2008 Procedure 10 Back Course

Some facilities - usually those with 27 holes or those with extremely heavy 9 hole play - book only 9 hole reservations. If a customer wants to play 18 holes, the reservationist has to book two, 9 hole reservations. With a little preparation and configuration, the back course feature can book a front 9 and a back 9 reservation automatically.

It should be noted that Fore! Reservations performance is slower since the system is making two, 9 hole reservations versus one 18 hole reservation.

Set Up Back Course Option

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) File | Setup | Options.

3) Check the Link 9 Hole Courses checkbox in the lower left portion of the options screen.

4) Click the OK button and restart Fore! Reservations when requested.

Set Up the Courses

To utilize the back course feature, you need to set up two, 9 hole courses for an 18 hole facility, or three, 9 hole courses for a 27 hole facility. There are a few additional changes required to enable the back course feature to work properly. Think of all the courses as 9 hole courses, which course "turns" to which course, and approximately how long it takes them to make the "turn." For example, in a 27 hole facility (North Course, South Course and West Course), people beginning on the North Course finish their round playing on the South Course. It takes them two hours to make the turn from the North Course to the South Course. In essence, if the customer wanted to play 18 holes, he needs two reservations, one at 12:00 p.m. on the North Course and a 2:00 p.m. tee time on South Course. The same is true for someone beginning on the South Course and turning to the West Course, etc. Once the proper order and time intervals are determined, complete the following procedures:

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) Open the Course setup screen by selecting the File | Setup | Courses menu item.

3) Click on the course name pull-down menu and select one of the courses involved with the rotation.

4) A default linked checkbox lets you control the default action for this course when you book a tee time. When checked, the Back Course checkbox is also checked in the reservation screen and thus books two, 9 hole reservations. When unchecked, the default is a single 9 hole reservation. The reservationist has the option in either case to toggle this at reservation time.

5) Click the Back Course pull-down menu and select the course that serves as the back nine course.

6) Type in the number of minutes it takes a person on this course to make the turn in the Turn field. Or stated differently, how many minutes from the initial tee time on this course do you want the second tee time to be made on the back course.

7) If the linked course (i.e. North Course to South Course) is to be exposed to the Internet using Fore! Internet, enter the Linked Internet ID assigned by Fore! Reservations Customer Service. This is done at the time of the set up of Fore! Internet.

8) Click OK and follow steps 3) - 6) for each course involved in the rotation.

Booking Tee Times

Tee times are made in the normal manner with one exception. When the back course feature is enabled, the back course checkbox is visible and the back course time is displayed. If a 9 hole reservation is requested, the back course checkbox must be unchecked when booking. If checked, a second reservation on the turn course is automatically booked. If a reservation is being taken in a yellow highlighted spot, you have the option to select another back course time from the pull-down menu.

Back course bookings are available through Book by CustID, Book by Customer, and Book by Phone.

When a tee time is made for 9 holes, two things happen:

1) The original tee time is made for the time chosen.

2) A yellow highlight is placed on the prior turn course for the appropriate number of minutes before this tee time to signify that there is no room to make a turn time in this spot.

For example, when a customer requests a 9 hole tee time for 9:00 a.m. on the North Course, a yellow highlight is placed through the 7:00 a.m. time on the West Course, (the course which turns to the North Course), indicating that there is no turn time available on the North course at 9:00 a.m.

When making a tee time for 18 holes, two additional tasks are performed.

1) A second tee time is made on the course signified earlier as the turn course for the appropriate amount of minutes following the original tee time.

2) The reservation is highlighted in yellow to signify that there is not an available tee time two hours later because the 18 hole reservation process has just made the turn time reservation.

In the previous example, if that customer made a reservation for 18 holes, the tee time on the North Course is made at 9:00 and the yellow highlighting is at 7:00 on the West Course. In addition, a second tee time is automatically made at 11:00 on the South Course and the original reservation at 9:00 is highlighted in yellow indicating that there is not an available tee time on the South Course two hours later (11:00).

When a customer makes a tee time for 18 holes, you have the option of selecting a different back course time other than the default turn time. With the Back Course option checked, select another open turn time from the pull-down menu. The back course will be booked at the new time and the front course will be highlighted yellow based on the turn time. If the default back course is already booked, the back course time pull-down menu font is red to signify the default back course tee time is not available. Select another turn time from the pull-down menu to make the back course reservation.

For example, a customer made a reservation at 7:00 a.m. on the West Course, but the default turn time at 9:00 a.m. on the North Course (the West Course turns into the North Course) is not available because Jeffrey Mitchell already has a reservation booked. Select an open back course time from the pull-down menu to book the back course reservation, in this case 8:40 a.m.

If you modify, cancel, or move (this applies to Cut and Paste, Copy and Paste, and drag and drop) a linked tee time, a dialog box asks to apply the same settings to the corresponding linked course.

When you complete a linked 9 reservation transaction, a dialog box asks to mark both the front and back time as paid on the tee sheet.