Pre-Booked Tee Slots Trial – Review
(September 2022)

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Purpose of the meeting

At the Annual General Meeting held on 21^st March 2022 it was agreed to trial Pre-Booked tee slots for six months (April – September 2022).

At the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to be held on Tuesday, 13^th September 2022 members will be voting to decide whether or not to extend the trial for the Winter Season (October 2022 – March 2023) or revert back to the pre-trial booking system.

Trial Review

Prior to the trial all members had to book their places each week when the bookings opened on a Sunday at 5:00pm 9 days in advance. Many members reported that they found this a stressful process each week, in particular those that were booking for regular four ball groups.

In practice the early regular four ball groups almost always ended up with the same tee slots each week and by and large other members had little difficulty in booking into the remaining places.

The objective of the pre-bookings trial (over the summer season) was to see how bookings would work if the regular early four ball groups had their tee slots pre-filled, with other members booking in the usual way.

During the course of the trial the bookings seem to have gone smoothly and no complaints have been received from members regarding booking places in competitions. Members with pre-booked places have acted responsibly on the odd occasions when they knew they would not be playing and quickly cancelled their bookings thus freeing up their place for other members.

The few complaints that have been received about the pre-booking system are to do with the principles of some members having pre-booked places, which some regard as a special privilege. The counter opinion to this is that by fixing these regular four balls there is less stress for all members and so everyone benefits.

Winter Season

Due to the variable change in daylight hours during the winter and subsequent later start times the booking of tee times becomes even more difficult unless members accept that ALL members “usual” tee times move to the equivalent later time. In practice this did not happen very well last winter and many members found the booking process each week very stressful.

Should the pre-bookings trial be extended for the winter season (October – March) all the pre-booked slots will automatically move with any changes to the start time. At peak winter the start time last year was 50 minutes later. Under the pre-bookings trial all pre-booked tee slots would move to 50 minutes later.

Members comments

At the EGM there will be limited time to hear comments from members before we cast our vote. Members were invited to submit comments to be included in this review document.

Four members submitted comments:-

“The introduction of the pre-booking has been a good thing for the Par 3 Club.  It addressed the specific difficulty for those who wished to play in a regular 4 ball group whilst maintaining flexibility for those who wish to book with different players each week or prefer the flexibility of changing their tee-off time to suit their personal circumstances.

The specific difficulty referred to is booking a four-ball at, or near, a time that all the players can play has a very narrow window of time, whereas booking for an individual or for two players allows a much greater window of time.

I think the present approach strikes the right balance and should continue.”

“A club within a club has been created by the selfish insistence of some members.  It has created two groups, the privileged and the non-privileged.”

“I am in favour of the current system of booking for the Par 3 club as I feel it gives enough flexibility for all. It is easy to withdraw if away on holiday and usually someone fills the spot quickly . This ensures movement within playing partners. Also the current system streamlines the process of booking.”

“I am against pre booking, but will not attend the EGM meeting. For health reasons I must avoid crowds …. I expect there are other members in the same boat.”

Par 3 Club Committee
September 2022