Living in Boston the city owned courses are both great courses but as mentioned above the pace of play and availability can both be pretty brutal. Was lucky to get a George Wright tee time this weekend at 11am so will report back on if I wrap up before 4pm. That being saiid, 20-25 minutes outside the city I’ve found a bunch of great options and relatively well priced so Im pretty satisfied with the options around me.
While living in Charlotte for a few years I found the public golf to be pretty meh anywhere close to the city when I was living there. They have a great 9 holer but it will take at least 2.5 hours and all of the other parks and rec dept courses were never in good shape. Especially as more the city grows, would love to see those munis cleaned up and be better options
Living in NYC and play Bethpage a decent amount. Obviously tough to get a tee time, but if you check the booking website pretty regularly the day before something usually opens up if you’re ok playing as a single. Gotta be extremely lucky to get a good tee time for multiple people.
I’ve lived in other cities and I have to say I can’t complain much about Bethpage though given the unreal quality of the courses and the extremely cheap rates. The quality of the black and red courses is so much better than anything you’ll find in pretty much any other city for that price. The Black course costs $50 for a 4pm tee time for NY residents ($80 before that on the weekend). There are only like 15 other comparable public courses in the US and they mostly cost 5x to 10x that. Chambers Bay is municipally run and still charges WA residents over $200 to play. It’s crazy the red course is a well preserved Tillinghast on great land and only costs NY residents like $50 to play even on the weekends.
Can’t blame the Bethpage courses for being so popular for how good they are for the value. It’s just not really possible for a place like that to exist at those prices and be uncrowded (especially that close to NYC). When I want to play with friends and play in under 5 hours, I go into NJ. In NJ I don’t really struggle to get a tee time unless I’m dead set on playing in the morning, which I’m ok with since I prefer playing in the afternoons anyways. Can’t beat golden hour golf.
Things are not great in the twin cities, either. We have a plethora of great public golf, but getting tee times at some of the better value options is near impossible.
Keller: If you’re hoping to book a weekend you will need to stay up past midnight when they release the weekend block 5 days beforehand. If you want a weekday time between 2 and 6 pm, you’d better be up at midnight when the block releases 7 days before.
Braemar: The fine folks at Braemar have 16 (SIX-FUCKING-TEEN!!!) different booking classes. If you’re not a resident of the city it’s in while holding a patron card, you’re not booking a time, period.
If you want to look a bit upmarket for some relief in tee time availability, good luck. Stoneridge is charging a peak rack rate of $170 ($95ish three years ago) and you’re flat-out not going to be playing it in the morning.
Same here. It’s legit depressing. I end up at the range at Countryside because they have a family friend that lives there. I’m “visiting him”, dress like I’m golfing and spend hours at the practice facilities when we visit.
I’ll drop the $150 for Hibiscus once because I mean I need to play a round of golf in Jan, but it’s depressing
I’ve always found this hilarious and dissuades me from even trying to get on at Braemar. I understand wanting to give preferential treatment to your own residents, but this is absolutely silly.
I would add that this problem persists to the “lesser courses” too. - If you are playing a Saint Paul or Minneapolis course on a weekend and tee off after 10 AM, buckle up for a 5 hour round.
I feel a large part of that is that a lot of courses do not space the tee times out enough on top of every single one being booked.
Playing golf in San Diego is crazy. All year long, my 75 year old dad and I are both up at midnight seven nights before the day we want to book a coveted weekend tee time in San Diego county. We both try to grab tee times and watch as they disappear before we can grab them. Often times we will select one only to get the this selection is no longer valid. I am not sure if this is bots or just other golf sickos. I have three kids and a full time job dad is a retired senior that does not want to drive at night. Window for tee times is narrow to and we will often have to drive 45 mins to an hour away to find another course that we will have to pay more that is not as good.
There are a lot of courses Crossing at Carlsbad/Encinitas Ranch for example that are virtually impossible to get a weekend tee time. They open up to residents (keep in mind to be a resident here you are living in a multi million dollar home) days before the public and when the tee times are open to the public there are none left. In essence the courses are only open to residents of those towns and you have to be a millionaire to be a resident.
There is a lot more problems about getting a tee time in San Diego but these were the first two that came to mind.
with Melreese closing to make way for the Miami FC stadium…the City of Miami now has exactly zero public golf courses. One could argue that is the ultimate frustration for getting a tee time.
By the end of the end of this year, I will have spent time in my native LA, Denver, and Miami. For the first two, I live and die by the day before cancellations. Shuddering about the Miami that is to come.
Perhaps ironically, the only place I’ve never had trouble getting tee times is on the Monterey peninsula, where my parents are. Between PG, the seaside courses, old del monte, et al, I’ve generally been able to find something on short notice, even though there may be /better/ places to play in the area
