What is an open tee time?
An open tee time is a tee time that has already been partially booked — typically by one, two, or three players — but still has remaining capacity for additional golfers to join and complete the group, usually up to four. Rather than treating that slot as fully occupied the moment the first player books it, the club (or the players themselves) leaves it visible as available for others to join, maximising the use of each time slot on the Tee Sheet.
This concept is closely related to what some platforms call “join a game” functionality: a single golfer or a pair looking for a game can search specifically for open tee times rather than fully empty ones, making it easier to find playing partners without needing to coordinate a full group in advance.
Why open tee times matter for course utilisation
A round of golf played by a single walker uses the same amount of course time and staff resource as one played by a full four-ball, but generates a fraction of the revenue. Encouraging groups to fill up via open tee times — instead of leaving three empty spots unsold — directly improves Occupancy and revenue per available tee time, without adding a single extra slot to the schedule.
How this is managed operationally
Manually tracking which tee times are partially filled and actively promoting them to solo players is a tedious, error-prone task if done by phone or spreadsheet. Golfmanager’s Join a Game functionality automatically surfaces open tee times to golfers browsing the Online Booking Engine, letting a solo player or a twosome see and join groups that already have space, rather than only being offered fully empty slots.
Practical example
Two members book a Tuesday morning tee time for themselves, leaving two open spots. Instead of that slot staying half-empty, a visiting golfer searching for a game that morning sees it listed as an open tee time, joins directly online, and pays the applicable guest rate — filling the group without any staff intervention and increasing the round’s total revenue.
FAQs
Is an open tee time the same as an empty tee time? No — an empty tee time has no players booked at all, while an open tee time already has at least one player but isn’t full yet.
Do all clubs expose open tee times publicly? No, this depends on configuration; some clubs prefer to keep partially filled groups private and only assign additional players manually through reception.