Making singles reservations

[ejimsmith]

I'm not a loner, but I am on the golf course.   Its just easier for me to make my own plans, pick my own course and go play on my own.  However, I always run into problems with most courses not taking reservations for singles.  I understand they need to keep the 4-some open, but still, when I show up instead to get on the waiting list, there's always several other singles that show up as well.   If they allowed a single to make a reservation, they could easily fill up a 4-some of just singles.   I've gone to my local course, on a saturday, before the crack of dawn, expecting at least 1 person to be too hungover to show up, but no instead, 5-some, 5-some, 5-some.

I think courses should make more allowances for singles.   Instead I will have to gamble that I can get on tomorrow morning, and the uncertainity of the time makes it hard for me to prep my warm up.   Sometimes I show up and they've said "yeah, there's a group you can join that's teeing off right now"... so when I show up, I also have to have my gear all ready to jump out and tee off immedately.   Other times I've hit a bucket, putted a bit, chipped a bit, watched tv in the 19th hole a bit....

So tough being a lonely golfer...

[B-Con]

I hear you. I almost always play as a single. Thankfully I almost always get in within about 30 minutes of my desired time, but it's a gamble. I wish they could relax the policy a little and only make reservations when they can pair the single with another two or three-some. That way they're only filling a spot that they'd fill with a single anyway. They could even limit it to 24 or 48 hours in advance, that way it's less likely that the large group will cancel and leave the single stranded. Or just tell the single that they lose their spot if the large group cancels. Anything to let me have an idea how my Saturday afternoon will go would be welcome.

[Tomboys]

When there's a will, there's a way.  Not that I would advocate that you do something underhanded, but you could always set a tee time for a two-some.  However, when you get there, just tell them that your bud got hit by a bus, won the lotto and left you high and dry to date a super model, whatever.  Since you'd probably be paired with another two-some on the schedule in advance, they'll just add a single from the waiting list.  Viola, you're playing at a set time...

[ejimsmith]

Originally Posted by Tomboys

When there's a will, there's a way.  Not that I would advocate that you do something underhanded, but you could always set a tee time for a two-some.  However, when you get there, just tell them that your bud got hit by a bus, won the lotto and left you high and dry to date a super model, whatever.  Since you'd probably be paired with another two-some on the schedule in advance, they'll just add a single from the waiting list.  Viola, you're playing at a set time...

actually, that's brilliant, thanks.  off to make a tee time for a 2-some tomorrow!

[bplewis24]

Man, do I hear you guys on this one.  I AM a loner, on and off the golf course.  Having said that, I do have friends and if any of them played golf regularly I'd love that, because only 1 of about 10 courses that I play regularly accepts reservations for singles.  On top of that, none of the top-notch championship courses in the greater Sac area that I haven't played before accept singles.  If I'm paying $50-100 on a weekend to play a nice course, I'd love to know my exact tee time and have time to warm up, etc., but it just doesn't work out that way.

What is the reasoning for not allowing single reservations?  Is it solely because they want to keep 4some tee times available?  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind waiting for 30 minutes to get on at a course as a single.  That gives me time to warm up.  But I dread the moments when they say either "oh crap you're a single... GO GO GO GO GO to the first tee now or you'll be waiting for four hours!"  On the flipside, I went to a course a few weekends ago and waited an hour to get on.  I was worn out from all the range balls by the time I teed off, and was halfway to a sunburn.

Brandon

[meenman]

I am amazed with how much we hear about the golf industry dying, that singles have such a hard time getting to play.

Back when I played public courses, if our 3rd or 4th didnt show, there was a single on the range paired with us. Anytime I have called in the afternoon to see if a course had openings, I was told to show and I would get out no problem.

I would imagine that tee times arent made for singles simply for the fact that not every group is going to have 4. If you play on courses that never have room for you then you must be playing at a place that is doing better than the average course.

If you get tight with a particular course, they may let you go out as a single before the first official tee time. I do this a lot when I am on vacation and want to play everyday while my friends are working.  Just keep that secret to yourself, because if too many others try it, you will lose the privilege.

[Mattplusness]

Never been a problem for me; however, when I golf alone it is around 10-11 AM during the week days. I play with a group on Sunday.

[jamo]

Originally Posted by B-Con

I hear you. I almost always play as a single. Thankfully I almost always get in within about 30 minutes of my desired time, but it's a gamble.

I wish they could relax the policy a little and only make reservations when they can pair the single with another two or three-some. That way they're only filling a spot that they'd fill with a single anyway. They could even limit it to 24 or 48 hours in advance, that way it's less likely that the large group will cancel and leave the single stranded. Or just tell the single that they lose their spot if the large group cancels. Anything to let me have an idea how my Saturday afternoon will go would be welcome.

My thoughts exactly.

I play almost exclusively as a single (except for once or twice a year with some friends, ans a few times a year with my father), and most of getting on the course is luck, especially at nicer courses and especially at peak times. It really sucks sometimes.

[Harmonious]

There are a few (very few) courses that I know of that set aside a couple of tee times per hour just for walkup singles.  I'm sure they have done it from experience over the years, but it makes a lot of sense. Nothing worse than showing up and being rushed to the first tee to meet up with 3 guys who know each other and really don't want to have you join them in the first place.

[wmiller]

I never understood this "I have to play in a foursome with my friends" attitude?

I almost always play as a single, can get a tee time for a single at any of the muni courses here in town, as well as the county-owned course I call home.

At 7 or 8 AM on Sunday. No biggie.

Always plenty of singles and twosomes playing here. And no one seems to get offended when a single or twosome is placed in their group. Seriously glad I don't live where you do.

[bplewis24]

The only time I experienced being put together with a 3some that did not want to play with me was at a very nice "semi-private" course that had just gone public that year (I had no idea the history of the course).  I actually walked up to them and said I was supposed to tee off with them and one of them said "no, you're supposed to go with them" (pointing to a group that was teeing off 15 minutes later).  I verified with the starter that I was supposed to tee off with the people I approached, and he confirmed.  I only confirmed to see if they were being douchebags or if I was legitimately with the wrong group.

The group behind them turned out to be fine people.  It was through them I learned the history of the club going public and why there was so much resentment to the walk-ons.

Brandon

[TheGeekGolfer]

I have two points...1) alot of coures are now doing online tee-times, so you could get two online accts and reserve a 3-some, then grab the single with the other acct. Then cancel the 3-some and you're good to go. 2) they want the 2, 3, or 4-some reservations because it encourages you to call your buddies so you CAN reserve a tee-time, which fills up the course more. If they accepted singles then you'd just take that without calling a buddy or two and they would have less business. Plus, you drink more with friends.

[meenman]

Also golfnow.com usually has single tee times posted. (some courses only want to give a deal price to one person anyway)

[Yuri Gadow]

To a limited extent, round planning apps can help with this. The one I'm building, Teeboxer , has course communities you can use to open a round to everyone else who belongs to a course's community, meaning they can see you're planning to play a round and add themselves to it on their own (or you could see their round and join it.) That way you can reserve a tee time for several.

That said, it's brand new and covered in wet paint, so looking for people for your round using course communities right now would run you into the chicken and egg problem, i.e., it's pretty unlikely the course community you'd open your round to would have any number of members in it yet. But, adding yourself to a community would allow you to see when others start joining it too and opening their rounds to the communities.

For those trying it out or wanting to tell me what to add/change to help them as singles, drop me a line here and I'll set you up with a free account with unlimited round plans (everything else, like joining course communities, is already free.)

I think the communities feature is the only one in planning apps that will help when you're not looking to play with anyone you know. But, if you do want to try getting a second from your friends first, general round planning apps— Teeboxer , Scrambl , FullFoursome , etc.—also make it easier to find players from the people you do know.

[ghalfaire]

I have done the make a tee time for a twosome and have buddy get seriously ill and make a threesome on line and then cancel it after I pick up the singe tee time methods. Both work.  I don't play as single very often but when I do and the course won't make a tee time for a single that is what I do.

My problem is sometimes, not too often,  I like to actually play by myself.  It lets me do things like use two drivers (I always play two balls) play aggressive Vs conservative, have some time to chip Vs pitch, etc and in general just enjoy being by yourself (hard to do in today's world).  But I have not found a course that lets you do that if anyone is around to play with.  I am not antisocial but can only seem to gain & maintain sanity by not having others around me at times.  I mostly go fishing walk up difficult and isolated streams instead of golf at these times or I show up at the course at very unpopular start times.

[jamo]

Originally Posted by ghalfaire

I have done the make a tee time for a twosome and have buddy get seriously ill and make a threesome on line and then cancel it after I pick up the singe tee time methods. Both work.  I don't play as single very often but when I do and the course won't make a tee time for a single that is what I do.

My problem is sometimes, not too often,  I like to actually play by myself.  It lets me do things like use two drivers (I always play two balls) play aggressive Vs conservative, have some time to chip Vs pitch, etc and in general just enjoy being by yourself (hard to do in today's world).  But I have not found a course that lets you do that if anyone is around to play with.  I am not antisocial but can only seem to gain & maintain sanity by not having others around me at times.  I mostly go fishing walk up difficult and isolated streams instead of golf at these times or I show up at the course at very unpopular start times.

I hear you man, sometimes it's just more fun and/or better practice to play by yourself. Sometimes I just go during off hours to see if I can play alone. I don't mind playing with people (I played with two friends a few days ago, it's fun to really beat them bad at something for once :-)), but I'd rather play alone than with strangers that don't want me around.

[ochmude]

I would honestly be willing to pay more to play as a single.  It's really awkward for me playing with complete strangers.  Maybe not full price of another player, but some sort of "singles fee" would be totally acceptable by me just to be able to get more rounds in after work during the week.

[cruzthepug]

If I want to play solo I usually try to go late in the afternoon and not have to deal with the hassle in the morning. I finally went with my neighbor for the first time a couple of months ago and for the last 15 years his group has the 7:20 tee time on both Saturday and Sunday at one of the local courses. Now that I've been a few times I've been "accepted" into the group, if I feel like playing I can just show up and play. They may have as few as 3-4 or as many as 9 or 10 show up and play 2 groups. They split into teams and play and have a quarter bet for just about anything and everything, fun group to play with.