What triggers an alert
A watch covers a course, a day, and a time window. When any matching slot appears on the live tee sheet, whether fresh release or cancellation, the alert fires immediately; there is no polling schedule to wait out.
Cancellations are the interesting case because they happen at unpredictable hours, usually one to two days before play as cancellation windows close, and they vanish fast.
What happens after it fires
Where the course system supports it, auto-booking finishes the reservation on your own account. Where it does not, the alert is the head start: you complete the booking yourself on the course's system.
Honest limitation: an alert is a race, not a reservation. A reopened slot can be taken before you act, which is why auto-booking, where supported, wins the ones that matter.
Keeping alerts useful
Wide windows on one or two courses beat narrow windows on five. Watches are per course and per window, so tune them to plans you would actually keep, and delete the ones you would not; an alert you ignore trains you to ignore the next one.
Try the workflow on one real watch
The clearest test is still one real course, one real time window, and the player count you need. That setup shows whether the workflow stays readable once it leaves the page.
Check a course →