships on Sunday morning (foursome) and the fellow that sets that up has never been denied.

All our requests are done by one person, executive courses only, no guests. We actually never had this problem 8 months or so ago. Like I said, just curious how every one else faired.

That's not true

The courses south of 466 are more crowded because the people from south of 44 play them, to far for them to go north of 466.

I live on Osprey and see a lot of rental carts from south of 44. No doubt we are being stressed with all the new folks and , of course, welcome to all the renters and part timers from the North. I too have been denied 3 times this week ( for zero rounds) and I am a priority member.

As a single, or a large group? Were there non-priority members in the group?

I started to count open tee times for tomorrow, but gave up. There were 56 in the morning wave at Belle Glade alone

So you are looking at executive courses only (that wasn't clear in your post that started this thread). There have been a number of posts that are referencing championship courses. I do see a lot of difficulty getting tee times in the morning (between 9 and 12) for my large group (all residents and a typical average number of points of 2.5) on the executive courses between 466 and 44 during snowbird season. Pelican is the one exception. I don't normally include courses north of 466 in my requests so I can't comment on that. If I include the 5 executive courses south of 44 then I never see any issues during snowbird season. What generally happens is that my group plays either Pelican or the executive courses south of 44 during snowbird season. Outside of snowbird season, I am able to get tee times for my group on pretty much any executive course between 466 and 44. If I include all 20 executive courses between 466 and 44 in my requests outside of snowbird season, there are some courses that will be assigned more frequently, for example Pelican.

How big was time window? How many courses were included?
3 times in one week......something is wrong.

That's true I didn't specify executive courses earlier and didn't think about. I only know our scheduler, if you will, uses a 4 hour window and puts in at least 20 courses. I think down the road I'll start try doing a walk on which ever course I want to play as a single like around 3 or 4 o'clock. It doesn't matter who I get paired up with.

I believe it depends on your activity on the courses the more points you get the further back in the list you go. I never have a problem as I don’t play much.

You're right, we would do better in the morning, but even though I've lived here ten years, I've never played golf before 11:56. I'm not a morning person, plus there is a discount after 11am during summer fall season. So as a non-priority resident it's only $36. The other 3 guys in my group are the same, not morning people.

It seems the big problem is every evening one of the nines is closed at every golf course. So we've only got 18 holes at every course after 11:56. You save two employees, a starter and an ambassador, and even then I've seen them combine starter shacks in the evening at Bonifay and Evans Prairie. I guess their reasoning is it saves wear and tear on the golf course. Then again, they'll be a lot more saving come January and the higher rates.

You are correct, afternoon is busier, only 11 open spots at Belle Glade

Ohiobuckeye
 

DONH57-You pretty much summed it up!

Most probably true...but they haven't let the Canadians come yet so it won't be as bad as last year.

You are forgetting how many new homes were added since last year, without any new Championship golf.