We caught up with Jason Pearsall, CEO of Club Caddie, at the PGA Show in January and chatted with him about the new golf course management technology that’s out there, how general managers can use data and analytics to improve the experience at their courses, and the role AI is currently playing in golf operations.
Full transcript below (lightly edited for clarity):
How does the new wave of course management software help general managers diversify their revenue streams and stay ahead of the curve?
As little as 20 years ago, every dollar that was taken at a golf course was taken — cash, a credit card from that person, maybe a check that was sent in the mail — in the digital world, the way that we’ve seen things change is every dollar can now be transacted online. You can obviously pay for tee times online, but you can go so much further. You can order food and beverage while you’re golfing and have it ready at the 9th hole, prepaying for it. You can book lessons, book simulators, buy gift cards, buy memberships, all online. Most of the GMS companies here in 2025, if you’re able to collect that dollar in person, you’re also able to take it online.
What we find is that if you make it easier for customers to spend money, they spend more money. So every revenue stream that your course has or any profit center within the within the facility — could be weddings, it could be events — if you can take that payment online, you’re much more likely to convert that customer. If you can send a quote, “Here’s an estimate for a wedding or a bridal shower,” and you can get that out in five minutes just by asking a couple of questions, hit a click and have a contract sent to the customer with the deposit link and the ability to e-sign right there, they’re more likely to make that impulse decision and spend more money. So we think the key is if your club accepts it onsite, you also need to accept it online and that’s how we’re helping operators make more money.
How can golf courses use data to drive decisions and improve the customer/member experience?
I think it’s first important to think about what data is and all data is is characteristics about your golfers. So think about your golfers’ journey. They may start off at 11:00 pm on a Friday night looking for a tee time, book that tee time by 11:22 and that may be something they typically do. They may do that every week, not look until Friday night if they’re going to play until Saturday and it probably tells you they’re a fair-weather golfer looking to see if they’re available on Saturday, but also what the weather is. So that’s one of the characteristics of your golfer: when they’re likely to book on your website. And then they arrive at your golf course, and they may frequently show up late and they may have an impact to push out every other golfer on your tea sheet a little bit.
That’s an important characteristic, but that’s data about your golfer that’s contained within your GMS system, and then you’re also likely to know what they’re likely to purchase. Maybe they buy a sleeve of Pro V1s, a bag of tees every time that they play your course, or maybe they do it 75% of the time. Having that in front, that’s a characteristic again of your golfer. Within your GMS system you have the data to take advantage of that and to potentially offer that to your golfer the moment he walks in the door, which would incrementally increase the chance of upselling it, maybe from 75% to 95%.
That golfer also has a better experience when you know the characteristics of your golfer. When you know the data of your golfer, you can provide improved customer experience. The example is after they play golf, they may walk into your restaurant, and they may always sit at table 23, which just happens to be at the window. They may always order a glass of wine and the same appetizer. So when that server walks up and says, “Of course I’m seeing you at your favorite table. Would you like a glass of wine? I’ll have this appetizer ready for you,” that customer feels special and he’s way more likely to come to your course.
As opposed to looking at data like some digital term that’s technology-related, all we’re really talking about is the characteristics of your golfers and how can you take advantage of having that data or the characteristics of your golfers tracked so that you can analyze it in a way that you can provide a better customer experience and make more money off of every golfer that walks into your door.
What role does artificial intelligence play in golf operations?
We’re just at the cusp of a very exciting time. To start off, artificial intelligence is not intelligent inherently, just because we call it artificial intelligence. It’s intelligent because the data that you have is just like the education that a child receives before he becomes intelligent. That data is what informs the artificial intelligence, helps it make decisions, helps it reason and helps it to understand whatever that AI is helping with.
AI will change golf operations. Golf course operators will have data in their GMS system. They’ll be able to ask questions without necessarily having to dig through thirty reports. “What are my top selling items? What items should I not reorder this year based on my margins being low on those items and we don’t sell a lot of those? What beer should I order? What should I price my tee times at?”
With larger data sets, artificial intelligence will be able to do a lot of analysis that golf course operators will now just be able to benefit from without having to do that work themselves. So that’s just an example of how it will change golf course operations. We’re also seeing how it changes the golf course or the golfers’ experience. Golfers now are calling in and as opposed to talking to somebody, they’re booking on an online agent who understands their query, understands what time they want to play, suggests what time they want to play, interacts with them. Although in our industry, we like to think, “We’re hospitality, we have to be in front of the customer,” the younger demographic would actually prefer talking to an IVR, so it’s important to offer that as an option. It may not be your only option; you can always opt out and call the pro shop or press 1 to get to the pro shop. But at least offering that IVR option is important.
We’re seeing AI companies here at the PGA show coming out, several of them. To give you a couple of shoutouts to SportSpeak and CourseRev, they’re doing great work and solving that problem for a lot of golf courses. The golfer experience will go a lot further. AI has vast capabilities, so in the future you will likely have a camera in your golf course or in the pro shop. As soon as that golfer arrives, you know by their face who they are, you know you don’t have to type in their name in the GMS system to find them or to find the right class rate that that golfer should receive; it just knows who they are. AI will make the life of operators easier so that they have to spend less time monotonously typing in data or doing analysis. They’ll just get the results that they’re looking for.
