Championship courses and the Afternoon wave
 

I often get the 1st or second tee times for the afternoon wave, I find that after completing the first nine which often goes very quickly, The courses often fill in 2 to 3 foursomes in between the waves, from then on I find that the fill-ins play very slowly and it make the continuity of play very disruptive. we would normally finish around 4:00 pm and now we are lucky to finish near 5:00 pm.

This practice of adding in a couple of foursomes into the wave is very disruptive to the players trying to complete their rounds, stop closing off a course in the PM and put 9 hole players on that course

There's no in between waves. If you teed off at 11:56 at the beginning of the afternoon wave, they calculated that you would finish the front nine and go the back nine at about 2:00. The problem you're finding I've encountered twice in the past couple of months. You finished the front nine not at 2:00 but about 1:30 to 1:45 and they won't let you start the back nine until the last couple of teetimes get off. Teetimes have priority over crossovers. If you ask why, they'll say you've played too fast.

You are playing the first 9 too fast.

BINGO!!
I will never understand how and why people cannot understand this.

That’s true to explain the delays in the current system. Points to a flaw in the system though imho...there’s no such thing as playing too fast!! :)

The USGA is trying to speed up pace of play, they are changing the rule to improve POP
https://www.usga.org/content/usga/ho...e-of-play.html
The wave system is creative, but it hurts the game overall. The first few tee times of the day should be able to get 9 in in less than 2 hours.

You are correct, this happened to our group 2 out of 3 times. In 60 + years of golfing, I have never been told that I played too fast, people making the turn always go through, thats correct golf etiquette. It's all about extra money, since they say there are plently of players, even though at $64/round the CC are way overpriced. Solution, don't play the CC and play off campus where golfers are treated like customers should be, at half the price per round.

This was discussed just two days ago on the thread "Say Goodbye to the Wave at the Championship courses", I posted a solution that a few people agreed should be adopted, here it is again. Now we need to take this to management and have them put in use.

There would be no wave, those playing 18 holes would have teetimes all day every 8 minutes on Destin in my example below and all those playing 9 holes would have teetimes every 8 minutes on Ft. Walton. The current wave system does not promote faster play.

Totally agree. Another good reason to dedicate one 9 to those wishing to only play 9 holes and go with straight T times on the other 18 as mentioned in another thread earlier this week. Last week I played the 11:56 at Palmer, Laurel to Riley, and our foursome had to wait 25 minutes at the turn, and that was with a foursome that was not rushing the pace of play.

To the point of being treated well off campus, when was the last time you were consistently thanked for playing this course? Rarely or never in TV

Sorry, but this will NEVER happen, Christmas Day, the nine hole course is half full. The 18 hole course, one nine is not used for 2 hours. The speed of play is caused by everyone using their own carts. 27 courses here are designed for the wave system.

The 9 hole course would be less use when it's free, that's logical, but when you're paying $64 like now a lot of people would rather pay $32 and be happy with just 9 holes. Yes, the back nine would not get any play the first 2 hours, that's the way it is everywhere. By 10:00 AM the back nine would be in use all day.

There is a difference when making the turn on 18 hole stand alone courses and 27 hole complexes that use the wave for tee times. I agree those making the turn on 18 hole courses have priority since there should be no tee times on the second nine. But on all 27 hole complexes that use the wave for the tee times, the player with the tee time has the priority. I have played elsewhere that have three sets of nine; they used the wave system just like is done here.

Off campus is not always what it is built up to be. My wife and I decided to try the highly recommended Baseline golf course today. I called to make a t time and was informed the don’t take any, just show up. I told them I was uncomfortable with that as we didn’t want to show up and have a long wait. They assured me the wait is very short, 20 minutes maximum, so we took the risk and drove there. Upon arrival it didn’t look busy so we went into the pro shop and paid, after again asking if there would be a long wait, and were told just pull up to the starter on the first hole and he will get you right out. We paid, loaded up the cart (we hate not using our own cart) and went down the path to the first hole. Around the corner we went to see about 30 carts in line waiting to t off. I walked to the front to find the starter and asked approximately how long our wait would be. He very rudely said, don’t ask me I just work here, you will be able to tee off when your cart gets to the front of the line. Back to the cart I went, and we waited. After a few minutes we asked the group in front of us if they played here often and about how long they expected to wait. They said it was their first time at Baseline and they have been there fore 25 minutes and have not yet moved. I went to the pro shop and asked for a refund, which they reluctantly agreed to and we were out of there, having our days plans wasted. Lesson learned, never go anyplace off campus that does not take t times. We will never go back to that place, and wouldn’t even recommend it to our enemies.

Golfing in the bubble during high season is $$$$$, but we have never had a bad experience in the Villages like we had today at Baseline. Next time we will not worry about saving $50, and wind up wasting the better part of our day.

we play every week
 

we play Baseline every week and have never had that kind of experience. we get there around 8:00 am and longest wait we have had is about 20 minutes. Staff has always been very friendly. Great course and great price and we will continue to play there.