By Harvey Silverman, Contributor, Golf Business | Silverback Golf Marketing
We often think of government institutions as slow-moving and inefficient. Still, the City of Los Angeles responded quickly and efficiently to golfers' concerns about reserving tee times at its municipal golf facilities. This was after a story went national about how tee time brokers were grabbing much-sought tee times and reselling them for a profit.
I interviewed Craig Kessler, the Southern California Golf Association's director of government affairs, last week for NGCOA’s Golf Business Live – Tech Talks. Craig enlightened us on the acute supply/demand situation in golf’s most underserved market. Briefly, Los Angeles has the fewest holes per public golfer than any other major metropolitan area, exacerbated by the Covid surge that has more public players swinging clubs than ever before. All but one public-access golf facility in Los Angeles County is municipally owned and operated.
The City of Los Angeles operates 12 golf courses: Seven 18-hole, three 9-hole, and three par-3, and a junior golf training facility. The County of Los Angeles operates 20 courses at 18 locations: 13 18-hole regulation, three 9-hole regulation, one 18-hole executive, one 18-hole par-3, and two 9-hole par-3. Add them up, and that’s 32 places where local golfers can plant a peg.
And it’s not enough.
So, in the entrepreneurial spirit of the gig economy, a group of people, some affiliated and some presumably not, discovered and developed a gray-market method to reserve highly-desired tee times and “resell” them for a fee, sometimes as high as $40. The tee times were not prepaid. Instead, the brokers reserved tee times online (Golfnow is the online booking engine), broadcast the availability through an app or by other means, and when they had a buyer, would cancel the tee time and quickly rebook it with the buyer’s information.
And golfers screamed. One, highlighted in the story linked above, formed a movement called “Free the Tee,” and used social media channels to spread the word and enlist supporters who formed a unified voice.
Then, a class action lawsuit was filed against the City of Los Angeles, claiming the City had breached an implied contract and breached the public trust. The lawsuit, demanding a jury trial, states, “This lawsuit arose from LA City’s failure to perform its duties under the rules, regulations, and code of conduct promulgated by the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners (“Board”), pursuant to LA City Municipal Code Section 63.44. Said failure has permitted black market tee-time brokers to buy up and resell tee times for profit at Los Angeles City golf courses. As a result, the persons who have purchased an LA City Golf Player Card (“Player Card”) have not received the benefits of affordable tee times as promised by LA City with the purchase of a Player Card.” The entire lawsuit can be found HERE.
But faster than a golf ball exiting the face of Scottie Scheffler’s driver, the City’s Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners met earlier this week and forwarded recommendations to the Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP) designed to curtail, if not eliminate the tee time gray market. Here are a few key statements in the recommendation summary:
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The twelve LA City golf courses are all extremely popular and have been generating over one million rounds annually since 2021. The golf courses are also a good value, in line with the Golf Division’s mission statement of providing well-maintained, accessible, and affordable golf courses for the enjoyment of the game of golf for City of Los Angeles residents and visitors. (Italics mine)
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Demand for golf tee times increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the supply of available tee times was reduced due to the lengthening of tee intervals from 8 minutes to 10 minutes.
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Recent media reports and feedback from the golfing community have highlighted concerns regarding the brokering of tee times. One brokering practice of major concern involves brokers reserving tee times as they regularly become available to the public, advertising and selling these tee times for an additional fee, and then canceling and immediately re-booking the tee times under the names of individuals who paid these additional fees.
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When the City is made aware of unpermitted tee time brokering, it takes action to cancel associated tee times and suspend associated player card accounts. RAP’s golf reservation management system vendor (Golfnow) has also implemented website security measures to identify and block suspicious web activity to help prevent the use of unpermitted bots or other computer programs attempting to obtain tee times.
But the City’s efforts have not been enough.
The recommendations aim to clarify the existing prohibition of brokering tee times. It will establish a pilot program of a non-refundable $10 deposit per golfer to be collected at the time of booking. If the golfer cancels or does not show up for the tee time, the deposit will be forfeited. If the golfer plays, the $10 deposit will be applied to their green fee at check-in.
The revised Golf Rules also explicitly state that violations of the Golf Rules may result in fines and/or prosecution pursuant to existing municipal codes, which could result in fines of up to $1,000 or 6 months of jail time. (Illegally brokering tee times and ending up behind bars kind of reminds me of the “Seinfeld” series finale.)
The $10 non-refundable booking fee will force brokers to invest significant bucks in carrying out their business and charge golfers a much-inflated fee to purchase a tee time from them. In fact, the broker will have to pony up $80 - $40 when they first book a tee time and another $40 when they cancel (with no refund) and rebook for the purchasing customer.
The City’s Golf Rules already prohibit brokering or advertising tee times for resale. They’ve been enhanced with the following addition: For purposes of this regulation, “brokering” includes the transfer of tee times through any web-based site, web-based application, other applications, publication, or mobile device for a fee.
In other words, it’s catching up with technology.
It also added: Any golfer who obtains tee times through a broker or otherwise violates the Golf Rules is subject to cancellation of that golfer’s tee time(s) and forfeiture of all paid fees and deposits, as well as cancellation of his/her player card.
So, the City of Los Angeles is doing its best to “free the tee.” An $80 buy-in for brokers is a hefty deterrent. We’ll wait to see if it works and if the County of Los Angeles follows suit. As for the class action lawsuit, I think it would be dismissed, and the brokers will need to find another target for ill-gotten gains. Maybe pickleball court reservations?
This just in: The above recommendations have been approved as of Thursday, April 4. The tees are freed, but for a $10 fee.