Blog

For years, booking a tee time has been more complicated than it should be. Golfers jump between platforms, compare similar options, and often end up booking through whichever intermediary makes the process easiest at that moment. Clubs, in turn, give up margin and visibility, and over time the relationship with the golfer shifts away from the course itself.That structure is now under pressure, largely because of how search and decision-making are changing online.AI-driven tools are no longer limited to showing links or comparing options. Systems built into Google, voice assistants, and conversational agents like ChatGPT are increasingly designed to complete tasks on the user’s behalf. Instead of sending someone to a website, they gather availability, evaluate options, and execute the action directly.Golf will not be an exception to this. A golfer will ask for an open tee time nearby, specify a time window or price range, and the system will check live availability across courses. Once a suitable option is identified, the booking will be completed immediately by the agent itself, without the golfer ever visiting a third-party marketplace or navigating multiple booking flows.The critical detail is where that booking happens. These systems do not need to sit inside a marketplace to function. They work best when they can interact directly with the source of truth, which in golf is the club’s own tee sheet. When availability and pricing are accessible and reliable, the agent can book straight into the course’s system. No intermediary is required to take a cut, control the relationship, or repackage the inventory.That shift fundamentally changes the economicsFor years, public courses were pushed into competing on platform placement, commissions, and visibility inside someone else’s ecosystem. In an agent-driven booking environment, those advantages matter far less. What matters instead is whether the course’s tee sheet is accurate, pricing is clear, and the booking can be executed cleanly at the source. And this is where public golf courses are well positioned.Most third-party booking platforms only create value when they control discovery and execution. When AI agents handle discovery themselves and execute bookings directly against the club’s own system, that middle layer becomes optional rather than essential. Golfers get speed and simplicity, while courses retain control, pricing power, and the full value of the transaction.Responding to this shift does not require rebuilding everything or chasing new technology for its own sake. It requires getting the fundamentals right. Tee time inventory needs to be accurate and accessible. Rates need to be consistent and understandable. The booking path needs to work cleanly when initiated by a system, not just a human clicking through a website. The same thing happened when the internet first became mainstream: companies didn’t need to reinvent their business, but they did need to make sure they could be found and understood online. The parallel with AI is similar. Courses don’t need to “do AI,” they simply need to make sure their tee sheet can be read, interpreted, and acted on reliably.When those conditions are met, the direction the market is heading works clearly in favor of the course. Bookings become more direct, margins improve, and the relationship with the golfer stays where it belongs. This is not a distant future scenario. It is a structural change already underway, enabled by AI, that brings tee time booking closer to how it should have worked all along.Teemu Founder Growth Golf &amp; Country Club Miami, FL, USA

Tee Time Booking Is About to Change. And That’s Good News for Public Golf Clubs.

<h3>Most public golf courses in the U.S. aren’t struggling because of a lack of golfers. In many cases, demand is still there. Tee sheets are busy on weekends. Phones ring. The parking lot is full on good days.</h3>The issue is more subtle than that.A lot of courses are quietly underperforming because they don’t fully control how golfers find them, book, return, and spend. Over time, that gap adds up. Not in a dramatic, end-of-the-world way, but in missed upside, weaker pricing power, and increasing dependence on third parties. That’s the real problem. Not demand, but control.Most courses don’t really own their booking flow. They don’t have a clear picture of who their golfers are beyond surface-level data. And they don’t have many levers to influence behavior once a round is played. Decisions get outsourced to platforms, legacy setups, or habits that made sense years ago but haven’t been revisited.This isn’t about blaming the people running these coursesOperations and marketing teams care deeply about their clubs and their players. They keep things running, often with limited time and limited resources. But asking them to also master modern digital distribution, booking behavior, pricing dynamics, and repeat play is a big ask. It’s not what most of them signed up for, and it’s not where their strengths necessarily lie.Golfers and expectations have changedBooking expectations are higher. Patience is lower. The experience starts long before the first tee and continues after the round. If the path to booking feels clunky, confusing, or indirect, golfers simply move on. Not because they’re unhappy, but because alternatives are easy.Many courses respond to this by trying to “do more marketing.” More ads, more promotions, more everything. That usually isn’t the answer.What’s missing is clear thinking around how demand is used, how golfers are guided back, and how existing systems can be used more intentionally instead of replaced. That’s where our work usually starts.Not with software. Not with campaigns. Not with ripping anything out. Just with understanding what’s already in place, where control has slowly been lost, and how small changes can compound over time.Teemu&nbsp; Founder Growth Golf &amp; Country Club Miami, FL, USA

Where Public Golf Quietly Loses Control

A field note in response to Old Tom Capital’s white paper: Rebuilding Tee Time AccessOld Tom’s white paper is one of the sharpest takes on tee time access I have read. The opportunity is real, the logic is sound, and the diagnosis is accurate. But writing a compelling thesis is one thing. Living inside this ecosystem is another. After years of conversations with platform providers, tee sheet vendors, course operators, associations in the U.S. and federations in Europe, I can tell you the path to a solution is not the one most people imagine.<h3>The numbers are too big to ignore</h3>As Old Tom’s white paper makes clear, the U.S. public access tee time market moves more than 9 billion dollars a year in transactions, with global potential around 15 billion. Yet cancellations, no shows, and unbooked inventory leak over 12 billion dollars annually in the United States. No shows alone cost more than 1.2 billion. Fixing access and utilization would change the economics of golf, not just the convenience.<h3>What golfers actually want</h3>Old Tom listed it well. Golfers want four simple things:<ol><li>All available tee times in their area, not a partial list</li><li>Transparent pricing without surprise fees or barter distortions</li><li>Real time alerts when a spot opens</li><li>Easy group booking, including split payments and foursome coordination What they usually get is a platform that shows only a fraction of the real inventory, adds service fees on top of green fees that have already risen sixteen percent in four years, forces single-player flows that don’t work for group golf, and delivers a user experience that still feels stuck in the late nineties. Endless refreshing, clunky mobile pages, and phone calls just to finish a booking. </li></ol><h3>The orchestration fantasy</h3>The white paper argues for an invisible control layer that normalizes all inventory, protects operator economics, and gives golfers full visibility. Think Stripe for payments or Google Flights for airlines. On paper, perfect.In practice, nearly impossible.There are hundreds of tee sheet systems worldwide. GolfNow still holds outsized influence in the U.S., even if its grip is loosening. In Europe, Zest.Golf has worked for years to be the Amadeus of golf. The result is about 230 golf courses on the platform. That is not scale.Even if you convinced every tee sheet to integrate, you would still face the trust problem. Many operators are done with middlemen. They want 100% control of their inventory and 100% ownership of their customer data. And even a neutral layer becomes a risk once it grows. Mission statements change when acquisition checks arrive. We have all seen what happens when a dominant player is bought by a media conglomerate. Clubs will not sign up to recreate that story.<h3>What actually works</h3>The only credible way forward is simpler and already underway. Golf clubs are getting smarter. Their tee sheets and booking flows need to look and feel like modern consumer software, not something from the early 2000s.Make mobile the default. Remove forced account creation before payment. Let a golfer book with an email and a card in seconds. Gather profile details after the transaction, not before. Treat the booking like a sale, not a registration process.On no shows, copy what works. In Spain and Portugal golfers prepay and must cancel 48h in advance or they forfeit the fee. That policy is now standard and no shows are not a systemic issue. Those markets also benefit from modern platforms like <a data-mce-href="https://www.golfmanager.com/" href="https://www.golfmanager.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Golfmanager</a>, which delivers a clean, intuitive experience for both operators and players. You do not need a grand unifying theory to fix no shows. You need clear rules and a booking flow that supports them.<h3>The Right Role for Aggregation</h3>We do not need another middleman that captures the transaction and the customer. What we need is a discovery layer that respects the chain of control.Aggregate public tee times that are already visible on club websites. Make it easy to search, filter, compare, and set alerts. Allow AI powered natural language search so a golfer can ask for eighteen holes under $90 within ten miles at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Then send the golfer directly to the club’s site to complete the booking. The club keeps the revenue and the data. The golfer gets speed and clarity. No commissions. No inventory barter.This model aligns incentives the right way. It’s not funded with barter or downstream fees that extract value from the course. It’s funded with subscriptions.Golfers get a free tier, plus a low-cost premium tier for unlimited alerts, advanced comparisons, saved favorites, group coordination, and conversational search. Most golfers will happily pay a few dollars a month for a service that saves them time, gives them better access, and actually saves money thanks to the ability to check all the courses at the same time. Clubs pay nothing, and they stay in control. And yes, there are platforms already doing this. <a data-mce-href="https://rapidteegolf.com/" href="https://rapidteegolf.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RapidTeeGolf</a> are probably the most interesting player in this space. What also makes it different is that there’s a real team behind it. They do exactly what I just described, and from what I’ve understood, the AI chat is coming out in a week or two. But you’ll want to take a look already, because much of what I just described is already there.<h3>Lessons from the field</h3>The pain Old Tom outlined is real. The inefficiencies are real. But the durable answers are simpler than a universal switchboard. They come from clubs running their tee sheets cleanly, giving golfers a modern and intuitive booking experience, setting clear payment and cancellation rules, and adding a discovery layer that helps golfers find options, without hijacking the customer relationship.<h3>The bottom line</h3>The winner here will not be the flashiest marketplace. It will be the operator who understands two truths at once. Clubs must keep control of pricing, inventory, and data. Golfers must get the fastest, cleanest path from search to booked foursome on a phone.Build around those truths and you change the economics of golf for the better. Try to replace them with another centralized gatekeeper and we repeat the past.When clubs win, golfers win. And when both win, the whole game moves forward. Teemu Founder Growth Golf &amp; Country Club Miami, FL, USA

The Infrastructure of Golf Booking Is Broken, But the Fix Is Not What You Think

Most public golf memberships still work as if the internet never happened. You fill out a form. Someone gets back to you when they have time. You’re asked to commit for a full year, often without really knowing how much you’ll play or whether it even fits your routine.For a lot of golfers, especially younger ones, that process is a dead end. Not because they don’t want to play more golf, but because the friction is too high. They’re used to instant access, clear pricing, and flexibility. That’s not a trend anymore. That’s just how people expect things to work.Public golf hasn’t fully caught up to that realityToday, most daily-fee and municipal courses still treat memberships like private clubs did decades ago. Joining can’t be done online. Payment is annual and upfront. There’s little room to try before committing, and pricing is usually one-size-fits-all. The result is predictable. A lot of potential regulars never convert into anything long-term. They keep playing occasionally, but they never really become members in any meaningful sense.A subscription model changes that dynamicThis isn’t about discounts or punch cards. A real subscription is simple. Golfers pay monthly. Access starts immediately. Rules are clear and easy to understand. Cancelling doesn’t require a conversation. The barrier to entry is low, but the relationship is ongoing.What’s interesting is that this already works in practice. Several public courses and operators have been running subscription-style models quietly and successfully for years. Some offer unlimited weekday play. Others focus on twilight access or range usage. Some bundle access across multiple courses. In almost every case, the common thread is simplicity. You pay, you play, and you know exactly what you’re getting.The pricing often looks low at first glance, until you look at how golfers actually behaveNot everyone who subscribes plays constantly. Some play often. Others play occasionally but value the convenience and the feeling of belonging. That mix matters. It smooths demand and creates predictable monthly revenue. More importantly, it increases frequency. And frequency drives total spend.Green fees are only part of the picture. A large share of on-site revenue comes from food and beverage, the range, the pro shop, and other services. When golfers come to the course more often, even for shorter or cheaper rounds, total revenue usually goes up. Subscriptions aren’t about maximizing the price of a single round. They’re about maximizing lifetime value.For courses considering this, the barrier to entry is lower than most assumeYou don’t need a custom app or a complex technical setup to start. A clear offer, a simple landing page, and a basic monthly payment system are often enough. Check-in can be handled the same way it already is. Communication can run through existing email or SMS tools. The point isn’t perfection on day one. It’s learning what works and adjusting.Most courses already have the audience for this. The tee sheet is full of names. The email list already exists. A subscription doesn’t require building something from scratch. It requires packaging access in a way that matches how people actually want to buy today.For public golf, subscriptions aren’t a radical idea. They’re a practical response to how behavior has changed. They won’t replace green fees, and they don’t need to. But for the right courses, with the right structure, they can become a meaningful part of a more stable and sustainable business.Teemu Founder Growth Golf &amp; Country Club Miami, FL, USA

The Future of Public Golf Memberships: Monthly Subscriptions That Actually Let You Play

Many golf courses don’t notice the problem at first. The course is open, weekends are busy, and things appear to be working well enough. From the inside, the operation feels stable, even if margins are tight and days are long.From the outside, the picture can look very different. Before booking a round, golfers increasingly check how a course appears online. They look at search results, photos, ratings, and reviews long before they ever consider calling the shop or opening a booking page. In many cases, the decision is already made by the time the course itself enters the picture.Online reviews now function as a filter. A strong rating creates confidence and reduces friction, while a weaker one raises doubts instantly. Golfers rarely investigate deeply or try to understand context. If the overall impression feels negative or uncertain, they simply choose another option that feels safer.This creates a particular challenge for public golf courses, because reviews often reflect isolated moments rather than the full picture. A stretch of bad weather, stressed greens, a rushed check-in, or a crowded afternoon can all result in negative feedback. Those experiences are not unusual in golf operations, but once written down online, they persist far longer than the circumstances that caused them.In many cases, the complaints themselves are understandable. A lot of criticism points to course conditions or service quality, areas where many public courses would like to invest more. The difficulty is that limited revenue makes it harder to maintain consistency, and inconsistency shows up quickly in the golfer experience.Over time, this can turn into a cycle that is difficult to break. Tight finances limit maintenance and staffing. The experience suffers as a result. Reviews reflect that decline, which discourages new bookings and repeat play. Fewer rounds lead to even tighter margins, and the cycle reinforces itself without any single decision causing it directly.This is why online reputation is not simply a marketing issue. It sits at the intersection of operations, demand, and economics. Reviews influence who books, booking patterns affect revenue, and revenue determines how much a course can reinvest into the product itself. Ignoring that connection does not remove its impact.Courses cannot control whether golfers leave reviews, but they can influence how those reviews are shaped over time. Many satisfied players never think to leave feedback, while those who are frustrated are far more motivated to share their experience publicly. Without intervention, that imbalance distorts perception.Courses that manage this well tend to focus on timing and response rather than volume. They make it easier for golfers to share positive experiences when things are going well, and they provide channels for feedback to be addressed privately when something goes wrong. Over time, that changes the tone of what appears online without trying to silence criticism.The importance of this has increased as reviews spread across more platforms. Golfers encounter them through search engines, map listings, booking apps, and social platforms, often without realizing where the information originates. Whether a course actively manages its online presence or not, it is already shaping decisions every day.Many negative reviews are better understood as symptoms rather than root causes. They often point to structural pressure in the business rather than isolated failures. Courses that see long-term improvement tend to address experience, pricing, demand patterns, and communication together instead of treating reputation as a standalone problem.A simple way to assess the current situation is to look at recent reviews through the eyes of someone who has never played the course before. If those reviews inspire confidence, they are working in your favor. If they create hesitation, they are quietly costing more than most operators realize.Your online presence is already telling a story about your course. Whether that story helps or hurts is largely determined by how deliberately it is managed.Teemu Founder Growth Golf &amp; Country Club Miami, FL, USA

The Silent Cost of a Weak Online Presence

Man Standing On Golf Field Against Sky During Sunset

Last week, while playing golf at TPC Sawgrass with a longtime friend who has won multiple times on the PGA Tour, the conversation drifted toward how golf clubs handle their digital presence. At some point he asked a question I hear often when talking to operators and owners.“Don’t most clubs already have someone who takes care of this?”t’s a fair question. Most clubs do have someone. Someone who looks after the website, sends the newsletter, posts on social media when there’s time, and maybe runs a few ads during the season. That role exists at almost every public course today. But having someone involved isn’t the same thing as having deep capability.I tried to explain it in golf terms, because that’s usually the easiest way to make the difference clear. I’ve played golf most of my life. I know how to swing a club. I understand the game, and I can get around a course just fine, and sometimes shooting under 80. But there’s a clear difference between knowing how to play and competing at a high level under pressure, against strong fields, with real consequences attached.Digital operations at golf clubs have a similar gapMost of the people handling these responsibilities are doing their best. They care about the course, they care about the golfers, and they’re often juggling several roles at once. Very few, however, have spent years focused specifically on how golfers discover courses online, how booking decisions are made, and how repeat play is encouraged in competitive environments. That isn’t a criticism. It’s simply not what most golf organizations were originally built for.As a result, there’s often a quiet mismatch. The course itself may be in great shape. Operations may run smoothly. The on-site experience may be solid. But online, decisions tend to be reactive. Tools get added over time without a clear plan. Platforms start to control more of the relationship by default. None of this happens intentionally, but over time, control slowly shifts away from the course.This is also why it’s no longer accurate to think of this area as “just marketing.”How a golf course shows up online affects who finds it, how it’s perceived, whether someone books, and whether they come back. Reviews influence trust. Booking paths influence conversion. Communication influences loyalty. These pieces are connected, and together they shape revenue and long-term value far more than any single campaign or promotion.Most clubs weren’t designed to think about these things as a system. They were designed to run a golf operation, and for a long time, that was enough. The environment has changed. Discovery works differently. Booking expectations are higher. Third-party platforms play a larger role. And the difference between a one-time visitor and a repeat golfer is often decided well before anyone sets foot on the property.Closing this gap doesn’t require replacing people or ripping out systems. It requires experience in this specific part of the business and the ability to look at the whole picture calmly, without chasing trends or tools. It’s about understanding where control has been lost, where it still exists, and how it can be regained over time without disrupting what already works. And that’s the space I work in.Not as a marketer, and not as a vendor, but as someone who helps golf courses think more clearly about how demand flows through their business and how decisions made off the course affect what happens on it. Quietly, practically, and with a long-term view.Teemu Founder Growth Golf &amp; Country Club Miami, FL, USA

Growth G&CC

From the Field

Tee Time Booking Is About to Change. And That’s Good News...

Where Public Golf Quietly Loses Control

The Infrastructure of Golf Booking Is Broken, But the Fix...

The Future of Public Golf Memberships: Monthly Subscripti...

The Silent Cost of a Weak Online Presence

You Have Someone, But the Gap Is Still There