Digital Hospitality in Golf · Edition 9
Search “Tilden Park Golf Course, Berkeley CA” and Google shows a big blue Book Online button.
Tilden Park is managed by KemperSports, one of the best golf management companies in the world. The course uses the Lightspeed booking engine.
In Google search, the Book Online button does not point to the Lightspeed booking engine. When we checked on October 12, it sent golfers straight to GolfNow’s page for the course. Google Maps offers both Lightspeed and GolfNow, but on regular search, desktop and mobile, the button skips the choice and goes straight to GolfNow.
Same golfer. Same intent. A different storefront, and a golfer who may never land on the course’s email list.
Your Booking Engine Should Be the Only Choice
Every major booking engine offers a direct connection to Reserve with Google. If you use Club Prophet, Teesnap, Lightspeed, TenFore Golf, Sagacity, Eagle Club Systems, Proshop Tee Times, Easy Tee Golf, Club Caddie, foreUP or GolfBack, the Book Online button on your Google Business Profile should not include GolfNow.
Whether golfers find you in the Maps app or a regular search, your booking engine should be the only choice. There’s zero reason, unless you’re contractually obligated, to share Reserve with Google rounds with a third-party marketplace. If a marketplace wants a piece of that real estate, it should pay you for it.
The exception: if your booking engine is EZLinks or TeeItUp, GolfNow comes with it, and golfers who find you through Reserve with Google will see it as an option.
Everyone else can ask GolfNow to come off:
Remove GolfNow from my Reserve with Google listing
We Check Every Week
At smbGOLF, a weekly workflow checks every client’s Google Business Profile for rough edges, and the Book Online button is on the list. If it points somewhere it shouldn’t, we catch it that week, not next season.
If a small agency can do that, a multimillion-dollar management company can too. Which begs the question: why don’t they?
Big Swing Media’s “The Fee Is Not the Business” argues that a management company’s real value sits beyond the fee, in “platform earnings” like scale purchasing and vendor relationships. That raises a fair question for every owner, managed or not: does anyone earn money when your Book Online button points somewhere other than your own booking engine? Ask your manager and your vendors.
In Tilden’s case, we think the answer is simpler. Digital hospitality hasn’t reached enough leaders in golf yet. If it had, a company as good as Kemper would have a process in place to catch a miss like this.
And if one of the best operators in golf can miss it, any course can. Digital hospitality isn’t a project. It’s a habit: professional, intentional and consistent.
It Can Be Done
At Golf Inc. in Hilton Head, Keith Miller of the Baltimore County Revenue Authority described running successful municipal golf with no management company. They lean on modern tech, including TenFore Golf as their booking engine, and push their vendors for better tools.
The proof is on Google. The Baltimore County Revenue Authority’s Google Business Profiles are flawless, Book Online button included.
Municipal golf, the same kind of golf Tilden Park offers, can deliver digital hospitality well without ever hiring a management company. It just has to be a priority.
Small Idea, Big Payoff
The 60-Second Book Online Test
- On your phone, search your course name.
- Tap Book Online and note every option Google shows.
- Go through to the payment step and stop. Are you on your own booking engine?
If not, use the GolfNow removal form above, and ask your booking engine provider to make sure its Reserve with Google connection is turned on.
Go deeper: Part 2 of our Tee Time Booking Engine Buyer’s Guide rates 17 booking engines on Reserve with Google, including where the button sends golfers.
Want a second set of eyes on your course’s Google profile?
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Digital Hospitality in Golf is free and comes every other Wednesday. Each issue is one or two ideas your team can use.