Tee time question
 

Our group apparently did not get a tee time for Tuesday; my question is do they let the person who put in the request know there was no tee times available or do you just know because you don’t have one??

On those few occasions when I've not gotten a tee time, when I went into the system on the day the tee time would be available, there was a message that said "unable to accommodate your tee time request."

Well, you didn’t get a t time because there was none available, so the person putting in the request should automatically know why they were denied the request. If there are available t times within the constraints of the request, the algorithm will assign the requested t time.

It is posted in the tee time system the same day tee times would have been posted, 3 days prior to requested date.

Tee time notifications
 

The online golf tee time application provides for email notification of both the assigned tee time or the unavailability for your request. It does, however, require that you get a @thevillages.net email address to receive them.

That's kinda ridiculous that you have to get an @thevillage.net email address to get a tee time notification.

Can you forward that to your personal email address?

Also, the OP must've wanted a real specific time or course or possibly players with a lot of points to be denied in the summer.

Otherwise I hope that isn't going to become the norm in the winter.

Last winter was a real challenge getting tee times even with a wide time and course range and very few points.

I guess it will be back to playing outside TV again this winter. I'm starting to wonder if paying amenities to live in TV is worth it if your main activity is golf.

The Championship course are way overpriced in winter for what they're offering, they're nice courses but calling them Country Clubs is a bit of a stretch.

Tee times from a request are granted (or not) three days prior to your selected date. For example, if you select Tuesday, your request is finalized by about 12:35am on Saturday. You can opt in to have an email sent to you at your ***@villages.net account, or you can simply log into the system to see the results. If you do not get a tee time, all you will see is a message stating "The system was unable to accommodate your request."

The system uses a complicated algorithm to process requests. While there are many variables, four things that impact your request the most are: Size of your group; time window for play; number of courses listed; and, number of points assigned to each golfer.

For groups larger than 4 golfers, the algorithm is looking for consecutive tee times, within your time window, at the courses you specify. For example, if you have a group of 16 golfers, the system is looking for 4 consecutive open tee times. If even one tee time breaks that continuity, you won't get a slot. For this reason, it is obviously much easier to get tee times for groups of 4 or 8, than it is for groups of 16 or more.

If you specify a narrow time window, or a small number of courses, that limits the number of available tee times the system can select from. You should always specify a time window of at least 3 hours, and try listing 10 or more courses. This increases the options open to the system.

Lastly, points assessed to golfers in your group play a big part in getting tee times. The system adds up all golfer points, and determines the average point value for your group. In my experience, you want your total group average to be below 2.0 to give you the best chance of getting what you want. If you have a couple of golfers in your request with 4 or more points, that could very well nix the request for the whole group.

Any time your request is denied, you can call the tee time office, and they will tell you what caused your request to be denied. This info can be helpful when making future requests. Good luck!

Thank you everyone, appreciate the responses

More than likely the person putting in the tee time limited the time to play and limited the courses. The group's play history is also the last factor picked by the computer. If you signed on to the villages.net you can see what and where was put in. Good luck.

.See attached

While there are many variables, four things that impact your request the most are: Size of your group; time window for play; number of courses listed; and, number of points assigned to each golfer.

This statement is not quite correct. The tee time system looks at the following variables in the following order: Groups with priority members get filled first. Average group points are organized. Window of request is considered. Whether you chose course or time as a prioroity. Number of courses to choose from is important...the more the better. Then the system looks the priority requests, fills them in descending order starting with the group who has the least group points, then moves down through non-priority requests using the same priorities. If you or anyone in the group request has cancelled a tee time in the last 7 days after their request was filled, they have extra points that go against them for the next request. So, having all players with priority memberships, having low average group points, and listing four or more courses gives you the best chance of getting your request filled. I run two championship groups and rarely, rarely, get kicked out with my request not being filled because I work at keeping all priority players and asking them to keep their points low.

Sorry for your experience last winter -

I think I missed out on 1 tee time last winter, it was a group that played executives. I think the criteria was too narrow.

I didn’t miss out on ANY championship times.

The number of points in total for the group has an effect on your being able to secure a tee time. We had a couple players in our group that played outside the group causing too many points hence our group was denied a tee time.

It isn't that there aren't any tee times, it's because someone in your group had too many points and other people who wanted a tee time had less.

If you log into the tee time system (whether you put the original request or not) you'll be able to see the message that the system was unable to accommodate the request because you were part of the original request.

Both those statements are correct and both somewhat wrong at the same time. Those 2 posts are comparing apples and oranges as there are 2 different types of "points":

The algorithm is different for champ and exec courses.

Let's call them membership points, but the system is: 1 point priority member, 2 points priority guest, 6 points resident member, 7 points resident guest. When the system adds up those points, from 4 to 28, this is the first criterium for assigning a time. The priority category ONLY applies on champ courses. Four priority members will almost always get their first or second choice, even in winter.

There are no priority points on exec course, so a group will only have golfers with a 6 or 7. Naturally, guests kill your chances in high season, when they are most likely visiting.

Then there are reservation and cancellation points. After the algorithm looks at membership, it uses these points to "break ties". On the champ course, for priority members, these points are almost always irrelevant, the category of membership will determine your ability to get tee times. On exec courses however, since most groups are "tied", these points generally determine the outcome, and groups that have a significant play history are at a disadvantage (these points only last a week)

Generally summer is easier, however, with the aeration schedules having gone to 3x/year (June, July, August) there are more golfers requesting courses that have not been aerated recently. )Having just seen a few exec course greens over the years, I'm not sure it makes a difference there.)

Bottom line---if you play execs---follow the advice given by others and put in a wide time window and a whole lot of courses.

Yes - you can have the email forwarded to your personal email address. This can be done at the time you sign up.
Reasons for "denial" of reservation could have been any of the 3 you listed.

There is one other condition that affects a reservation. If you have a guest, your request falls to the bottom of the other groups. In other words, the system matches up all the possible times/course before addressing any group with a guest.

Did you read post #15?
But you’re correct, except for groups with 2 guests which would rank even lower

At least they let you forward it to your main email. Thanks.
Logging into the Tee Time system is tedious to just check something quickly.

I understand there is nothing I can do to change it, but in my opinion it’s wrong and totally sucks that priority guests get an advantage over resident members. Guests should be treated as guests regardless of the Village’s resident they are visiting.

That's one view, and not unfounded.

The other view is: How much do non-priority residents pay to make it more likely to get a tee time when they have guests? ZERO. Which is probably the reason the system is the way that it is.

In my experience, if one person in the group has a lot of points, it'll keep the entire group from obtaining a tee time. Hubby and I had to drop out of our neighborhood group because we were playing almost every day while the others basically only played once a week with the group.

That's why it was called "Priority"., now "Enhanced".

So if I want to play with a priority member who is requesting a tee time for us, even though I am a Villages resident, he/she would have a better chance of getting the tee time request if they put me into the system as their guest. It’s not right for guests, who don’t pay for an enhanced membership, to have priority over a resident.

Again, a good argument.

The others would argue that while their guest doesn't pay for an enhanced membership, their host does.

Notice how I'm carefully neutral on this one.

I also suppose, from the developer's point of view, a resident already lives here, a guest has the potential to eventually buy. A guest who can't get a tee time probably won't.

Can’t argue with that logic, selling homes is clearly the top priority. Residents already took the plunge, guests are a target market. That still doesn’t make it right, but what can ya do.

Points for Playing - when applied?
 

When Requests are made for a tee time 2 or 3 days in advance, you can see the number of points that players have AT THAT TIME. However, when the algorithm actually is awarding the tee times, the POINT count may have changed. So which time is the agorithm looking at?
Since the points last 7 days (correct?), it is difficult to know how many points your group will have? Your advice on the point count? Also, does it make any difference when you submit the request? Do earlier submissions have any priority over last minute requests?
Thank you for your response.

Imagine that, selling housing is the top priority for a company that…… sells houses (and happens to own the championship courses).

There was a thread on here about larger groups getting priority without all being priority members. It was a hot subject and I think it made one of the online news outlets.

Maybe you’re better off joining one of the bigger clubs.

Good questions, I have wondered the same? Also, does editing a request drop it to a lower priority? Hopefully someone can answer those questions.