Golf frustration
 

Well I have finally experienced the difficulty getting a Tee time that others have complained about. It has everything to do with the golfers in all of the new developments coming north because of the lack of courses in the south. I have been here for 10 years and have never been constantly shut out of getting a time. I went on 6 days before and asked for a starting time within a four hour spread. I had 4 points at the time. Didn't get any of the three days requested. I think that groups are forming leagues down south and rotating request so that there are request with only 1 or 2 points. I have golfed with people who are traveling an hour by cart to get to the north end to golf. My reason for owning in the Villages is quickly fading.

It is a real issue that didn’t exist several years ago. It’s simple math, the amount of golf holes per rooftop has been significantly diluted since ground was broken south of 44 and it gets worse every passing year. The new golf being built is not nearly enough to rectify the issue, it’s just marginally slowing the rate of dilution.

There was half the population 10 years ago.

Conspiracy Theory...............please expand on this, inquiring minds want to know.

True, and almost the same amount of golf holes.

You mentioned that you had "4 points at the time." I'm assuming you are playing executive (you didn't mention.) It's not about having points 6 days before tee time, it's how many points you have when the algorithm is run, which is usually 3 or 4 days before tee time.
Having four points means you have played four times in the past seven days. That's a lot. I would vote that golfer's be limited to three days a week executive. There are some that play every day; one can usually get a tee time if one if a single.
I play executive twice a week and can't remember the last time I had a problem. I'll play Championship if I play more.
I agree with your overall complaint though. These worthless pitch and putts are to blame.

Were you asking for yourself as a single? How many courses did you put on your request list?

You probably know this, but asking 6 days ahead doesn't give you any preference over those who put in a request 2 hours before they run the program allotting the times.

no
 

I didn't play four times. I played twice and had two poinst for cancelling due to weather.

two
 

I selected 5 courses.

I just don't even play golf during snowbird season. I have other sports that I play, and other than snowbird season, I don't have the newbs coming up here and invading my turf. When the snowbirds are gone, I get back to my nice leisurely game. Eventually, they will have their own courses and they can stay down there where they think things are so much better....

We don’t go up north to bother you. We go up north because the developer built most of the courses up north.

There are 41 executives and 3 pitch and putts. 36 of the executives are north of 44 and 29 are north of 466A.

There are 5 executives south of 44 and all 3 pitch and putts are south of 44.

I would love not to have to drive 30-45 minutes to play an executive course. I played with a group the other day and they said that they have 4 executives and 1 championship within a mile of their house.

I am about two miles from a pitch and putt.

Once Eastport is built out, things should get better but since there are also 14 new Villages planned for Eastport, I expect tee times will still be difficult!

informative
 

thanks for all the input here,, ii just go up for a single in the morning and get in most days,, and also play with womens groups alot ,, in the afternoon,, just fyi not all bad ,,:coolsmiley:

A man has to have hopes & dreams, regardlessly of the likelihood of them coming to fruition.

"Free golf was the main draw. Walking is already free."

You came for the free golf. And now you resent others who did the same thing. One option would be to pay to play on the champ courses at least some of the time.

Many of these 11 or so new courses are currently in various stages of development. For the most part they're mapped out already at the bare minimum. It's obvious that the developer is prioritizing new courses ASAP after being slow on rolling new ones out for years.

What is not obvious is why the developer stopped building courses for five years. Did he really think that golf was not one of the main attractions?

All true Villages, complaining about anything, even free golf. The thing about the Villages is everyone can use everything available, doesn’t matter where in the Villages you live. If it is that important play in the rain.

I guessing that it's likely the fact that the Bexley bridge was long delayed and not complete was a big part of that. If they had 3 new courses complete and ready to go in the new area, it would've been a BIG problem and a bad look if there were no golf cart paths open to get to them.

Koolaid turned sour after about 4 years for me. Having mover’s remorse :22yikes:

No really free we all pay golfing or not.

Guess figured 700 plus holes was enough? But didn’t count on golf hogs playing several times day. Kinda reminds me of pickleball and pool hogs…. :a040:

Been here six years now and still believe the majority of people are welcoming, north and south. I bought and live south of 44 no salespeople told me they would not build anything new, I assumed the developer would. Play exec golf north and south most south twice a week excepted the rejection enjoyed the wins. There is more to do in TV and life than golf. Enjoy the few years you have left.

There aren’t enough courses
 

There aren’t enough courses built south of 44 to keep up with the rapid and continued increase in the number of households. And no, the addition of 4 executive courses to be built in and around Eastport won’t be nearly enough!!! The developer is way behind the demand curve as far as golf is concerned. Everyone is having trouble getting tee times. It’s a problem that will plague us for years to come. All of our collective frustration is falling on deaf ears of the developers…sadly.

U Look New here.

The Developer plans yearS in advance.

There were many years when golf was on the decline.
These years were during the planning stags for South of 44.
As such, fewer courses were planned.

There never has been any promise of "number of courses per Village, Household, etc."

As the Developer opened Villages, golf courses were disclosed.

Due Diligence would have discovered this.

It never ends, it seems.

People (primarily from the newer/southern areas of TV), complaining there's not enough: golf, entertainment, stores, whatever ...

Wake up and look around folks, the south is a different business model and a different development profile.

When TV was built, golf and amenities were the first order of business. It was necessary to sell the homes. Gradually, the model changed and amenities and golf became more an after-thought. Why shouldn't it? People believed the Developer's marketing promises and bought into the "hope" program.

It's never going to happen. The south of 44 business model, is never going to be the same as the older areas. Won't happen. Can't happen. No motivation for the Developer to make it happen.

Anyone who bought south of 44, on the premise that golf was going to be abundant, available and convenient, is a dreamer and reality is apparently starting to settle in.

sounds like the corporation isn’t building courses according to the original plan. … X courses per a set number of new home builds… ..
Getting greedy or lazy??
In the early 2000’s promos there was a formula mentioned ..

Solution: play after 4 pm = 0 points

Solution: go into the tee time system, after being shut out, and look for an opening.

Would love to see that "original plan" you refer to, please share.


The original development was a trailer court.............glad it evolved.

If golf is a dying sport why are tee times hard to get? Is it possible that when people retire they take up many new activities such as golf? Is it possible that the predicted decline in golf participation by younger retirees is not materializing in The Villages?

after 4:00
 

I did go on and look for open times as soon as I see that I didn't get a reservation. There wasn't one course with a time before 5:00. Difficult getting 9 in with that start.

Its not just Golf. Other activities have become more crowded as well. If you have points forget about the 'Request' for a tee time and use the Reservation mode where points are irrelevant. Up to three days ahead you can make a reservation for any open tee time. The best chance is to go into the system right after they have assigned tee times from the Request system. Three days before at Midnight they run the Requests. In an hour or two the requests are done. So at 1 or 2 am go into the system and look for an available tee time. Once the requests have been run Points will no longer matter for making a 'Reservation'. Don't expect anything in prime time, but you should be able to find something. Good Luck

Golf
 

Try expanding your number of courses and select ones that are further north. North of 466a for example.

There is a pitch and putt at the First Responders Rec Ctr. Very north in the Villages.

Not a pitch and putt - First Responders is a putt only. Not part of the Executive Golf Course System.

The fourth generation developers don't care about tee times. They want to sell houses and build paying Championship courses open to the public. They don't care about aesthetics, they want to pack the houses in. No beautiful mvp Golf cart paths out that way majority are diamond lanes. They couldn't replicate a gorgeous treed in mvp golf path and come out $$ on top. They are putting in practically no trees and real plant, just palms (now deamed weeds in parts of FL) and scrub bushes. 140,000 people (?) And a permanently closed gorgeous movie theater in Brownwood. The list goes on and on that shows the newest areas are lacking what used to be excellent above the standard industry draws for picking T V.

They are doing the bare minimum to keep T V "lifestyle" appearance.

A dream stays alive when there is a vision... the magic fairy dust is blowing away in the dust bowl surrounding the temporary "new" center of T V. The next one is being planned already.

There is definity a honeymoon season living in T V and the further south one goes the quicker that ends.
It is possible to have too much of a good thing.

They aren't keeping up with free golf demand any longer. But hey at least there is disc golf now in the Hogeye Preserve, so tee up, that'll fix the lack of golf courses being built.

I'm playing today with 19 neighbors and we never have a problem

The developer DID listen to the priorities of the residents south of CR44! Everyone was connectivity, connectivity, connectivity! It takes a lot of money, resources, and TIME to get the state permitting to build 2 bridges over CR44 and especially 1 over the Florida Turnpike!!! The residents south of CR44 set the priorities and the developer complied! It appears to me that a lot of residences south of CR44 think their wishes can happen at the wave of a “Magic Wand “!!! “Patience Grasshoppers”!!!!!

Someone who is playing more than once in a day is playing on open tee times. A golfers name/ID Number can only appear on one Request per day. Open tee times are posted after all requests have been processed, and are available for everyone.

Look who is at the helm. Not Harold, not Gary. Its generation #3… They have a different philosophy.

Excellent advice!

We've been here close to four years now and TV continues to be everything we thought it would be, plus more. But, as Mom used to say, "you'd b!tch if you were hung with a new rope!". There is nothing like a gaggle of geezers for finding the cloud in every silver lining--and some will spare no effort looking until they DO find something to grouse about.

People need to realize that this is NOT utopia. We're 150,000 people, give or take, from all parts of the country and we all bring our different attitudes and expectations with us when we come here. There is nothing in or about The Villages that magically turns crabby and/or self-entitled older folks into placid doily-knitting grannies or bird-watching granddaddies if they were not that before they arrived. We're all who we were, and age has the unfortunate side-effect, in all too many cases. of magnifying that particular fact.

Yeah, tee times can be a bit hard to find these days, but it has apparently always been that way in the winter. But here's an idea. If you can't find anything, call a couple of the starter shacks and ask if they have an opening for one, or two, or whatever. People do cancel and there are occasional no-shows so you might get lucky. We do, maybe one day in three, when we do this. And go with the flow.