'Modern solution for selling tee times' looks to ease booking challenges for golfers
Nearly 10% of golf tee times wind up unfulfilled
Masters season is here, which means, as the season changes, golf fever is reaching its peak in the calendar.
However, there are not many worse feelings than booking a tee time and then suddenly not being able to make it.
The green fees go to waste, and a day on the course is no more. However, Golf District is attempting to salvage at least one of those unfortunate circumstances.
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Golf District has become the StubHub of tee times, with players being able to buy and sell their reservations. (iStock)
Founded by Josh Segal, a former running back at Elon University who was teammates with comedian Shane Gillis, Golf District has labeled itself "the modern solution for selling tee times."
Think StubHub, but for days on the links.
"It was probably in COVID where we realized how hard it was to get a time. And at the time we started the company, I was running growth for Starbucks on the East Coast and totally not in the golf industry," Segal said in a recent interview with FOX Business. "The scarcity looked a lot like what we see in concerts and sports. So we took a proven model, and we applied it to golf to fix a lot of the problems."
Segal works out deals "through approvals and agreements" with select courses, and it's a win-win for everybody involved.
Golf District gives golfers the opportunity to both buy and sell tee times. (iStock)
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With almost 10% of reservations never fulfilled, golf courses lose money when people don't make their tee times that they scheduled in advance, the golfers pay without playing, and those unused reservations keep other golfers off the course.
"We're not just a modern booking engine. I mean, it's, point-blank, providing better access," Segal said.
"We get a lot of people outside the industry that get it right away, and golfers get it right away. So, the golfers that now have the access that they didn't have and the ability to resell their times are thanking us. Every single time we open up a new course implementation, we get a lot of golfers that thank our customer support team for being available."
Golf District officially went to market less than two years ago, and conversations with high-profile courses have already begun with more to come.
"We have dozens of courses now, and we really want this — we believe that the opportunity for the U.S. exists. You've got 16,000 golf courses in the U.S. and 10,000-plus are basically public," Segal said.
Roughly 10% of booked tee times go unused in the United States. (iStock / iStock)
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If you're wondering why this hasn't been done before, you are not the only one.
"It's daily," Segal said, "that we hear, ‘Why hasn’t this been done before?'"