GolfNow Press Release Sparks Curiosity: Is the Company Shifting Back to Being Primarily a Marketplace Partner?
April 21, 2025 – GolfNow's recent Q1 2025 press release, "GOLFNOW SETS NEW COURSE ACQUISITION RECORD IN Q1 2025," touts onboarding over 320 new golf properties across North America. While the company emphasizes integration of its technology and services into these facilities' daily operations, data analysis raises questions about whether GolfNow is actually transitioning back to being primarily a marketplace partner rather than a comprehensive technology provider.
The Press Release Claims
GolfNow, operating under NBC Sports Next, announced this achievement as "one of the strongest starts to a year in our history." The company attributed the surge to the value golf facilities see in GolfNow's technology, marketing power, and revenue-driving capabilities.
The release highlighted GolfNow's suite of tools, including:
- Tee-time booking engines
- Point-of-sale systems
- Marketing services
- Performance analytics
The Data Reality
However, data provided by smbGOLF, a consulting firm specializing in golf course technology, reveals a different picture. An analysis of specific courses listed in the press release shows many aren't using GolfNow's operational technology, but rather leveraging it primarily as a tee-time marketplace.
Examples from smbGOLF's data (HubSpot CRM export, April 21, 2025):
- World Golf Village properties (FL): Use Troon Digital for booking and EZLinks (GolfNow product) for tee sheets, with GolfNow as one of several tee-time marketplaces
- Blackmoor Golf Club (SC): Employs Omnitech for booking and Sagacity for tee sheets
- San Juan Oaks Golf Club (CA): Uses Golfback for booking and Club Caddie for tee sheets
- Junior National Golf Club (AZ): Relies on foreUP for both booking and tee sheets
- Charlotte National Golf Club (NC): Uses GolfNow exclusively as marketplace but still uses a paper book for tee sheets
- Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club (FL): Uses Chelsea for tee sheet reservations and Clubessential for website and member management
This pattern suggests GolfNow is expanding its marketplace presence, but its operational technology isn't being adopted as widely as implied.
Strategic Considerations
This discrepancy raises important questions about GolfNow's direction, specific to green grass facilities. The data suggests growth heavily skewed toward marketplace expansion rather than technology adoption. This approach may be easier and less resource-intensive for GolfNow.
- Revenue potential: While technology subscriptions typically offer higher margins and greater customer lock-in than marketplace commissions, GolfNow's business model operates differently. When GolfNow sells bartered rounds to pay for marketplace participation, costs remain relatively low. However, when they sell barter rounds to pay for technology, the costs expand significantly due to the extensive support required for thousands of small businesses and their diverse technical needs. The notable exception appears to be payment processing revenue, which represents a major contributor to GolfNow's annual revenue and may be a primary factor in maintaining their position as a technology vendor.
- Competitive differentiation: With a growing number of vendors focused exclusively on operating technology and golf course operators (rather than golfers), GolfNow appears to face challenges in maintaining agility and delivering timely tools to their partners. Recent evidence suggests GolfNow has experienced difficulties with communication plans, resulting in documented customer dissatisfaction and increased churn rates, particularly following their 2024 Reserve with Google rollout.
- Customer retention risk: Historically, operators remained with POS and Tee Sheet vendors for an average of 8+ years. This pattern is shifting across the entire SMB landscape as operators become more technologically sophisticated and can transition between providers with greater ease. This changing landscape represents another factor potentially reducing GolfNow's commitment to business verticals established by industry pioneers like Harry Ipema and JJ Keegan.
Industry Context and Future Insights
The National Golf Foundation describes GolfNow as "the industry's largest provider of golf course management technology," partnering with over 9,000 courses globally. However, smbGOLF's data suggests the gap between #1 and #2 is tightening and maybe flip within 24 months.
Adding to the intrigue, smbGOLF plans to publish a complete market share analysis of tee sheets and booking engines across North America in early May. This report should provide valuable insights into technology adoption trends and GolfNow's actual market position.
Conclusion
While GolfNow celebrates its record course acquisition, a closer examination of the data tells a surprising story. According to smbGOLF's analysis of properties specifically mentioned in the April 21 press release, only one group - the World Golf Hall of Fame golf courses - are using a GolfNow tee sheet and/or booking engine. Even more revealing, these courses have been using the EZ Links tee sheet for more than a year, representing no net gain in technology adoption. In fact, these Troon-managed facilities have actually moved away from GolfNow's booking engine to the Troon booking engine, representing a technology loss rather than acquisition.
This data challenges the impression created by the press release and raises fundamental questions: Is GolfNow strategically shifting back to a marketplace-first approach? Or are its technology integration efforts simply not gaining the traction suggested in their announcements?
As the golf technology landscape evolves, the gap between GolfNow's expansive course acquisition announcements and the actual technology adoption patterns presents an interesting area for further analysis. Industry observers will benefit from smbGOLF's upcoming market share report to better understand GolfNow's strategic positioning and the broader trends shaping golf course technology integration in 2025 and beyond.
