Who Controls Access to Your Tee Times?

Cypress is concerned with recent events that transpired between a tee sheet company and an online tee time distributor. The distributor paid the tee sheet company “a bunch of money” to work only with them. The agreement bars the tee sheet company from providing an electronic interface to any other tee time distributors. The tee sheet company has, in effect, sold exclusive access to the course’s tee times to the highest bidder.

As a golf course operator you should be outraged by this type of agreement. It should cause you to question your relationship with your current tee sheet vendor. And, it should force the golf industry to answer one simple question, “Who should control access to a golf course’s tee times, a tee sheet vendor or the golf course?”

We hope every golf course operator that has an electronic tee sheet is scrambling right now to review the terms and conditions in their agreement. What will you do if your vendor decides to sell access to the highest bidder? What if they decide not to let anyone have electronic access to your tee times? What if they decide to charge transaction fees or interface fees to provide access?

Does your agreement with your vendor cover these issues? Probably not. Online tee time distribution is just starting to really take-off. Your vendor probably didn’t think about these issues and neither did you. That’s okay, but now is the time to make sure you have the proper terms added to your agreement. Make sure you will be the one choosing which distributors to work with.

Some of our golf course partners are already selling up to 40% percent of their tee times online. We expect this number to only increase over time. You need to be prepared to take advantage of the growth in online tee time sales by updating your tee sheet vendor agreement now.

We are not attorneys and cannot give you legal advice. However, here are some general points we think you should make sure are covered in your tee sheet vendor agreement.

• Interface Software - Your tee sheet vendor should agree to provide you with an API (Application Programmer Interface). This piece of code will allow third party distribution providers to access your tee times electronically. At a minimum, the API should support third party Login, Search, Reserve and Cancel methods.



• Interface Access - Your vendor should allow anyone you choose to have access to the API and your tee times. Your vendor should be released from liability from third party bookings though the API. Responsibility for the bookings rests with the third party distribution provider.



• Interface Charges - If the API is running locally at your golf course there should only be minor one-time setup and/or yearly maintenance fees. If the API is running centrally on the vendor’s servers, it may be reasonable for them to charge slightly more for the API service. There is additional work and maintenance involved with any API and your vendor deserves to be reasonably compensated. However, we strongly advise against allowing your vendor to charge per round transaction fees for the API.

This is a serious matter that deserves your attention. Cypress and other distribution providers are here to help you increase your rounds and revenue. Don’t let your tee sheet vendor stand in your way.

If your vendor will not update your agreement and you decide to switch vendors, Cypress is here to help. We will pay 100% of the upfront costs for you to change tee sheet vendors to any on our list (www.cypgolf.com), in exchange for a limited number of additional trade tee times.