Troon has unveiled Access, a new golf rewards program designed as an integrated platform that combines tee time booking, subscription savings, loyalty rewards and e-commerce.
The goal is to reward golfers for their loyalty while making it easy to book, play and shop. Access is built around four core components: a tee time booking engine, the free Access Loyalty rewards program, a paid subscription offering and an online retail platform.
Tee time booking is handled either through the Access mobile app or the GolfWithAccess.com website. Players can directly invite friends to their reservations, receive tee time notifications and manage rewards activity. Eligible rounds booked through Access will earn points that can be used to discount future tee times or products in the retail section of the app. Accumulating points advances users through Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers that unlock accelerated earning rates and expanded redemption flexibility.
At launch, more than 200 courses are part of the program, including Kapalua Golf, Pronghorn Golf Club and Troon North Golf Club. The network will continue to expand, including properties outside Troon’s management portfolio.
The paid subscriptions, Access Premium and Access Premium+, offer discounts on tee times, loyalty tier upgrades, guest passes to share with friends and exclusive offers in the Access Shop for products from dozens of companies such as Callaway and TaylorMade.
“Today’s golfers expect convenience and flexibility,” said Jeff Ma, chief digital officer at Troon. “With Access, you can book a tee time, invite your playing partners, earn points automatically, and apply those points toward your next round, all in one place. It removes friction and makes loyalty part of the booking experience itself.”
Ma explained that the tee time booking software doesn’t interfere with whatever a course is already using; it just “sits on top” of it.
“Traditionally, tee sheet software and booking engines have been one and the same,” he said. “We decouple the booking engine from the tee sheet software so we can work with any tee sheet software and POS.”
This kind of rewards program is one of the first of its ilk in the golf industry. Ma said that the issue is that most rewards programs aren’t valuable because it’s hard to create the economic structure that makes the points actually mean something. Troon is a company that has the size and resources to make such a rewards program viable.
Any courses that are interested in joining the program simply need to reach out to Troon. Ma said that the whole idea is to create a new distribution channel for courses to bring in more golfers and more business.
“We’re really trying to create a model that is straightforward in terms of pricing and any course that wants to work with us, we think we can deliver new business to you,” he said. “We’re happy to work with you.”
