The Loop
Quick.golf: A novel and intriguing pay-per-hole concept
The pay-per-hole idea designed to entice golfers with less time to play more is not a new one, but a new company, Quick.golf, has come up with a novel way to make it a reality.
“Quick.golf is a web-based service that pairs golfers who want to play some golf but don’t have the time or inclination to play a full round with nearby golf courses that are willing to sell golf by the hole instead of by the round,” its website explains.
“Quick.golf is a convenient way for golfers to find, arrange and pay for partial rounds.”
Here’s how it works: A golfer who decides he has time to play a few holes or more opens the app that shows the availability of Quick.golf at the courses near him.
“We thought this would be a cool idea and a solution for golf courses and the capacity they can’t sell,” Harvey Silverman, a San Francisco Bay area golf marketing consultant who founded the business, said. “Nearly every course in the country has capacity that goes unused.
“The number one issue in every survey I’ve done is that golfers don’t have as much time to play as they’d like. This is providing a solution for both sides of fence, one for courses and one for golfers.”
Quick.golf has 25 courses in its pilot group with the intention of marketing it nationally.
“The first transaction we did was for two women in Minnesota, a mother and daughter, who played four holes. We contacted them and the daughter said, ‘this is wonderful. My mother has health problems with her feet and can’t play a whole round any more. She thought she might have to quit altogether.’ As the official first Quick.golf transaction, this could not have been any better.”
Initially, it will operate on the honor system, given that golfers are supposed to be honorable (though it does have a plan in place, if need be, to use technology to track the number of holes). The golfers are required to input the number of holes they played. It has two deterrents for the less-than-honorable. If they don’t input the number of holes they played, they’ll receive a message that unless they do so they’ll be charged for the full 18 holes, and there is a two-hole minimum.
The golfer is checked in via a dashboard on a computer in the pro shop, and the transaction is processed via the golfer’s phone, following the Uber model.
“It’s pure incremental revenue [for the courses] with relatively no risk,” Silverman said. The cost to the course is $299, which includes signs and promotional materials. Quick.golf in turn gets a commission from each transaction.
A win, in other words, for everyone, including the golfer stretched for time.