PGA Tour invests in online tee time firm

The tour has signed a joint venture with EZLinks Golf through which it will rebrand the company’s existing website, TeeOff.com.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the PGA Tour will co-own the new venture, EZLinks Golf, and over the next few weeks, the current TeeOff.com site will be rebranded TeeOff.com by PGA Tour.

The site books tee times online from hundreds of courses nationwide, giving the PGA Tour another avenue to expand its digital business.

This move comes after the tour announced last month that its PGA Tour Live digital product will launch later this summer. The new over-the-top network will stream Thursday and Friday morning tournament coverage.

“We are trying to diversify our digital business beyond our core platform,” said Rick Anderson, executive vice president of global media for the PGA Tour. “We are actively trying to engage more digitally with our fans.”

The PGA Tour will take a percentage of revenue from the rounds booked through the site and will now compete in the online booking industry with GolfNow.com, operated by the Golf Channel.

PGA Tour executives hope to boost their online reservation business by marketing the new venture across PGA Tour media assets. The site also will be featured on PGATour.com.

Anderson did not disclose the specific number of online tee times that were booked through TeeOff.com last year.

“From a digital perspective, we will be marketing it heavily,” Anderson said. “It will be in our navigation on PGATour.com. We are trying to expose our audience to the business.”

Chicago-based EZLinks Golf will continue to operate the site as part of the deal.

“The PGA Tour brand name and media reach will turbo-charge the growth of TeeOff.com, connecting more golfers to more golf courses, to create a vibrant marketplace,” said EZLinks Golf CEO Gary Cohen in a statement.

EZLinks was founded in 1995, with Cohen, a former Redbox executive, joining the company in 2012.