Ideal tournament start time

[DavidSauls]

From the TD end, in making this decision, you have to consider logistics and player preferences.

Logistics such as finishing in daylight, unforseen delays (good point, Dave), weather, etc.

Player preferences are tougher because they're all over the board, and we're guessing. Some prefer later starts (especially those who might have been out late the night before), some earlier (especially those with families and other reasons to get home as early as possible). Furthermore, players at any given tournament can be divided between locals, commuters (say, 1-2 hours, driving home at the end of round 2), and out-of-towners (whether staying overnight just Saturday night, or Friday & Saturday). Multiply these together and everyone has good reasons for wanting different start times.

 

[biscoe]

i usually do 10:00 day one, 9:00 day two.

in raleigh they used to start first day at noon and second day at 9:00 to allow out of towners to travel. that worked well when they had short courses.

 

[SteezeOG]

9:00am

 

[jcrab66]

if i had my choice i prefer a late morning start, 9-10 works good for me whether its local or i am commuting but whatever the TD decides is fine by me. MUCH more important to me is that it actually starts at the time they say its going to start, nothing worse than sitting around for an extra hour because of poor planning...

 

[Jeasy13]

Players meeting at 8:30 Tee time at 9. When it's 100 degrees by noon, getting 1 round in or at least well underway before it gets that hot is awesome. Sure, it doesn't get dark until 8:30, but it's still frickin hot.

Edit : Also if I'm traveling for a tournament, i'd rather wake up earlier amd finish earlier than wake up later and drive home later.

 

[krupicka]

One problem with later starts (e.g. 10:00) is that it pushes lunch pretty late especially on longer courses.

 

[Dave242]

Yeah, but breakfast is later too.

 

[Tfire25]

I'm in for a night golf tourney down here in Texas. It's super hot already. Without many people wanting night golf tourneys though I would have to say about 7:30 players meeting and 8:00 am start. We have been hitting up the course about 7:30 pm and having half the holes night golf lately.