New platform fills tee times, replenishes lost revenue

Superintendents are often heralded for being the hardest-working men and women in golf showbiz. Balancing art and science is a labor of love and seeing golfers enjoy golf course perfection often represents the ultimate joy.

But how do golf courses get more players to optimize superintendents’ satisfaction, revenue and GCSAA member salaries?

Jake Gordon has the answer, and it all started with his insatiable curiosity.

His foursome would occasionally cancel its tee time at the last minute. He’d wonder “will the golf course recover the $320 it effectively lost?”

Great question with a somewhat shocking answer. Research shows up to 20 percent of online tee times get cancelled, most within 24 hours. This leaves course operators losing up to $100,000 annually from slots that would otherwise be desired.

To solve that golf course conundrum, Gordon and former Microsoft software whiz Dathan Wong set out to fill a void that’s well on its way to revolutionizing the tee-time booking and rebooking process.

The result: The Noteefy (pronounced “Notify”) automated tee-time waitlist and notification platform that golf courses say represents the best of elegance, efficiency and hardy technology.

Noteefy enables golfers to easily create personalized search profiles with playing preferences — including days, times and number of players — at courses.  Golfers then receive real-time, personalized text and e-mail alerts when tee times they desire open due to cancellation or new release by a golf course. They then book the tee time online per the normal process.

Noteefy white labels the automated alerting technology, meaning it’s customized to each course’s branding and can integrate with any POS tee sheet without requiring an implementation.

KemperSports, Landscapes Golf Management, PGA Tour’s TPC Network, Bobby Jones Links and Touchstone are among the multi-course operators experiencing success with Noteefy.  Single-course operators, resorts, municipalities and neighborhood public courses are also signing up. Golfers love it because they’re … notified to the desired time they couldn’t get and now can.

For every unfilled tee time, there’s opportunity cost.

“The results of the platform were impactful from day one,” said Jordan Powell, revenue manager at Sand Valley Golf Resort in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. “Golfers are loving it and playing more. Operationally, it’s been a hit. We booked at least 200 incremental rounds that may not have otherwise been filled, while inbound calls were reduced by hundreds of hours. Noteefy is now probably our most valuable marketing and demand-generation tool.”

Todd Styles is a freelance writer who covers how new technology is used across the golf industry.