• What's ticked?
• Accolades
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Cheap Charlie
• ChrisCrossings
• Err Travel
• Leocha
• Travel Notes
• Archives

s u b s c r i b e

• Elliott's E-Mail, a free weekly newsletter, is your insider resource for moneysaving ideas.

First name

Last name

E-mail address

Subscribe
Cancel

• Like what you see? Now you can become an underwriter.

a l s o

• Ticked e-mail
• Visit Tripso
• Referring sites
• Home

s e a r c h

• Find a story.



(c) Elliott Publishing.

Golf Online
Kirby's Korner · September 17, 1999

Do you like to golf? Do you not care about the sport but are looking for a business idea? Do you want to make millions of dollars like the people who started Yahoo! and Amazon.com?

Listen, bubba, have I got a deal for you!

What this World Wide Web really, really needs is a good golf portal. Somewhere duffers can come that will give them original information, tips, news, advice, purchasing opportunities, and a place to exchange tall tales -- unless you think the only sport involving that practice is fishing.

Oh yes -- and a place to reserve those precious tee times without having to call all the courses in an area.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that the golfing public is ready for it -- the demographic profile of golfers matches well with that of typical Web users. I assure you companies in some segments of the golf industry want it. The question is: why hasn't it happened?

The best general site for golf I've been able to find is PlacesToGolf.com, operated by Pebblehaven Golf Co., Westwood, Mass. You can buy, you can learn. What you can't do is book tee times.

Where are the Web sites run by the thousands of golf magazines on newsstands today? Why doesn't Golf Digest fulfill this need? At that site, you see some great golf content, but little outside the magazine.

The best golf Web site run by a "real world" analog promises to be one operated by Fox Sports Online. (What else would you expect from the company that brings you the Simpsons and the X-Files?) But, although much may come down the line, none of the promises have yet been met.

One segment of the golf industry hungry for as many outlets as it can get is the Web-based tee-time reservations industry. Some 30 companies are competing for this business now, and all acknowledge that a serious shake-out is coming. Each would like to be among the handful that survives. They'd jump at the chance to offer tee times through a truly global site.

(The best of the breed in tee-time reservations is EZLinks Golf, located in the Chicago suburbs. It supplies the back-end reservation system for the promised Fox Sports Online site and other sites.)

One problem these reservations systems face is that golf is inherently local. There's little impetus for a Virginia-based system, for example, to seek out golf courses in California. My vision of a Web portal demands equal access to courses everywhere. The site developer would have to either insure the tee-time provider could deliver or would have to -- gasp -- invest in technology that could tie the systems together. At least one company is making such plans.

Resistance may come from the golf courses themselves. While some are moving online, many still see themselves as "gentlemens' clubs" that don't want to have anything to do with this new-fangled technology.

One other warning: you'll have to tie in with an online travel agency to offer trips to distant courses. You never know when a retired First Duffer will want to fly to San Francisco to try out the course on the Presidio.

Are your investors lined up yet? Have you signed the deals? You know where you can reach me for the content.

David Kirby is the editor of the Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at dbkirby@pressroom.com.