Club glossary
What Is a Tee Time Lottery?
A booking method in which members request preferred times before a deadline and the club allocates the most wanted times by a fair draw, not first come.
A tee time lottery is a way of allocating the most wanted tee times — usually weekend mornings — by a fair draw rather than first come, first served. Instead of racing to book the moment the sheet opens, members submit requests for their preferred times before a deadline. The club then runs the lottery, awards times to groups according to its rules, and notifies everyone of the result.
How it works
- Request window. Members submit requests for a given day — typically their group, their first-choice time, and ranked alternatives or an acceptable range — before the deadline.
- The draw. After the deadline, the system allocates times. Requests are processed in an order set by the club's rules — random, weighted, or rotated so members who received a poor time recently move ahead.
- Allocation. Each group receives the best available time among its choices. Groups that cannot be placed are notified and may be added to the waitlist.
- Results. Members are notified of their times, and remaining times open for regular booking.
Fairness
A lottery is only as fair as its rules. Common fairness mechanisms include:
- Rotation or weighting — a member who drew late last week gets priority this week.
- Group-level treatment — the whole group is placed together, and a large group does not get more chances than a single.
- Limits — one request per member per day, so no member appears in several groups.
- Transparency — members can see the rules and their own history.
Example
Saturday's lottery closes Wednesday at noon. Forty-two groups have requested times between 7:00 and 9:00, for 13 available times. The draw places 13 groups within their ranked choices, offers 18 others times between 9:00 and 10:30, and puts the rest on the waitlist. Every member receives a result on Wednesday afternoon, and the remaining afternoon times open for first-come booking.
Why it matters at a private club
When demand for weekend mornings exceeds supply, first-come booking rewards whoever is awake when the sheet opens — and creates complaints that the same members always get the best times. A lottery replaces the race with a policy the committee can explain and defend. It works only if the club can run it reliably every week and show members the outcome clearly.
Related terms
For lottery design and fairness rules in depth, see tee time lottery systems.
In Bubs: members submit ranked preferences in the club app before the deadline, the allocation run applies the club's fairness and rotation rules, and results reach every member by notification. See tee sheet.