Orlando-based tee time booking service GolfNow is "working on a new point-of-sale tech platform to consolidate services including food orders, merchandise sales and social-media management along with tee times," according to a front-page piece by Marco Santana of the ORLANDO SENTINEL. Updates to the app that will "let golfers order food via GolfNow straight from a digital-based wallet are expected before this fall." Golf Channel owns GolfNow, and Golf Channel Exec VP/Strategy Will McIntosh said that such services can boost GolfNow's goal of "convincing tech-averse courses that the platform will help them." McIntosh said, "The average golf club is a small, mom-and-pop operation. There is little investment in technology there. We realized there was the opportunity for one company to provide all of those things to a golf club." Santana notes many course owners who criticize GolfNow "say discount rates drive golfers to competitors or cost them potential revenue." Course operator company Knight 39 Holdings CEO Paul Fleming said, "Some people look at them as the bad guy. But if you use GolfNow as a tool, that's not necessarily the case. You just have to make sure what you are doing for your property is helping." Other course managers say the technology has "helped them land more business, as the app helps keep facilities in use during traditionally slow periods." Fleming estimates 20% of his business today is "from walk-in customers who fund the course on the app" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 4/9).
