A Tee Time is the designated time a golfer or group of golfers begins to play on a golf course. Obtaining tee times is not always easy, but technology has found a way to help.

In an ideal world, you would wake up in the morning and realize that it is too nice a day to work. In fact, it is too nice a day to do anything except play a round of golf. You would call out from work and round up three good friends. You would arrive at your nearby golf course and spend a little time socializing and warming up. When you were ready to play, you would walk out to the first tee and go to it. This is how it would be in a perfect world.

Ah, we know it isn't a perfect world. This happy little fantasy scenario is going to fall apart at several places and one of the most important weak spots in it would be the "would walk out to the first tee and go to it." It is a sad fact of life in the golfing world that the demand for playing time outstrips the course availability. Most courses are going to have a waiting list for tee times and in some cases, at the most popular links, that waiting list is going to extend into next month.

What is a tee time? It is the time that you and your party can begin play at Hole #1. It is fairly common to set tee times roughly 8 minutes apart. This allows each group of golfers to move in an orderly fashion through the course and regulates the waiting at hole #1. Since golf is increasing in popularity, getting tee times has become more and more of a problem. It is necessary to put sound advance planning into your golf game. Reservations for tee times are the only way to insure you will be playing when you want to and are able to play. The further ahead these reservations are made, the better chance you have of teeing off at your selected time.

Technology and the internet are offering help here. Many golf courses are accepting online reservations for getting tee times. It is a simple matter to select the day and ideal time that you want to play and make your reservation from home sitting in front of your computer. The same principle applies here. The earlier you make your reservation, the better your chance of getting the tee time of you choice. It is possible that a user name and password will be needed. You will have to register to use the online service, but this is not unusual or difficult to an internet user.

You can always go the old fashion spur of the moment fantasy way to getting tee times. Just show up and take your chances. If you do this at a popular golf course or on a weekend or holiday, you need to be prepared to wait or even be disappointed. The popularity of golf has a lot of benefits to the golfer, but getting good tee times is not one of them. Advance planning and reserving tee times is the price we have paid for the growth of our sport

Aazdak Alisimio writes about golf courses for GolfClubCourse.com.