By Mike Hendrix - Host, Tech Caddie Podcast | Founder & President, smbGOLF | Ohio Golf Course Owners Association
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For golf course operators, there is one guiding light for their digital presence: Make Your Website the Primary Source of Truth for Every Question, Every Time.
In an era of AI answers, tee time marketplaces, and Google Business Profiles, it’s fair to ask if a full website is still essential. The short answer is yes—more than ever. Your fast, modern, content-rich site isn't just a brochure; it can be the primary source of truth that feeds AI, powers discovery, and converts golfers, event planners, and prospective members.
As the founder of smbGOLF, this is the mission I'm bringing to my clients today. I've spent the past six months meticulously researching over 15,000 golf course and country club websites to understand the current state of the industry. The findings were staggering:
Less than 2% of sites check all the boxes outlined in this article. They are not prepared to be the primary source of truth.
Worse, less than 10% of these websites are even telling the bots what they are. This crucial context, which requires organized data and HTML scripts—not just simple text—is necessary for platforms like Google and AI to correctly identify the business as a "golf course" or "country club".
In a smaller, deeper dive into over 4,000 websites built and managed by the biggest names in golf technology and management, the numbers were slightly worse. Your website is likely the only digital property you own and it’s more important than just about everyone in golf believes. Make your website a priority, invest wisely and you’ll enjoy the added brand control you create. Below are seven golf-specific reasons—and a practical playbook—for building a website that gets found, tells your story, and makes you money.
7 Reasons Golf Courses & Country Clubs Need a Website More Than Ever in the AI Era
1) Your Website Is the Source of Truth—for Golfers, Members, and AI. Many operators and most website companies do a good job of presenting a nice story about the golf course through photos and text. But behind the scenes, in the code of the website, there’s an untapped opportunity to share data with machine readers that only a few in golf know about.
Homepage: Make sure you present your golf course as a local business that is a golf course (and Country Club if appropriate) by using a schema that is familiar to bots. We use local business schema+++ to feed the bots the details we want spread across the internet.
FAQ Page: It’s time to re-work or create an FAQ page. ChatGPT loves to answer conversational questions - help Sam Altman and his team at OpenAI to do just that.
About Us Page: Be creative, consistent and accurate. Share things like grass type, year the golf course opened and how many ponds are on the golf course.
Contact Us Page: The details you include here must be accurate and the same you share on Facebook, GolfPass, Yelp and your local Chamber of Commerce.
Events Page: If you host the same several events each year, this can be a home run for your business. Make sure your code is properly organized and consistent and you’ll begin to see these events included in search results and answers, year after year.
Actions: While you likely won’t have a page named Actions, you need to include code that supports the concepts of ‘Join’ and ‘Reserve’ and makes those available throughout the site.
Commit to being great on this topic because there are tee time marketplaces doing this, specifically about your golf course, and driving traffic to their website. Do not allow them to control your truth, your voice and your brand.
2) AI Answers Still Link Out—Be the Trusted Authority They Point To
When someone searches “best public golf in {city}” or “country club with indoor simulators near me,” AI summaries often link to pages it trusts. Detailed, helpful pages—“Weddings & Events”, “Membership”, “Hole-by-Hole Guide”, “Tee Times & Rates”, “Lessons”—increase the odds that your course is cited where attention is highest. No site (or thin content) = fewer chances to be referenced.
3) Google Business Profile Is Powerful—but It’s a Companion, Not a Replacement
Your listing is great for quick facts and map visibility. It should send people to your site to learn more and complete actions. Make sure the Website link goes to a relevant landing page (e.g., “Weddings” when the query intent is weddings). Ensure the Book/Reserve button points to your booking engine—not a third party. Check this monthly as we have found marketplaces continually being attached to golf course profiles. Add UTM tags to links from your listing so you can measure what actually converts.
4) Organic Discovery Still Runs Through Your Site
Yes, the Map Pack matters. But golfers also click the organic results below it. That’s where first-party content wins:
- Rates & Specials presented as real text (not images).
- Hyper-local pages like “Golf Lessons in {City},” “Junior Golf Camps {Year},” “Best Golf Outings in {Region}.”
- News/Updates that prove freshness (maintenance calendars, improvements, tournament recaps).
- Events & Weddings with real package details, menus, capacities, photo galleries, and an RFP that actually works on mobile.
5) AI Assistants Need Clear, Current Pages They Can Parse
Golfers increasingly ask assistants for specifics: “18 holes, under $80, Saturday morning, kids clinic this weekend.” Help those systems help you:
- Keep core details as real text (avoid image-only tables and locked PDFs for key info).
- Update hours, policies, alerts, and calendars promptly so snapshots and crawlers learn from the latest version.
- Write clear, descriptive headings and link related pages (Tee Times >> Policies; Course >> Scorecard >> Handicap calculator).
- Using dynamic pricing? Great! Provide highest and lowest rates expected this month. You’re not gaming anything—you’re simply making your best information easy to understand.
6) You Own It—And You Can Future-Proof It
You don’t own your Google Business Profile. Google does. That’s why they were able to put a GolfNow “Book Online” link on it without your permission. Your website is the one digital asset you do control—its content, links, data, and conversions.
Investment Reality Check: Most golf courses pay around $1,800/year for websites that aren't built for the AI era. Upgrading to a strategic, data-rich site costs closer to $3,000 annually—less than $10 per day for an owned asset that works 24/7 to drive bookings, events, and memberships. If a full rebuild isn't feasible immediately, specialized services can add AI-friendly structured data and optimization to existing sites for less than $2 per day, making your current investment work harder while you consider a comprehensive upgrade.
Do this now:
- Audit your website by using this link: https://checkmyschema.golf
- Audit the “Book Online” button on the profile Google has provided you; point it to your first-party booking engine. If your tee time tech partner does not support this, have a conversation and ask them why.
- Make a fast, mobile-first Tee Times page your canonical booking destination.
- Tag all external entry points with UTM so you can track real conversions.
- Publish accurate hours, policies, and contact details site-wide.
- Add an /llms.txt file to your website so AI assistants have options to learn about your business.
7) Trust Signals = More Bookings, More Events, More Membership Inquiries
Even if golfers discover you via Maps or AI, many still click through to validate:
- Fast site, clean navigation, strong photography, real course conditions.
- Social proof—testimonials, league and outing case studies, media mentions, awards.
- Frictionless actions: Book a tee time, Join the waitlist, Inquire about membership, Request an event quote, Reserve a table.
- A dated or sparse site loses to the course that feels more professional and reliable or the third-party that supports more actions.
Put It Into Action: Your Map
Must-have pages (for every course)
Home: Primary Book Tee Times button; quick course notices (frost, aeration); key value props; address/phone/hours; social links. (Remember to add behind-the-scenes structured-data annotation for machine readability.)
Reservations / Tee Times: Booking widget/link; dynamic pricing notes; cart fees; single-rider policy; cancellations & rain checks; waitlist/notify-me link; UTM-tagged inbound links.
Course: Hole-by-hole guide, practice facilities, course policies, and a Scorecard with tees, yardages, par, rating/slope, stroke index. Add “Calculate Your Course Handicap (USGA/GHIN)”.
Rates & Policies: Clear tables for green/cart/walking/twilight rates; junior/senior notes; rentals; pace-of-play expectations; dress code; spike policy; seasonal details. Create “tables” with this info and paste them into an AI app like ChatGPT. Ask if it understands your data.
FAQ: Bookings, cancellations, rain checks, pace, dress code, junior rules, outside coolers, typical aeration timing, lesson basics. (Include behind-the-scenes script to enable rich snippets in search results.)
Contact & Directions: Map, address, direct lines (golf shop, events, membership), hours, simple contact form, social/chat links. (Use behind-the-scenes annotation for Contact Page machine readability, especially related to the map.)
About Us: Use the “we run six or seven businesses” frame: golf course, restaurant, event venue, lesson facility, bar, landscaping/grounds, and (if applicable) member club. Add origin story, architect, awards/press, and photography. (Add behind-the-scenes structured-data annotation for your Organization and its history to build authority.)
News & Course Updates: Short, dated posts for maintenance calendars, improvements, league/tournament recaps, menu updates—proof of life.
Add these if you offer them:
- Weddings & Events: Packages, capacities, menus, gallery/virtual tour, available dates (if public), fast RFP form. (Every page that represents a mini business, like this one, needs JSON to properly categorize and describe it.)
Golf Outings / Tournaments: Pricing tiers, what’s included, planning timeline, sponsor support, pairings templates, RFP.
- Leagues: Nights, formats, fees, standings link, registration.
- Lessons & Club Fitting: Instructor bios, credentials, pricing/packages, scheduler, simulator info (if any).
- Membership: Categories/benefits, (optional) dues ranges, guest/reciprocal policies, inquiry form.
- Dining / Restaurant / Grill: Live menu (not a PDF only), hours, reservations or call-ahead, specials, photos. (Just like events, a dining page needs scripts to properly categorize it as a restaurant for AI.)
- Stay & Play: Partner hotels, inclusions, blackout dates, booking instructions.
- Gift Cards & Online Store: Digital/physical options, redemption rules.
- Junior Golf / Camps & Clinics: Dates, ages, pricing, curriculum, registration.
- Simulators / Indoor Golf: Bay details, rates, leagues, reservations.
- Jobs / Careers: Open roles and how to apply.
- Navigation tip: Put Book Tee Times in the global header. Add FAQ and Policies in the footer so they’re always one click away.
KPIs to watch
- Booking conversion rate (visits >> confirmed tee times)
- Alert engagement (views; time to publish; reduction in phone calls)
- Chat resolution rate (answered without human) + handoff quality
- Waitlist fill rate and time-to-fill
- Calendar subscribes and event clicks
- Page speed on Tee Times and mobile bounce rate
Final Thought
Your website is the hub for everything—tee times, events, dining, lessons, membership, and day-to-day conditions. Listings and marketplaces can help you get discovered, but your site is where you control the experience, the data, and the revenue. Build it for speed, clarity, and action—and keep it current. Golfers (and AI) will reward you.
Mike Hendrix has been a leading sales and marketing technologist for over 20 years in the golf industry. He helps golf courses with digital optimization and findability. Most recently, Mike joined the Ohio Golf Course Owners Association and leads their growth initiatives.