Hobert: Who are groups taking up prime Sun City golf tee times?

I welcome the opportunity to state my position on (“Sun City golfers frustrated over tee times,” Sun City Independent, Jan. 18, 2023).

I have been submitting tee times in the lottery system for more than 18 months now and have backups to show it. I have received rejection emails and recently it seems to be occurring more often.

I analyzed one day that I received a rejection. It is as follows. There were five small groups scheduled on four golf courses leaving one wide open. These five regulation courses had only 64 tee times available prior to 9:30 am. No wonder I was rejected. I then analyzed a prior week day that I received a tee time for five using the lottery system and there were only 57 tee times available with the Cactus Tour and four small groups on five regulation courses. I won the lottery!

Who are these small groups? How many are there? Do we allow too many to play in our golf community? Are they resident no fee annual golf pass holders? Are they non-resident no fee annual golf pass holders?

Recreation Centers of Sun City offers non-resident annual golf passes for non-Sun City resident golfers age 45 and older. What is the age requirement for a Sun City resident to purchase a no fee annual golf pass?

I truly believe it is about the money revenue, not the Sun City resident golfer.

Brian Duthu stated “The groups also pay $2 per person in addition to regular fees.” That is good, but let us change it to $10 per tee time (still $2 per person). This would tighten up the small groups block of tee times to create more open tee times and the revenue continues coming in. Have the small groups start at 10 a.m. (they still get to play golf, play the money games and drink their favorite beverages at 2 p.m.). This creates 20 tee times at each regulation course for a total of 100 available to the resident golfers before 10 a.m.

Hopefully, I could win the lottery each day I make a tee time request.

I have a resident no fee annual golf pass. With lottery rejections and the abnormal weather conditions, I have many play dates to make up to break even.

Editor’s Note: We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.