Advice for small public course: best software solution?

[baggervance 0]

Hi everyone,

Trying to help a friend pick a cheap, but reliable software system for a 9 hole public course for tee time booking primarily (but also selling merch and keeping track of golfers).

Have heard of the following as go-tos:

- GolfNow

- ForeUP

- Lightspeed

Any experience or takes?

[ChitownM2 259]

No industry experience, but I can say as a consumer that I absolutely detest golfnow. I don't like the extra fees they charge and they are overall a pain to deal with. Customer service is non-existant as they don't want to be bothered with phone calls or emails. 

If the course I'm looking at only offers tee time booking through golfnow, I will find my time and then call the clubhouse to make my reservation. If you have to cancel or have any other problems then it's much easier not having to deal with them as the middle man. 

[GaDawg 349]

Stay away from Golfnow. Just my opinion!

[Tsmithjr9 1,597]

Stay away from Golfnow. Just my opinion!

Second

Take Dead Aim

[yungkory 9,067]

I've done IT support for the past 8 years for a couple of golf courses/CCs and I've worked with EZLinks and Jonas.

Jonas is probably better-suited for country clubs because it can integrate with a kitchen to send food tickets. EZlinks is used by the majority of our clients and seems to suit their needs pretty well. No experience with Golfnow but I've seen the commercials. Never heard of the other ones, sorry!

[txgolfjunkie 1,580]

A course that I play along the Texas coast prefers we call and book via the pro shop since GolfNow takes such a chunk out of any sort of online booking. I know it might bring a little bit more traffic to the course but you won't see the boost in profits due to the fees. 

For the courses I frequent, most use ForeUp or EZLinks. 

[Golfspy_CG2 24,146]

On 8/13/2020 at 8:17 PM, baggervance said:

Hi everyone,

Trying to help a friend pick a cheap, but reliable software system for a 9 hole public course for tee time booking primarily (but also selling merch and keeping track of golfers).

Have heard of the following as go-tos:

- GolfNow

- ForeUP

- Lightspeed

Any experience or takes?

 

On 8/14/2020 at 10:47 PM, yungkory said:

I've done IT support for the past 8 years for a couple of golf courses/CCs and I've worked with EZLinks and Jonas.

Jonas is probably better-suited for country clubs because it can integrate with a kitchen to send food tickets. EZlinks is used by the majority of our clients and seems to suit their needs pretty well. No experience with Golfnow but I've seen the commercials. Never heard of the other ones, sorry!

To clear up a couple things.   The Golfnow that people are complaining aboit above is the retail user end. 

Your friend would be using G1 which is owned by GolfNow which is actually owned by NBC. 

We used EZ Links for many years.  We switched to G1 a year ago.   It does offer a lot more features and is cloud based.  Not sure if EZ Limks is yet or not. V

Also just so everyone knows. Most every  course offers GolfNow times regardless of the tee sheet management software they use.

Hope that helps some. 

 

[stuka44 79]

Not an expert, or course owner either.  I realize almost everything is done on- line nowadays.  Agree do not like golf now fees or anything prepaid.  I like that a couple of the public courses I play now recognize me from calling and getting my weekend tee times.  The personal touch and acknowledgement is very nice.  

[Golfspy_CG2 24,146]

21 minutes ago, stuka44 said:

Not an expert, or course owner either.  I realize almost everything is done on- line nowadays.  Agree do not like golf now fees or anything prepaid.  I like that a couple of the public courses I play now recognize me from calling and getting my weekend tee times.  The personal touch and acknowledgement is very nice.  

Well, we are a G1/GolfNow course and we absolutely still take tee times the old fashioned way as well!

Just do us a favor, when you're calling  to make a tee time, please realize we are answering other calls, checking other people in plus a myriad of other thing. So we don't exactly know, if there will be a frost delay 3 days from now, or if it will be cart path only Saturday. In addition ,  while we like you and glad to have you out, we don't really have time to hear about the two double bogey's yesterday that cost you $2.00 to John Harris 

[russtopherb 5,338]

40 minutes ago, stuka44 said:

Not an expert, or course owner either.  I realize almost everything is done on- line nowadays.  Agree do not like golf now fees or anything prepaid.  I like that a couple of the public courses I play now recognize me from calling and getting my weekend tee times.  The personal touch and acknowledgement is very nice.  

I'm the opposite. I love being able to pull up a course's website on my phone to book and pay within a matter of minutes. Extremely convenient.

[txgolfjunkie 1,580]

1 hour ago, russtopherb said:

I'm the opposite. I love being able to pull up a course's website on my phone to book and pay within a matter of minutes. Extremely convenient.

To add to it, I would love it if courses gave the starter a tablet or some sort of electronic device with the most updated tee times. They give the starter a print out and by the time the starter gets to his post, on a busy Saturday, there could be a half dozen changes to the tee sheet in the first few groups. 

I also wish that more courses had something like Airstryk that allows you to place and pay for your food and drink and have someone meet you at the turn or deliver it out on the course. I know that's an investment for the course and requires golfers to use the app, but I'm curious what that would do for sales and pace of play. 

[Golfspy_CG2 24,146]

2 hours ago, txgolfjunkie said:

To add to it, I would love it if courses gave the starter a tablet or some sort of electronic device with the most updated tee times. They give the starter a print out and by the time the starter gets to his post, on a busy Saturday, there could be a half dozen changes to the tee sheet in the first few groups. 

I also wish that more courses had something like Airstryk that allows you to place and pay for your food and drink and have someone meet you at the turn or deliver it out on the course. I know that's an investment for the course and requires golfers to use the app, but I'm curious what that would do for sales and pace of play. 

Guess what, that's what the G1/Golf now system allows     And if you pay online in advance, you really don't even have to go into the proshop,  you can go straight tot he starter, he'll have an up to the minute tee sheet on the Ipad and it'll show if you're paid or not!   

Another cool feature is it, they enter your cart number on the Ipad.   So if you call back later that night or the next morning saying you forgot something in your cart, they can retrieve it, and go look for that particular cart and not have to search every cart, which we have done in the past for very valuable items.    Which may or may not have included my cell phone 

[Golfspy_CG2 24,146]

2 hours ago, txgolfjunkie said:

To add to it, I would love it if courses gave the starter a tablet or some sort of electronic device with the most updated tee times. They give the starter a print out and by the time the starter gets to his post, on a busy Saturday, there could be a half dozen changes to the tee sheet in the first few groups. 

I also wish that more courses had something like Airstryk that allows you to place and pay for your food and drink and have someone meet you at the turn or deliver it out on the course. I know that's an investment for the course and requires golfers to use the app, but I'm curious what that would do for sales and pace of play. 

Also the second part of this, we are working on.  Especially with the pandemic where we have our grill closed right now because people absolutely refused to social distance and would cram 8 guys around a table, and despite being asked several times multiple times a week, they refused.   

I would personally just have banned them from the course, but that's another story! 

We are trying to deliver stuff either from the beverage carts or a quick take out station at the turn. 

[MmmmmmBuddy 1,131]

Just so everyone knows..... EZLinks was purchased by GolfNow.

A complete loss for everyone.


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[MmmmmmBuddy 1,131]

Hi everyone,

Trying to help a friend pick a cheap, but reliable software system for a 9 hole public course for tee time booking primarily (but also selling merch and keeping track of golfers).

Have heard of the following as go-tos:

- GolfNow

- ForeUP

- Lightspeed

Any experience or takes?

I have used both GN and ForeUp, as well as EZLinks currently.

Hated GN. PM me for details

ForeUp was quite user friendly, but the back end reporting was garbage and untrustworthy (IMO)

Lots depends on how your course will utilize the software and how you want to pay.

There are several other tee sheet providers.
See here for a big list.

https://www.capterra.com/golf-course-software/

GL.



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[WhiskyRunLuke 0]

On 8/13/2020 at 8:17 PM, baggervance said:

Hi everyone,

Trying to help a friend pick a cheap, but reliable software system for a 9 hole public course for tee time booking primarily (but also selling merch and keeping track of golfers).

Have heard of the following as go-tos:

- GolfNow

- ForeUP

- Lightspeed

Any experience or takes?

Hi @baggervance

My family owned course has used pretty much all the major providers over the years and have always been left wanting more! 

That's why I partnered with Birrdi.com a Tee Sheet Booking system integrated with Square POS system! 

This past season we have seen massive increases to our bottom line (darn near 100% increase) embracing the less is more approach to running a golf course!

I think it would work great for your friend! And right now it's free to test.