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Sam Morrow

Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #75 on: May 04, 2015, 01:34:24 PM »
It's only a matter of time before GolfNow gets in the Outpost Club model and sells yearly subscriptions to access their private club network. Or better yet they sell golden tickets to be a GolfNow rater.

If any GolfNow executives see this just shoot me an email, it's a cant miss.

2 weeks ago we were discussing how long it would be before Golfnow had a ratings system!

Steve_ Shaffer

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #76 on: May 04, 2015, 02:21:36 PM »
I have a Troon Card that now provides me with access to some of their private clubs. Just got an email for summer play at Firerock CC in Fountain Hills, AZ :

From May 11 to September 27, Troon Cardholders and their guests can play FireRock Country Club at the incredible rate of $60*, which includes golf, cart and a $10 food voucher that can be redeemed in the grille before or after the round.
"Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses ... "  Adlai Stevenson
Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone: "We're bigger than US Steel."
Ben Hogan “The most important shot in golf is the next one”

Gary Sato

Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #77 on: May 05, 2015, 12:01:21 PM »
Does Matt Ginella only promote public courses on GolfNow. 

He's a huge admirer of Bandon and Cabot Links so I may have answered my own question.  But without these biggies  I wonder if he only promotes local courses that have ties to GolfNow.

Tom Allen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #78 on: May 05, 2015, 01:11:02 PM »
I've used GolfNow, and had no idea of the behind the scenes issues (and still don't after reading the other company's statement on FB).

I assume we are talking about just a subset of certain tee times (bartered ones?)

I ask because the last time I booked a tee time on GolfNow, Golfnow took about a $3 fee to book, and I paid the course via credit card (to the course) the agreed-up rate when I got there. So from an outsider perspective, it appeared to me that the course was getting all the revenue from that tee time (other than the $3 fee to GolfNow).

Adam Warren

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #79 on: May 05, 2015, 01:23:25 PM »
Tom,

You did purchase one of the times that the course gets the money.  The "Hot Deals" are the ones that when you go to pay, the entire payment will go to GolfNow online.  They often have a "fire" icon.

Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #80 on: May 05, 2015, 02:47:56 PM »
Does Matt Ginella only promote public courses on GolfNow. 

He's a huge admirer of Bandon and Cabot Links so I may have answered my own question.  But without these biggies  I wonder if he only promotes local courses that have ties to GolfNow.

GN is the only part of Golf channel making any money right now......
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #81 on: May 05, 2015, 02:49:48 PM »
I've used GolfNow, and had no idea of the behind the scenes issues (and still don't after reading the other company's statement on FB).

I assume we are talking about just a subset of certain tee times (bartered ones?)

I ask because the last time I booked a tee time on GolfNow, Golfnow took about a $3 fee to book, and I paid the course via credit card (to the course) the agreed-up rate when I got there. So from an outsider perspective, it appeared to me that the course was getting all the revenue from that tee time (other than the $3 fee to GolfNow).

Tom,
Yes, the rate you paid would be money that went to the course but if you had contacted the course you may have gotten a better rate w/o the $3 fee. :)
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

Brent Hutto

Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #82 on: May 05, 2015, 02:51:23 PM »
Does Matt Ginella only promote public courses on GolfNow. 

He's a huge admirer of Bandon and Cabot Links so I may have answered my own question.  But without these biggies  I wonder if he only promotes local courses that have ties to GolfNow.

GN is the only part of Golf channel making any money right now......

I've got to say, if you tune in say a random Saturday morning bit of European Tour coverage on The Golf Channel and see the assortment of cheap-ass commercials, infomercials and lame adverts for swing fixes and gadgets you've got to wonder if they be charging much money for their commercial airtime. Because a good many of the advertisers can't possibly have a pot to pee in based on what they're hawking.

D_Malley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #83 on: May 05, 2015, 03:03:51 PM »
Does Matt Ginella only promote public courses on GolfNow. 

He's a huge admirer of Bandon and Cabot Links so I may have answered my own question.  But without these biggies  I wonder if he only promotes local courses that have ties to GolfNow.

Matt included my course "Paxon Hollow" in a feature on local public courses during the coverage of the US Open at Merion.
PH has never been, and never will be a GN course.

Greg Tallman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #84 on: May 13, 2015, 12:29:52 PM »
Just received the same email 35 times from these clowns... it is my mission in life to fight what amounts to a hostile takeover of an entire industry. 

Corporate asshats looking at nothing more than the bottom right box of a spreadsheet.

Sam Morrow

Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #85 on: May 13, 2015, 12:58:46 PM »
Just received the same email 35 times from these clowns... it is my mission in life to fight what amounts to a hostile takeover of an entire industry. 

Corporate asshats looking at nothing more than the bottom right box of a spreadsheet.

I got it 17 times.

Mark Pritchett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #86 on: May 13, 2015, 01:31:27 PM »
Just received the same email 35 times from these clowns... it is my mission in life to fight what amounts to a hostile takeover of an entire industry. 

Corporate asshats looking at nothing more than the bottom right box of a spreadsheet.

From golfnow.com?

I have never used golfnow.com and still fail to see what is wrong (or right) with them.  Isn't this just the free market at work? 

Greg Tallman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #87 on: May 13, 2015, 01:36:04 PM »
Just received the same email 35 times from these clowns... it is my mission in life to fight what amounts to a hostile takeover of an entire industry. 

Corporate asshats looking at nothing more than the bottom right box of a spreadsheet.

From golfnow.com?

I have never used golfnow.com and still fail to see what is wrong (or right) with them.  Isn't this just the free market at work? 

You might wish to read, and digest, all the info in this topic... mostly that offered by Mike Young and myself.

The "free market" or capitalism is what brought us the wonderful world of credit swaps was it not??

GolfNow is an absolute menace to owners and operators everywhere. Period.

Brad Tufts

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #88 on: May 13, 2015, 01:51:27 PM »
Yeah, 19 times for me....now I've changed all preferences so they can't e-mail me again.
So I jump ship in Hong Kong....

Mark Pritchett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #89 on: May 13, 2015, 02:05:04 PM »
Just received the same email 35 times from these clowns... it is my mission in life to fight what amounts to a hostile takeover of an entire industry. 

Corporate asshats looking at nothing more than the bottom right box of a spreadsheet.

From golfnow.com?

I have never used golfnow.com and still fail to see what is wrong (or right) with them.  Isn't this just the free market at work? 

You might wish to read, and digest, all the info in this topic... mostly that offered by Mike Young and myself.

The "free market" or capitalism is what brought us the wonderful world of credit swaps was it not??

GolfNow is an absolute menace to owners and operators everywhere. Period.

Greg,

It may be a menace, but it is obviously filling a void in the market.  Consumers and course owners use it, so it must be doing something right.  Again I am not a user and have zero interest golfnow.com or other tee time sellers, just observing from the cheap seats.  I respect Mike's and your take on this as you guys are in the trenches everyday. 

Thanks,

Mark 


Greg Tallman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #90 on: May 13, 2015, 02:09:06 PM »
Just received the same email 35 times from these clowns... it is my mission in life to fight what amounts to a hostile takeover of an entire industry. 

Corporate asshats looking at nothing more than the bottom right box of a spreadsheet.

From golfnow.com?

I have never used golfnow.com and still fail to see what is wrong (or right) with them.  Isn't this just the free market at work? 

You might wish to read, and digest, all the info in this topic... mostly that offered by Mike Young and myself.

The "free market" or capitalism is what brought us the wonderful world of credit swaps was it not??

GolfNow is an absolute menace to owners and operators everywhere. Period.

Greg,

It may be a menace, but it is obviously filling a void in the market.  Consumers and course owners use it, so it must be doing something right.  Again I am not a user and have zero interest golfnow.com or other tee time sellers, just observing from the cheap seats.  I respect Mike's and your take on this as you guys are in the trenches everyday. 

Thanks,

Mark 



Mark, I used the credit swap analogy for good reason. GN preys on unsuspecting, under-informed operators/owners in the same way. When meeting with us they were like deer in the headlights with our objections/questions... best they could come up with was... "everybody's doing it".

Andrew Hardy

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #91 on: May 13, 2015, 05:56:24 PM »
When a large corporation purchases a bunch of garbage/outdated software and packages it to golf owners as gold. The owners initially buy hook, line and sinker. I've seen too many clubs get burned by this GolfNow revolution. Unfortunately most clubs learn the hard way that GN offers nothing that can't be done with someone with half a brain doing it "in house". By allowing GN to sell your tee times, be your POS system and build your website you are essentially telling people you give up and can't do it yourself.

This isn't good for golf, it just feeds the lowest common denominator.

Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #92 on: May 13, 2015, 08:39:45 PM »
Just received the same email 35 times from these clowns... it is my mission in life to fight what amounts to a hostile takeover of an entire industry. 

Corporate asshats looking at nothing more than the bottom right box of a spreadsheet.

From golfnow.com?

I have never used golfnow.com and still fail to see what is wrong (or right) with them.  Isn't this just the free market at work? 




You might wish to read, and digest, all the info in this topic... mostly that offered by Mike Young and myself.

The "free market" or capitalism is what brought us the wonderful world of credit swaps was it not??

GolfNow is an absolute menace to owners and operators everywhere. Period.

Greg,
Here is my latest.  I told them I was done and to remove me.  They said I had a two year contract and they would have legal handle it and I informed them that was no problem and not to try using that in discussions with me.  I then wrote and asked them to remove me from their listings and I would not honor any of their times if they tried such.  The regional manager finally called to tell me of other options they thought would work better and I asked why they had not already used such if they had them.  THEN, I went to see what was on the site from my course The Fields in LaGrange , Ga.  Here is what it says:

How About a Mulligan?

We’re sorry, but there are currently no available tee times for one of the following reasons:

  Course is undergoing maintenance or is closed for the season

  Today’s tee times were snatched up already by other golfers

  You may have searched too far in advance

Questions? Call Customer Service to book your tee time 8am – 8pm ET at 1-800-752-9020

View the next available tee time at The Fields Golf Club.

Or, search other courses nearby.


A complete lie.  After speaking to a few others who have done the same we all found they were using the same wording on all of us.  But it allows them to try and reroute anyone wishing to book a tee time with me to another course.  We feel we may have a good class action against such.  There are many that have the same wording.  They should remove us and sue if they feel there is a problem.  These guys are slime.
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

Tim Gavrich

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #93 on: May 13, 2015, 11:21:54 PM »
Golf Now seems on the surface to offer courses a way to band together, in a sense, with a common platform/set of platforms with regard to marketing and tee time vending. Aside from low tee time pricing, GN serves as a way to centralize the "Where should I play?" process. It's a convenience thing as much as a value thing.

GN has no real penetration into/influence over the Myrtle Beach golf market, even for locals, because there are things like Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and the Myrtle Beach Golf Passport that basically beat GN to the punch in terms of aggregating what consumers have confidence in assuming are the lowest available rates at most of the courses in the market. For a half century the Myrtle Beach golf operators have generally recognized that a rising tide will lift all (or most, anyway) ships. It will be interesting to see how the recent deluge of Chinese cash into the market will affect Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, but regardless, GN is not much a threat in a place where the golf course operator community has struck some chord of harmony and mutual benefit.

For those more familiar with areas where GN has more influence, what's the climate like among public course operators? Harmonious or more of an every-man-for-himself feel?

I know Myrtle Beach is largely a tourist golf destination, but what area with at least a small handful of public courses wouldn't benefit from at least a little bit of cooperation?
Senior Writer, GolfPass

Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #94 on: May 14, 2015, 07:07:48 AM »

For those more familiar with areas where GN has more influence, what's the climate like among public course operators? Harmonious or more of an every-man-for-himself feel?


GN is an easy way out for an employee or a management company who can just relay to an absentee owner that they are using a national tee sheet.  GN knows this.  Actually some of the management companies have made their own GN deals ( would be interesting to know those) but when a working owner studies GN the S**t hits the fan. 
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

Jud_T

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #95 on: May 14, 2015, 07:19:04 AM »
Mike,

That Finally makes sense.  Sounds like the real issue is large vs. small operators and GolfNow is merely the messenger. The discount methodology might make perfect sense for a large operator but not a mom and pop.
Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Greg Tallman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: GolfNow continues to try and destroy golf business
« Reply #96 on: May 15, 2015, 02:43:25 PM »
The latest ply by GolfNow just came across my desk...
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Greg,

I hope this note finds you doing well.  My name is REMOVED, and I oversee one of the Golf Channel’s fastest growing assets called Golf Advisor.  In 16 months since its inception, Golf Advisor has become the largest golf course reviews and ratings website in the world.  Powered by the Golf Channel and leveraging our portfolio of assets, we have created a Founding Partners program to help elite golf resorts market to traveling golfers to get them booking rounds of golf and room nights with our partners.  The program will be limited to 30 partners worldwide, and I wanted to see if we could set up some time to review the program in the near future before all of these spots are filled.

Please let me know if your schedule permits for a short call early next week, and I’m looking forward to working together and helping you grow your stay and play business through Golf Advisor.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the surface this seems like nothing but how does this play with those not among the 30 who opt in? Perhaps 6 or 8 other courses in my region that would be relegated to "second class" status within the GolfNow model? Tip of the iceberg if you ask me. Control the data base, control the message, funnel the golfer to the most profitable locale... No thanks.