Golfers have a new excuse to duck out of the office for 18 holes, thanks to a Web site operated by a pair of Mandeville businessmen.
Golf411.com offers discounted tee times through a combination of daily e-mails and online listings. Discounts of up to 55 percent off the normal price of a round of golf are available depending on the course and the tee time.
"I used a similar site for about seven months when I lived in California, and as a consumer I thought it was fantastic," said Rich Haselden, who operates the site with partner John LeBlanc. "The site frequently provided me with good information about what was going on in my local area when I went golfing."
LeBlanc and Haselden are the sole employees of the fledgling company.
Haselden was so enthused about the site when he moved to Mandeville earlier this year that he bought local rights from Phoenix-based Cypress Golf Solutions, the company that designed the site Haselden used in California. Cypress Golf Solution licenses its Web site booking technology to local site operators.
Haselden and LeBlanc purchased the rights to use Cypress' technology in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Since the site went live in June, Haselden has signed more than a dozen Louisiana golf courses in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas.
Each day, golfers who request Golf411.com's e-mail newsletter receive a list of tee time specials at the courses partnering with the site.
"The response has been overwhelming, both from golfers and golf courses," Haselden said. "We are signing up a substantial number of people on a weekly basis." Although Haselden couldn't cite a specific number, several hundred golfers are signing up each week, he said.
Golf411.com operations resemble Web sites offering discounted hotel rooms or airline fares as operators contract with vendors to offer discounted rates during slow periods.
Golfers nationwide spent more than $24.3 billion on equipment and fees in 2002, according to the Jupiter, Fla.-based trade group, the National Golf Foundation. More than 20,000 golfers in Louisiana each spent more than $1,000 on golf in the same year, according the NGF. Tee times at municipal golf courses averaged $36 per player.
Tee times are generally sold in intervals of between eight and 15 minutes. Course operators hope Golf411.com will help book times that normally go unused.
"The golf business is just like the hotel business," said Glen Clouatre, general manager of The Island, a golf course in Plaquemine and the first in Louisiana to sign with Haselden's site. "If we have a tee time that goes unused we are losing inventory. This is a good way to fill in holes in your tee sheet."
In the golf course industry, the concept is known as yield management, Clouatre said. Course operators are constantly trying to find ways to sell the largest number of rounds played possible, he said.
Sites like Haselden's are popular in other parts of the country, Clouatre said, but have just started to appear in this area.
"Golfers are a little different than other segments of the public," Clouatre said. "While a consumer might go to the Yellow Pages to look for a product, golfers already have a good idea where they are going."
Sites like Golf411.com can advertise though e-mail without having to advertise to the general public, Clovatre said.
Haselden and LeBlanc make a commission on tee time sales booked through the sites of between 3 percent and 5 percent of the price the golfer ends up paying, according to the payment structure Cypress Golf Solutions provides to potential licensees. Discounted tee times listed on Golf411.com ranged from $22.50 to $43 recently, depending on the course and the time of day.
"We're selling three or four times a day right now through the site," said Olly Thomson, head golf professional at the Lakewood Golf Club in Algiers. "It's been slow in June and July because of the heat and rain, but things pick up in September and we will probably start seeing an impact by then."
The only area where problems might occur, Thomson said, is if a golfer is booking a time online while someone is calling to reserve the same time. Even so, Thomson said, the course would find a way to accommodate both golfers.
Although usage of Golf411.com is difficult to quantify because the service is so new, Haselden said, the numbers are increasing on a weekly basis. As site usage expands, the company may add additional staff, he said.
"One of the reasons that we decided to do this in Louisiana is that no one else here was doing anything remotely close to what we are doing," Haselden said. "We are truly providing a unique service that is great for both the golf course and the golf consumer."
Source: City Business North Shore Report (Louisiana)