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OT: Public golf crowded

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dark_check

All-Conference
Mar 7, 2022
2,785
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good day all! I’m a single who best days to play are Tue Wed and Thur late morning or mid day. Never had a problem til this year. For weeks now checking online golfnow, Rutgers, Middlesex and Somerset co times have been scarce. So today not much near me. Called Rutgers. Nope. Tamarack nothing in my time range for a single. Said screw it I’ll go to Meadows. Not great, no range but never had trouble as a single. They turned me away! On a late tue morning.

Please anyone have a suggestion where a single might have luck? Any threes need a fourth? Do I have to join a private club? lol. Thanks in advance
 
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Joey Bags

All-American
Sep 21, 2019
5,175
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A lot of county public course systems give residents/members access to tee times far in advance of the non-resident/members. This became a thing to limit bots scooping up tee times.
 
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D

dark_check

All-Conference
Mar 7, 2022
2,785
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Joey Bags said:
A lot of county public course systems give residents/members access to tee times far in advance of the non-resident/members. This became a thing to limit bots scooping up tee times.
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Thanks. I’ve had trouble before doing this with Middlesex or it wants me to prepay at a higher rate.
 
RU#1fan

RU#1fan

Heisman
Mar 7, 2003
23,665
12,374
113
superfan01 said:
If you play a lot and can afford it you should try and go private.

Public courses are terrible in this area.
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Not to mention losing public courses like Oak Ridge. Hillsborough Golf Club, one of the Royce courses, Tara Greens, etc.
 
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K

kupuna133

All-American
Jul 13, 2015
6,854
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red sail said:
Get a monmouth county or mercer county non resident card.
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Monmouth county making changes to out of county access. Freeholders have received major complaints about out of county residents and will be limiting access.
 
S

Section124

Heisman
Dec 21, 2002
17,198
21,252
96
I always found you can easily get a single by checking the night before or morning of your round. People add/drop in the automated systems just prior to getting hit with a fee.

If you don’t have a county card, try using GolfNow or one of the other tee time services.

Otherwise it may be best to go standby at the course you want to play. I play every week and noticed so many people/groups cancel last minute you can always get on.
 
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RAC’emUp

All-Conference
Jul 20, 2011
2,199
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Get your county card in whatever county you live in. Or pay extra and get a county card where you want to play. I have the Morris County card as a resident and paid extra for the Somerset County card. I have no problem getting any size group from 1 to 4 on mid-week this way. A little advance planning does help. Yesterday I had a 3some at Berkshire Valley and no one signed up to fill our fourth. So this should not be a problem.

As for Royce Brook, we just played 2 days ago. As a twosome we got around in 3:15. That’s the good news. But with the housing being built throughout the new 18 (which is 100% public) and the mediocre conditions it’s well overpriced at $80 mid-week. I used to love the East (public) course and they took 6 holes from that course with modifications and 12 from the West course. Maybe it will become a good course again but there is a ways to go.
 
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dark_check

All-Conference
Mar 7, 2022
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Unionst said:
Get your county card in whatever county you live in. Or pay extra and get a county card where you want to play. I have the Morris County card as a resident and paid extra for the Somerset County card. I have no problem getting any size group from 1 to 4 on mid-week this way. A little advance planning does help. Yesterday I had a 3some at Berkshire Valley and no one signed up to fill our fourth. So this should not be a problem.

As for Royce Brook, we just played 2 days ago. As a twosome we got around in 3:15. That’s the good news. But with the housing being built throughout the new 18 (which is 100% public) and the mediocre conditions it’s well overpriced at $80 mid-week. I used to love the East (public) course and they took 6 holes from that course with modifications and 12 from the West course. Maybe it will become a good course again but there is a ways to go.
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Used to love that course too. Which six did they keep?
 
newell138

newell138

Heisman
Aug 1, 2001
37,171
47,892
112
RU#1fan said:
Not to mention losing public courses like Oak Ridge. Hillsborough Golf Club, one of the Royce courses, Tara Greens, etc.
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used to play Tara Greens often when we lived in the area, whats the plan for that land? More condos?
 
P

phlop87

Senior
Aug 6, 2003
1,357
906
113
Played yesterday afternoon ( 4:20) at Green Knoll. Greens and causeways in very good shape Rough was high. Most of the tee boxes were beat up, we decided we would tee up anywhere in the box behind the markers. I’ve never had a problem walking on matawang For some reason it just doesn’t get many golfers. I think it’s a good walkable course for the money and convenience of going last minute
 
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RAC’emUp

All-Conference
Jul 20, 2011
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darkcheck said:
Used to love that course too. Which six did they keep?
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#1 has been turned into a par 5 dogleg with the green where #5 tee box was. They did a good job on that. #5 has been converted to a par 3, same green. #6 is the same, maybe a fraction shorter? Crazy number 7 is now a short par 4 with the tee box where the fairway traps were. 8and 9 are the same as they were although maybe cross bunkers on 9 were removed. They actually did a pretty good job on all of those. The overall routing is crazy though. It’s a long ride, or extremely long walk to get to and from the east side holes to the rest of the course.
 
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dark_check

All-Conference
Mar 7, 2022
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Unionst said:
#1 has been turned into a par 5 dogleg with the green where #5 tee box was. They did a good job on that. #5 has been converted to a par 3, same green. #6 is the same, maybe a fraction shorter? Crazy number 7 is now a short par 4 with the tee box where the fairway traps were. 8and 9 are the same as they were although maybe cross bunkers on 9 were removed. They actually did a pretty good job on all of those. The overall routing is crazy though. It’s a long ride, or extremely long walk to get to and from the east side holes to the rest of the course.
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Thank. Ugh. Never liked 8 so much. lol. I’m going to miss that back nine. Especially 10,14 and 16.
 
D

dark_check

All-Conference
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willisneverrana43 said:
If you’re not going to get a county card or cards or pick time slots in advance, you’re probably going to continue to have trouble.
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Thank. I understand. Having played for 40 year ms it blows my mind as a single l, mid day and mid week it’s come to that.
 
R

RUBubba

All-Conference
Sep 4, 2002
4,968
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I'm kind of surprised by this. I play as a single all the time, always on a weekend. There are times when I may have to wait a bit, but only once in 20 years did I get shut out.

Granted, on a weekend the odds of some guy bailing on his group because he is hung over, still drunk, catching buckshot from his wife, etc are better than during the week.
 
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kupuna133

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Jul 13, 2015
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darkcheck said:
Thank. I understand. Having played for 40 year ms it blows my mind as a single l, mid day and mid week it’s come to that.
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I think the issue is there are too many people working at golf courses that are not golfers. Especially in the county courses.

I showed up to a tee time last Friday. We had a mini 9 hole outing 4 4somes arranged at Hominy. Tee times started at 4:03 and every 9 minutes. Get there and the idiot in the check in decided to shuffle all of the 4somes because 2 people didn't show up for an earlier tee time. The problems she created was amazing. She voided multiple tee times thus allowing people to book the "open spots" online. Many of the tee times were now double booked. Her response was "do you really need to golf with the same people from your tee time?"
 
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Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,228
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kupuna133 said:
I think the issue is there are too many people working at golf courses that are not golfers. Especially in the county courses.

I showed up to a tee time last Friday. We had a mini 9 hole outing 4 4somes arranged at Hominy. Tee times started at 4:03 and every 9 minutes. Get there and the idiot in the check in decided to shuffle all of the 4somes because 2 people didn't show up for an earlier tee time. The problems she created was amazing. She voided multiple tee times thus allowing people to book the "open spots" online. Many of the tee times were now double booked. Her response was "do you really need to golf with the same people from your tee time?"
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Played Hominey once. The starter really makes you feel unwelcome there.
 
K

kupuna133

All-American
Jul 13, 2015
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jtung230 said:
Played Hominey once. The starter really makes you feel unwelcome there.
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Funny the guy this past week was talking to us like it was our first time playing golf with the over the top instructions. We all seemed to think he was begging for a tip.
 
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MCRU93

All-Conference
Mar 18, 2024
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jtung230 said:
Played Hominey once. The starter really makes you feel unwelcome there.
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I feel like there is a mix of 50/50 with starters. Half make you feel like you are a burden and the other half are just normal. Since I moved to upper Bergen County it has been much better. But some of the guys at the Essex county courses were miserable
 
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