Chelsea Reservation System Information

With the January and February Shotgun Placements, there have been a number of questions about how the system works and the equity of placement, the ranking of groups for Standby, etc.  I have attempted to answer these below:

How does our group get standby on two days in the same week?

Standby is a ranked list, and all groups on standby have higher point averages than those placed or have requests that cannot be filled due to restrictions they incorporated into their request (like selecting course preference instead of time, etc.)

I’m a Signature Member. Why should I get put on Standby?
There have been questions regarding the differentiation between Signature Golf, Premier Golf or Home Club Golf members.  Chelsea does not prioritize these in any way other than the courses available to them, but all are considered golf members and thus equal in standing.  Signature Golf members do get an advantage due to having more courses available, but do not rank higher in the placement due to their elevated dues level.  This has never been a part of our software.

Since I got Standby last week, why doesn’t the system give me a preferred placement this week to make up for it?
The system only determines who gets placed based on their ranking point average at the time of placement.  No prior history is considered and none has been part of any prior version.  It has been suggested if you sit out on standby one week you should get preferred placement in the next round. We have passed that on to the software engineers at Chelsea to see if this can be done.  It has some complications since not all four (or more) members of the group will always play as the same group, but may be party to other groups and placements on other days before the next team placement of the same names.  In this case, which placement should they get preference?

Why did you go to the Shotgun starts in the first place?

We have researched thoroughly the merits of a shotgun start in January and February before we recommended it to John Brown last fall. Our conclusions on it being the most efficient means of getting prime tee times to our members was based on the following facts:

If we were able to start each day at 8:00 am with no frost delays, we could get 30 foursomes on the course before 1:00 pm.  We are using that as an arbitrary cutoff point for completing 18 holes due to daylight and temperature limitations in these months.
    
Using the 10:00 am shotgun, with a two hour allowance for frost every day, still gets 30 foursomes on each course, with no phone calls to the golf shop to see if there is a frost delay or what your new tee time is. You can plan your start and end time days in advance.
   
Tee times for 18 hole play are still available at Members Club starting at 12:30, in addition to the 10:00 am shotgun.  Each of the remaining three courses will also have tee times available at 2:30 for nine hole play.
     
Historically, over the past three years, the average daily low is 37 degrees in January and 38 degrees in February.  Last year, there were 19 frost delays in January and 12 frost delays in February, meaning there were 912 fewer tee times for foursomes last year in January and 576 fewer tee times in February last year than you will experience this year if all frost delays were only two hours last year.

We were put on Standby due to a tournament.  Why do you even have tournaments with so few tee times available?

 We do have some tournaments booked that are taking some of the available tee times.  Each of these events is shown on the 2010 Tournament Schedule, which is visible on the Club's website.  We have made it clear on several occasions that guest play is necessary for the continued enjoyment of the lowest dues level of any club similar to this on the eastern seaboard.  Throughout the year, in addition to the 152 member events hosted on the Club’s courses booked for 2010, there are also 27 events booked for 2010 that are primarily non-member events.  During the months of March, April and May significant guest play is needed and provides more than half of the guest revenue needed each year.

So, I understand all of that, but I still want my tee time when I want it:

You may want to consider setting your play date to a Saturday or Sunday if you are unable to get regular tee times on Friday or Monday.  The weekends are historically the least busy times for play on every course.