doubling down on innovation. One of its
newest advances is a highly customized
business intelligence application.
There are a number of tools that allow
businesses, including golf courses, to get
insight from a host of data points, Kempton said. The problem? They don’t tell you
what to do with the data. It’s one thing to
have all of this fascinating information; it’s
another thing to know how to apply it.
“We recognized the need to have com-
putational capability built into our tools
to provide readily available answers for all
our courses,” he said. “This was the only
way to positively impact more than 150
courses at once and make our analytics
useful.”
The business app developed by his team
allows courses to maximize performance,
he said.
“It eliminated the need for discussions
that typically result in actions based on
gut, not data,” Kempton said. “The time-
lines to implement new pricing schemes
and distribute relevant golf offers have
been significantly reduced.”
What’s also fascinating is how the app
can be used across all the Billy Casper
courses.
“If we were only concerned with one
course, data insights could naturally
lead to appropriate actions,” Kempton
said. “Operating a collection of courses
across multiple regions is what forces the
need to produce answers via algorithmic
approaches.”
Adding courses is not a challenge either.
“As for the application itself, each course
is processed the same way, so the quantity
of courses is immaterial,” he said. “To add
or remove courses is extremely simple and
does not change the underlying design of
the app.”
Eddy Lui
Founder and owner
18Birdies
18birdies.com
One approach that can help golf courses
grow revenue is to make golf more fun.
The more fun, the more golfers will want
to play.
18Birdies is all about making the golfing experience more lively and interactive.
It’s a free smartphone app that allows
golfers to do a host of cool things, from
challenging friends to side bets to tracking all their scores.
With the app, you can create your own
tournaments, complete with leaderboards.
You can share photos. You can trash-talk.
(Or offer kind support …)
Additionally, it has a GPS element that
allows you too see the hole you are playing, displaying both distance and cup
location.
Such technology is key to attracting
millennials, a key demographic that golf
needs, Lui said in a recent Golf Inc. column.
“We believe that mobile is the future
of the golf industry, and we see our technology as being a big part of the future
of the consumer golf market,” Lui told
the website SportsTechie, “Our technology will further help the golf industry by
providing big data on consumers that will
Lui
help courses and the golf industry better understand their customer needs and
preferences and provide a more personalized experience.”
