Golf Course Operators - 8 out of 10 GM's or Marketing Directors don't know this.
It just seems to me that empowering third party tee time providers with tee time discounts, and bartered tee times to compete directly with golf courses' own inventory is counter productive. I submit that one of the problems facing golf is that entirely too much focus has been directed at tee time discounts. I started a business 3 years ago on the premise that the vast majority of golfers don't mind paying more if they can have a superior experience to go with it. Even worse then that, many golf courses have hitched their wagon to Golfnow. If you have not done so lately, check out Golfnow reviews.
Golfpay has commissioned two separate market studies with golfers, and determined that 73% of golfers would prefer that golf courses deliver value over discounts, yet the industry is overly focused on discounts. Now look at Bob Parson's new company, PXG. Bob is a genius marketer, so take note of the fact that he is doing Xtremely well segmenting the higher end market, while companies like Nike are dropping golf. Again, golf courses take note.
Here is something you may think about trying if you are a golf course: Take your worst performing (least profitable) marketing channel and drop it, especially if this is not the segment that you feel is in your wheelhouse in terms of what your course and facility desires to represent in the market. If this channel is a chunk of your tee times, then you may at least want to limit those tee times to the slowest part of the day/week. Now the next step is the scariest one -- Raise your prices by 10%, and upgrade the experience somehow, somewhere on your golf course.