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"Golf's biggest threat" -- interesting read

Not mentioned is the information you get from Golfnow. You can see reviews especially if you havent played a course before. Big help in my book and super easy to book a tee time at your desk.
 
Most places here don't have a problem selling tee times, so you see similar prices on GN more often than not. Off-peak hours are different of course, but those are discounted at the course as well. One pro actually told me not to call and book b/c the full rate only applies to phone call tee times and the course's website (run by Golf18 I believe) and GN are cheaper. Still waiting for those $.99 tee times to appear.
 
I'm new to golf and use golfnow almost religiously. I live in Atlanta and basically play where I can get a good deal. I play most of my rounds <$30. I try to kick in a few dollars for range time and food/drinks.

Either golf evolves or it will be left behind. Golfnow or some similar service will always be around. This is how we consume now. Crowd sourced reviews and consolidated information for booking.


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Interesting read, thanks for sharing.

I will say that, as some have mentioned, attitude of the employees at the course probably takes some blame. I almost expect the unfriendly pro shop employees when I go to a course. They act as if they are doing you a favor in letting you pay only $40-$50 to play on their course.
 
No, online booking and discounting are not hurting golf courses in a meaningful way. It's not a 100% benefit, but the logic is simple: filling times that would otherwise go empty is in the best interest of the golf course. It's not just green fees--it's range balls, it's food and beverage revenue, it's building loyalty with a customer base by getting them onto your property and providing an experience for them.
 
straightslice said:
I'm new to golf and use golfnow almost religiously. I live in Atlanta and basically play where I can get a good deal. I play most of my rounds <$30. I try to kick in a few dollars for range time and food/drinks.

Either golf evolves or it will be left behind. Golfnow or some similar service will always be around. This is how we consume now. Crowd sourced reviews and consolidated information for booking.


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Exactly...This^^^

I found the angle of the article laughable. The golf course business is like any other capitalistic endeavor. Courses want to make money and golfers are the consumers that pay $ for a benefit. GolfNow or other sites are just a different channel or distribution source, and they're trying to carve out their niche by providing a value. Consumers or those channels aren't to blame if courses can't adapt to changing paradigms.
 
lilbilly said:
Yeah the fee has climbed and many times it's about the same price as the course regular rate, unless you're booking one of the "hot deals".

As far as the course offering a similar price at an odd time of the day, most courses haven't gone to a dynamic pricing like that yet.

I was more interested in the business aspect of the article, than how it affects me as a golfer. I was interested to read about some courses starting to shift to dynamic pricing, which is long overdue IMO.
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All five of our courses have, and I am the one who does it at Painted Hills.



T0AD said:
I just went and looked at a popular local course. On GolfNow, there is a 29.71 rate, but if you go to the course's web site and use whatever system they have in place there, the same time of day (+/- 20 minutes) is 28.40.

Could the course be undercutting GolfNow if, and I'm assuming here, they get all the money instead of roughly 1/2?
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We price lower, higher and the same as GolfNow throughout the day. They don't get anything other than the booking fee on the times that are not the Hot Deals. On those, they get 100%.
 
I have yet to use Golfnow and now I'm not sure I will...
 
One other thing about online booking. They make you enter your credit card information. They all do. But unless it is that super cheap hot deal, the only thing you are going to have to pay when you book is that booking fee. (And you should never have to pay a booking fee on a course website)

I had three people come in today and said "I already paid online" and when I told them that all they paid was the booking fee, they argue that they have already paid. "You should have gotten an email confirmation, can you pull it up on your phone and see if it shows a dollar amount due at the course?" I say. By now they have attitude, and when they finally see that they indeed did not pay at the course, they still won't admit they were wrong, they just complain about having to enter their credit card when they didn't pay!
 
I don't think making golf more affordable is a threat to the game. I hardly ever use it unless it's a great deal. I never knew lastminutegolfer.com existed until I read the article so I thank them for that!
 
lilbilly said:
Not really undercutting... The course dictates the rates on GolfNow, except for a couple tee times per day which GolfNow can sell for whatever they want and keep the profit. They call it "tee time bartering" because the course is essentially trading a couple tee times a day for advertising and marketing that GolfNow brings them. I'm not sure if GolfNow gets paid anything other than their "booking fee" if it isn't one of the couple tee times that they "own". Maybe someone that runs or manages a course can pipe in on that.
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I don't see how the above is hurting anything. If it was hurting then golf courses wouldn't participate in the first place. Unless there is much more to it than that. And I really couldnt make more than that out from the written text. Even if a few tee times were free. In the end if a golf course gave a way 3 tee times but picked up even one paying foursome that would never have played otherwise they are still getting more money than they had before. Of course I am using an extreme example but the point is the same. exposure, more patons, all equals more business. If it doesn't work they don't have to do it. Do they?
 
This problem is bigger than a simple solution. Too many courses charge the same price when the course is damaged as when it is at its best. One course has 18 severely damaged "Bermuda grass winter kill" greens and only 3 workers on the course and wants to charge the same prices as when it was at its best. I happen to belong there. management is complaining that there is no outside play. And blaming it on Golf Now.

In my world the management needs to see if the quality of their course matches the price they are charging. I can join the best course in the area for the same price as some of the mid level not that good courses.

I use Golf Now hot deals for my Wednesday afternoon traveling foursome. Golf Now only has one hot deal for a foursome per course - per day. And My Wednesday afternoon traveling "hot deal" foursome is usually the only foursome on the course. The weather is near 100 degrees and not many people are going to play in that heat. And owners are blaming Golf Now for no customers. Management needs to open its eyes.

I want to be known by name and treated like family, not like an inconvenience. When most if not all the employees are in a bad mood it says more about management / owners than the employees.

Some people don't understand. They expect something for nothing. Its a waste of time to talk to them.
 
neophyte said:
This problem is bigger than a simple solution. Too many courses charge the same price when the course is damaged as when it is at its best. One course has 18 severely damaged "Bermuda grass winter kill" greens and only 3 workers on the course and wants to charge the same prices as when it was at its best. I happen to belong there. management is complaining that there is no outside play. And blaming it on Golf Now.

In my world the management needs to see if the quality of their course matches the price they are charging. I can join the best course in the area for the same price as some of the mid level not that good courses.

I use Golf Now hot deals for my Wednesday afternoon traveling foursome. Golf Now only has one hot deal for a foursome per course - per day. And My Wednesday afternoon traveling "hot deal" foursome is usually the only foursome on the course. The weather is near 100 degrees and not many people are going to play in that heat. And owners are blaming Golf Now for no customers. Management needs to open its eyes.

I want to be known by name and treated like family, not like an inconvenience. When most if not all the employees are in a bad mood it says more about management / owners than the employees.

Some people don't understand. They expect something for nothing. Its a waste of time to talk to them.
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Agree completely that these courses need to charge less when the course isn't up to par.

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"Golf's biggest threat" -- interesting read

Online booking is relatively new to the golf industry, so it will take time for the old line operators to realize the benefits.

Being in revenue management for a hotel company, I can tell you the third party sites are not the biggest threat to our business, although that was said 10 to 12 years ago when they started popping up.

Once the course learns how to use them to its benefit. They will realize just the opposite. It brings them business it absolutely never would have had.
 
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I feel like I've missed out now by never using golf now, if savings can be that impressive I need to give it a shot.

I feel like golfs decline is due to reasons similar to baseball and other long time consuming sports that are region dependant, its not convenient for large populations of people.
 
The problem over all is of course that there simply are too many courses and not enough golfers. Simply put, the supply is more than the demand. This(just like any business) is going to cause a competition. It is simply the nature of the beast when supply outways demand just like it would work the other way if the demand is greater than the supply. That is the very reason courses charge more on weekends.

There are too many golf courses around in general. The better economy, the Tiger influx, and the corporate tax deductions are over and it has left behind a void that built up when it was on the rise and thriving. Many of the golf courses that are to complain that GN (or other such services) are hurting them may want to look in the mirror.

What i mean by that is many golf courses poped up during the lnflux and better times in order to earn profit for developers , entrepreneurs, corporations, and businessmen. They wanted to take full advantage of a large demand, the better economy, the tiger influx, the corporate involvement, and now that much of that is over and fading, they now must compete for the dwindling demand. Simply put there is a void . But its a void that they themselves in a way created simply by trying to cash in and expand when the sport was much more lucritive for the above reasons. Too many courses were added. They (with exception of those who joined the party too late) made their money when they could and a ton of it. They had heck of a party for a while. Now they want to cry that online services is ruining the game when they themselves must compete for business because there are too many of them who decided to get involved and joi the party when the going was good in the first place.

Let me tell you something. If tomorrow the sport took off again. If the economy was great, if tax deductions went back, if the sport had an entire influx again and demand was once again huge, and they saw the oportunity to once again make money, the very same people complaining and competeing for business now now would be looking to add even more courses and no one would need on line discounted tee times in order to compete. But only to then one day when it dies down again will there be an even bigger void once again created by their very own expansion to begin with.

According to an article i found on PGA. Since 2006 in the USA, 499 courses closed. But also says from 1986 (strat of the building boom) to 2006, 4,500 courses opend in the USA. And in one year alone 400 courses oepned for business. Whether its the building boom, economy, Tiger influx, whatever the case that is 4,500 golf courses. That is a ton of golf courses in 52 states and remeber that was added to the already existing ones totaling now somehwere around 18,000. They added 25% more golf courses in just a 20 year spurt to cash in on the growth spurt. Took their chances to make money and very many did . Now its over and everyone is looking where and who to blame?
 
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Pace of a play and new players kind of go hand in had. As a general rule new players are slow just because they don't know the game. So the real question is how to bring in a bunch of new golfers without causing 5 hour rounds?

I think a max score should be established for new players or something like that. Its really a catch 22

lightningbolt44 said:
Pace of play and Attitude towards new golfers I feel are the biggest threat to this game.
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I have to say that I probably play MORE because of Golf Now. Instead of going to a course twice a month for $45 each, I probably go anywhere between 6-8 times now from prices ranging from $20-$45. Allowing me to play a few rounds for $20 is great because if I do well that particular day I think its a great deal and I should play again because it was a great price. But if I do poorly, I think I should play it again soon to improve because it wasn't that expensive to play in the first place and I can't really think of it was a "waste" of money or time. When I start improving, I'm more willing to pay a higher premium for a better tee time or course. I also can't justify paying $45 at a course that is in slightly below average conditions when I can pay $50 at a semi-private course that is in fantastic condition.

I also do think that a lot of the golf courses are behind the time, and I have to say that they have had plenty of time to make it easier for the consumers to book online. I first started using Golf Now back in 2006 or so. That's 8 years ago! And I still think that a lot of the courses are to stubborn to make the adjustment to cater to online booking.

Not only that, but I have to agree that I completely don't understand the pricing strategy behind a lot of the courses when the conditions aren't that great. If a course is usually $45 to play (lets say on a weekend). It shouldn't be $45 to play when they punch the greens or when there is a downpour and parts of the course are flooded. They could also do a lot more limited promotional deals to bring it new foot traffic. I recently purchased a deal for $200 directly through a golf course that would allow me to play 10 rounds for $22 and 10 group lessons. The each round comes up to $42 (anytime weekdays, after 11am weekends) which is average but I thought adding on the lessons were a great deal. It's a course that I had never visited but because of the deal I was introduced to a new course that is now one of my favorites here in Charlotte, NC.
 
CAA_Beat said:
Online booking is relatively new to the golf industry, so it will take time for the old line operators to realize the benefits.

Being in revenue management for a hotel company, I can tell you the third party sites are not the biggest threat to our business, although that was said 10 to 12 years ago when they started popping up.

Once the course learns how to use them to its benefit. They will realize just the opposite. It brings them business it absolutely never would have had.
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Ansolutely this. Years ago Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity were seen as threats but yet they're still around and thriving. It's the first place people go when traveling, unless they are searching a specific hotel.
 
What is funny is that I can find a better price on a room going directly to the hotel website now. A lot of them have a low price guarantee if you book on their website now.
 
I have only used GolfNow a couple times and didn't find it that much cheaper in our area. That said, I ONLY book tee times on line, if a course doesn't offer it, I don't play it. It has little to do with the cost to me as much as the convenience.

I usually book at the last minute, and will search a few locals that do online times, the other handful that do not offer online booking lose out. Last Saturday while at camp, at 10:30pm I booked a 12:00 Sunday tee time from my iPhone. If clubs want to get ahead, they have to offer that level of convenience.
 
I've looked at GolfNow but have never used them. I have a home course where I mainly play. And, when I play elsewhere in my area, I go directly to the course website or call them to book a tee time. So far, when I've checked, I've not noticed a better deal on GolfNow, I have noticed I would pay a booking fee in addition to the course fee.
 
sparksjr said:
What is funny is that I can find a better price on a room going directly to the hotel website now. A lot of them have a low price guarantee if you book on their website now.
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Thank You!!!

With the contracts we sign with the 3rd parties, hotel sites may not always be lower, but certainly the same price.

The big difference is booking with the hotel directly online or phone, you generally have more flexibility for changes and cancellations.
 
I agree with most people in that sites like Golfnow offering two discounted tee times a day can't be hurting golf courses that much. Each golf course probably has their own issue. At the course I play most one of the issues is something they allow/caused themselves. They allow members to schedule tee times three weeks in advance which which is great.....bad thing is that sometimes they don't show up....which causes a loss in revenue because there is an empty tee time that could have been sold.

A lot of courses around nothern VA make host a lot of tournaments...which seems to be good $$ makers.
 
bobgeorge said:
I agree with most people in that sites like Golfnow offering two discounted tee times a day can't be hurting golf courses that much. Each golf course probably has their own issue. At the course I play most one of the issues is something they allow/caused themselves. They allow members to schedule tee times three weeks in advance which which is great.....bad thing is that sometimes they don't show up....which causes a loss in revenue because there is an empty tee time that could have been sold.

A lot of courses around nothern VA make host a lot of tournaments...which seems to be good $$ makers.
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By me they charge a $10 no show fee. You can not book again till you pay the small penalty. I can understand this as people (if not) will just book for the sake of holding knowing they may not show.
 
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