Had the pleasure of playing golf with Richard Singer, NGF Consulting at Riverdale Dunes on August 22, 2022. While the round was really enjoyable at this Pete Dye designed course, booking a tee time was not. While Riverdale Dunes only accepts tee times online, I had to call the Pro Shop. Why?
Having previously played at Riverdale Dunes which is a fabulous municipal course that is vastly undepriced, the login and password to the site was stored in my browser. As I clicked login, my name and password were automatically filled and was able to select a tee time as shown below.
As the “proceed to cart” turned green, I clicked on the button to confirm the reservation only to find out to my chagrin, the reservation would not confirm. The green processing symbol spun indefinitely shown here:
Frustrated, I called the Pro Shop and learned from Riverdale Dunes Asst. Golf Pro Eric that to prevent “bots” from booking tee times, a golfer must manually enter their login and password every time. Was informed that they will be changing software next year selecting a different vendor. The staff is frustrated.
Another course that would like to change software is the incredibly well-managed The Ridge at Castle Pines. They are using EZ Links which is owned by SportsNEXT (GolfNow). Why?
They had not administrative access to their website all golf season. As a result, they have been unable to send their weekly newsletter to golfers and are highly frustrated to maintain the high standards of communication well-established.
Oh well, I guess that confirms you get what you pay for. With barter, you pay nothing. 😊
