When Every Slot Counts: The Multi-Million Dollar Impact of Tee Time Cancellations

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Your next golf trip? Pinehurst.

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When you are done with the golf — Pinehurst Brewing Company awaits with barbecue and craft beer. Have conversations with friends around fire pits. And stay at fully renovated, historical hotels.

It’s a beautiful day in Pinehurst.

Hey Golfers —

Golf has an interesting problem — tee time cancellations. And it is a seven-figure issue for some golf courses.

Golf rounds saw a record 531 million rounds in 2023 in the United States — up 4.2% versus 2022. It is the fourth straight year with more than 500 million rounds. And golf rounds have increased by 90 million since 2019.

The chart below from NGF is fascinating. Covid was able to bump golf rounds back to the Tiger Boom — two decades later.

The increase in golf rounds has resulted in an increase in cancellations.

But there is a rub with the increase in golf rounds. The golf course supply has actually decreased. Golf course closures have outnumbered new openings. From 2006 to 2022 — golf course supply contracted by 13%.

More private golf courses are being built — about two-thirds of new golf course builds are private. Yet private golf courses only make up 25% of the national supply.

So, what do golf rounds and supply have to do with tee time cancellations?

More golf rounds with less supply mean golf course tee sheets are filled. It isn’t abnormal for a daily fee golf course to release tee times for the next month and to be fully booked within an hour.

Tee time cancellations take away revenue that would have been booked due to market demand.

We chatted with two golf course operators to better understand the impact of tee time cancellations and what they are doing to recapture the revenue.

One golf course that has hosted USGA Championships had nearly 10,000 rounds canceled within 48 hours of a golfer’s scheduled tee time. To provide some overall context — that is $1.35 million in lost green fee revenue.

And it isn’t just green fee revenue that is considered lost. Merchandise, as well as Food and Beverage, play a significant role in lost revenue due to tee time cancellations.

The nearly 10,000 rounds canceled resulted in $333,000 in lost revenue in Food and Beverage, and another $260,000 was lost in merchandise.

Lost revenue from tee times canceled within 48 hours of a scheduled tee time had a nearly $2 million impact.

• Green fees — $1.35 million

• F&B — $333,000

• Merchandise — $260,000

Not all was lost — this golf course was able to rebook cancellations within 48 hours of a tee time at a 50% clip in 2021. But that is still around a $1 million impact. So, they looked for additional ways to improve.

In the summer of 2023 — they started to use Noteefy. Noteefy is a tee time waitlist software program that integrates with online tee time software. The second a tee time cancellation occurs — an alert is sent out to golfers via email of an open tee time at their golf course.

Since they implemented Noteefy last summer — this golf course has been able to increase its rebooking rate to 74%. Around 20% was a direct result of Noteefy. They were able to recapture around $225,000 in tee time revenue from Noteefy.

Nearly $100,000 in revenue has been generated within three days of a tee time cancellation using Noteefy software for this golf course. Here is an aggregate look at aggregate revenue added.

The other operator we spoke with operates four municipal golf courses. They have two parameters for booking tee times.

• Frequent player cardholders can book tee times ten days in advance, beginning at 6:00 am.

• Public golfers can book tee times seven days in advance, beginning at 6:00 am.

This operator sees over 90% of tee times booked online. And they have high demand — tee times are sold out at 6:01 am in season and on weekends. Nearly all tee times booked are for four somes.

In 2020 — the municipal operator saw one month of 1,620 rounds canceled across its four golf courses. Resulting in nearly $40,000 of lost revenue.

To minimize the lost revenue, they began taking credit cards during the online booking process and would issue a $20 fee for canceling a tee time. And their tee time cancelations were reduced by 25%. The month after implementing the cancelation fee, they saw 1,224 cancelations across their four golf courses. Resulting in $29,000 of lost revenue.

In their first year of charging for cancelations, they recognized $27,000 in revenue. While better than $0 for revenue — if those golfers had not canceled their tee times, they would have recognized over $100,000 in tee times.

This municipal operator has also implemented Noteefy. And at any one point, they have over 1,000 people a day looking to book a tee time. Making it extremely valuable to alert those golfers when a tee time has been canceled. They have recaptured nearly $100,000 in revenue within three days of a canceled tee time at their four golf courses.

Their tee sheets have seen record demand with four somes.

Rarely do we see a product create a win-win situation for both parties. Golf courses enjoy the ability to recapture revenue from canceled tee times. They also have the opportunity to provide a better customer experience for golfers. Getting more golfers on the course.

With the supply and demand issues for golfers booking tee times, it is a win. A golfer will get an alert of a canceled tee time and book that canceled tee time quickly — getting them out on the golf course.

This is another example of technology and golf merging to create value. And we will continue to see more of these stories as golf grows and entrepreneurs enter the space.

Have yourself a great Monday. Talk to you next week!

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