Everyone has done it at some point in their life. Made an appointment and then bailed. Have you ever done that to a golf course with a tee time? I suspect there are people reading this who have never done it, all the way to the person who does it religiously when they have had too much to drink the night before.
Let me break down the economics of a guilty party’s lack of courtesy. When you book a tee time on Saturday morning for a foursome at 9:00, that groups final day expenditure between golf, food and drinks, could be $75 a person, or $300 for the group. When the next groups calls hours later, and can’t book a tee time because all the times are taken, their $300 then books at another course. Obviously not their first choice.
How Tee Time Doesn’t Play Out
Fast forward to Saturday morning… and you don’t show. The golf course has lost your group’s money AND they lost the other group that wanted to play but couldn’t, because of the tee times were already taken. As a regular at a place, it should cross your mind that you will one day be walking in the shop, and the golf course crew is thinking…. well I won’t go into that. Let’s just say they keep score. They have nothing better to do.
As a golf course owner, this is tough. I basically get kicked in the face like this a couple times each day. This is where a owner starts fantasizing about securing tee times with credit cards. It’s amazing how most people find this to be a turn off. Next time you are booking some Brewers tickets, or a Luke Bryan concert, try to muster the equal amount of outrage when they ask for a credit card. Let me know how that works for you.
I think these two situations can be summed up this way. You are honored to be able to see Luke Bryan, you are NOT honored to play golf at our place. You think the course owner should be honored to see you. Is Luke Bryan honored to see you?
How I Have Chosen To Handle?
Golf Course Owner Guy’s simple request… if you are NOT going to fill the time, give us a call so we can sell it to someone else, it’s just the courteous thing to do. If you have ever called to cancel when I have answered the phone, it might seem weird how thankful I am that you canceled…now you know why. And one other thing, to the person who cancels 10 minutes before their tee time, thank you, but if you can visualize the entire end game, that really doesn’t help.
