Par 3 Club

Booking System Review

Tuesday, 18^th February 2020

 

Following a review of the newly introduced booking system a number of improvements have been agreed. The committee wishes to thank all members who submitted feedback to assist with the review. Due to close links with the main club the committee has also been able to draw on the experience that the main club has with members booking into competitions.

The Par 3 Club does however have some unique differences and therefore some of our approaches to managing the booking system are also unique. The major difference is our acceptance, at least for now, of using a high number of pre-booked places. In short the committee have agreed to continue with the system more or less as it stands, but have taken steps to address the main problems identified by members:-

• Lack of adhoc places available for “early” tee times
• Equity accessing the booking system
• Us and Them

Lack of adhoc places available for “early” tee times

Firstly, we have defined “early” tee times as all those up to and including 9:00am. Currently there are 6 early adhoc tee times available. We are creating another 8 of these, making a total of 14. However, a few of these will go to meeting requests for further pre-booked places so the actual number available will reduce a little.

We have created these places, with the helpful agreement of the Centre Manager, by starting our competitions during the summer at 7:15am, thereby giving us two extra early tee times. We will be re-organising the current pre-booked places and in the process adding places to the early ad hoc tee times.

Equity accessing the booking system

This stems from the adoption of the standard procedure that many main clubs use to open entry to bookings in the club house before opening it on-line. We now recognise that for the Par 3 Club this creates a self-perpetuating advantage to members who initially book an early ad hoc place. Booking into competitions will now open on Sundays at 5.00pm and therefore all members will have an equal opportunity to book an early ad hoc tee time.

Us and Them

Understandably there has been a misconception that some members have been given privileged rights over others because they have been given pre-booked places. The use of pre-booked places has resolved some major problems that were inherent in the previous system, and in the main has retained the “usual” order of play.

For the small number of members that have been disadvantaged we hope that the changes that have been introduced will have gone a long way to address those issues.

We will continue to monitor the system and are planning another major review in September to assess the effectiveness of the changes and to look at how to adapt the system for the winter season.

Richard Hone
Chairman
Par 3 Club