Club glossary
What Is a Standing Tee Time?
A tee time held for the same group at the same time every week — the Saturday 8:00 game — reserved on the sheet automatically, not rebooked each week.
A standing tee time is a tee time reserved for the same group at the same time on a recurring basis — most often weekly. The Saturday 7:30 foursome that has played together for twenty years, the Wednesday men's game, the Thursday couples' nine: each holds its time on the sheet automatically, without anyone having to book it again each week.
How it works
The golf shop sets up the standing time with:
- Day and time — for example Saturdays at 7:30 from the 1st tee.
- Players — the members in the group, and sometimes named guests.
- Season — a start and end date, since many clubs grant standing times for a season rather than indefinitely.
- Rules for changes — how far ahead the group must release a spot it cannot fill, and whether the club fills an open spot from the waitlist or leaves it to the group.
Each week the time is claimed for the group before the general booking window opens to other members.
Example
The golf committee grants six standing times on Saturday mornings from 7:00 to 7:50. Each week, when the Saturday sheet is built, those six times are already filled with their groups. If one player in the 7:20 group is traveling, the group releases that spot by Thursday, and it opens to other members.
The debate about standing times
Standing times are one of the most discussed policies at private clubs. Members who hold them value the routine; members who do not see the best weekend times unavailable to them year after year. Clubs balance the two by capping the number of standing times, limiting them to certain days or hours, rotating them by season, or replacing them with a tee time lottery that awards prime times fairly.
Why it matters at a private club
A standing time is a promise the club makes to a group, and the sheet must keep it every week without a staff member re-entering it. At the same time, the committee needs to see how much prime-time capacity standing times occupy, so it can judge whether the policy is still fair to the rest of the membership.
Related terms
For booking windows, standing times and lotteries compared, see tee time booking policies.
In Bubs: standing times hold a recurring time for a named group of members and guests, and each week's occurrence is claimed on the sheet automatically. See tee sheet.