By Andy Hiseman, Hiseman Partners

Online Teetimes bookings 140% up in third quarter 2008

Booking tee times is the UK’s fastest-growing online golf activity, according to new figures released today by Online Teetimes Ltd (OTL).

The worldwide traffic ranking for the company’s internet booking engine – which powers several of the leading green fee websites in the UK – has increased by 58% in the last three months.

The success is partly due to a 106% rise in the number of golfers making online tee time bookings in the same period. OTL also reports that the number of rounds booked online in the third quarter of this year has increased by 140% compared to May-June 2008.

Paul Heeney, MD of Online Teetimes Ltd, said: “The rapid growth in bookers and bookings demonstrates that golfers are enjoying the ease with which they can now buy a green fee online.

“This growth is itself creating a clear demand for us to deliver a greater choice of clubs and tee times. This is why we have a target of bringing 100 new clubs online this winter to sit alongside the 260 clubs we currently work with.

“Online tee time booking is on a very steep upwards curve and there has never been a better time for clubs to benefit from this.

“We have always maintained that the two compelling reasons for a golfer to go online will be to buy equipment and book a game.”

OTL’s booking engine powers its own consumer website – TeeTimes.co.uk – and also partner sites such as Direct-teetimes.co.uk, golfbidderteetimes.co.uk and the tee times service on many other sites including Golfmagic.com and Golfalot.com.

Increasing numbers of clubs now see the online tee time market as a more effective marketing option than 2for1 style voucher schemes, and are attracted by the simplicity of the administration and the pricing flexibility it allows.

To assess golfers’ online activity, OTL used Alexa.com traffic rankings to compare 14 of the UK’s leading golf websites.

OTL’s traffic rankings went up by 58% in the last three months. Traffic rankings in the online golf retail market continue to grow, but at a much slower rate of 11% and 21% for two of the UK’s best-known online golf retailers. The websites for the UK’s most popular golf magazines were also up, but only by 12% and 33%.

A key strategy for OTL is to help golf clubs capitalise on this rapid rise by putting more of their tee times in front of an ever-growing customer-base and the company is set to open up another four new distribution channels this winter.

To learn more about OTL’s growing UK business, contact Pat Stanford at pat.stanford@onlineteetimes.co.uk, tel 01400 230113.
  
     
Company Contacts: PAT STANFORD, Online Teetimes Ltd
Tel: 01400 230113, Email: pat.stanford@onlineteetimes.co.uk
  
     
Media Contact: ANDY HISEMAN, Hiseman Limited
Tel: 07795 360112
Email: andy@hiseman.com
 

By Pete Richardson, Azalea 

Ripon City Golf Club is marking its centenary by employing Swan Golf Designs to redesign and possibly extend elements of the 18-hole golf course.

Founded in 1908 the course will undergo something of a transformation; new teeing areas, bunkers and greens are all possibilities as well as improvements to the course layout.

The plans have been drawn up by Swan Golf Designs, international golf course architects; respected for their responsible and natural approach to course design.

The project has now physically commenced with work on the bunkers around the sixth and fourteenth greens. Some additional landscaping will take place through the winter this will mainly be in the form of tree removal and thinning.

With the course positioned above the city of Ripon, Howard Swan and his team are certain to take the opportunity to creatively frame the views from the fairways as they have in other projects they have completed.

The project is expected to take up to 10 years to complete.

Issued by the Azalea Group on behalf of Swan Golf Designs.
For more information contact Steve Bailey:
Email – steve.bailey@theazaleagroup.com Telephone – 08700 330 55

By Andy Hiseman, Hiseman Partners 

#1 GPS rangefinder adds extras worth £70 including Marriott green fee

SkyCaddie – the No.1 rangefinder in golf – has released a special 2008 Christmas Gift Pack which includes the top-of-the-range SkyCaddie SG5 and added extras worth at least £70.

In the Gift Pack, the best-selling, colour screen SG5 comes bundled with a voucher for a free green fee at nine selected Marriott golf courses in the UK, plus a free SkyCaddie Travel Case and travel pack worth £24.95, and an LCD Screen Guard worth £6.95.

The SkyCaddie Christmas 2008 Gift Pack enables golfers to protect the most sought-after handheld GPS device in golf on its travels. With an RRP of £299 and available in limited-edition packaging, the Gift Pack is the perfect Christmas present for all golfers.

The Marriott Golf Hotel & Country Clubs in the promotion, including Dalmahoy, the Forest Of Arden, St. Pierre, Hollins Hall, Sprowston Manor, Tudor Park, Worsley Park, Breadsall Priory and Meon Valley, have all been measured by SkyCaddie’s course mappers. In the SkyCaddie Gift Pack, golfers get a free green fee voucher valid until 31st March 2009.

The SkyCaddie SG5 – the official rangefinder of the PGA of Great Britain & Ireland – is the ultimate golf rangefinder. Golfers get a 220 x 176 resolution colour screen, automatic backlighting, 14-hours of rechargeable battery life, a mini-USB port, four-way scroll pad and a water-resistant body.

The colour screen really brings the golf course to life and this, combined with SkyCaddie’s IntelliGreen function, gives the golfer unbeatable information about what shot to play next wherever they are on the course.

The IntelliGreen technology enables golfers to measure the full depth and shape of the green from any angle of approach (even the wrong fairway!) and shows distances for all targets and hazards.

And with 95% of courses in England, Scotland and Wales now mapped – along with thousands of other courses worldwide – demand in the UK for the innovative hand-held units has been soaring.

The new SkyCaddie SG5 GPS rangefinder appeals to golfers on two levels – playing better, and playing faster!

It gives instant and accurate information via satellite, which includes exact yardages to the front of hazards and to carry them, and precise distances to the green.

The yardages have been physically measured on foot by SkyCaddie’s UK team of ‘course mappers’. So unlike other rangefinders, who used outdated aerial photography, the on-course detail has been verified by golfers, for golfers. This really is like having a Tour caddy on your shoulder.

The SkyCaddie SG5 conforms to USGA/R&A rulings and golfers are able to download the courses they want to play via a range of annual SkyPlayer Membership schemes.

For more information golfers can call SkyCaddie on 0870 112 0513 or visit the web site: www.skycaddiegps.co.uk

Company Contact: Jackie Hitchcock, SkyCaddie
Tel: +44 (0)1865 876469, Email: jackie@skycaddiegps.co.uk
Web: www.skycaddiegps.co.uk

Media Contact: Andy Hiseman, Hiseman Partners
Tel: +44 (0)1780 757461, Email: media@hiseman.com

By Pete Richardson, Azalea 

The championship course at the Karnataka Golf Association in Bangalore will be ready for play in November, after a two-year renovation project.

The original Peter Thomson course has been redesigned by renowned architect Howard Swan and his Swan Golf Designs team and rebuilt completely to the most modern of standards and performance expectations.

The 7100 yard par 72 layout will be unveiled with new greens, tees, bunkering, and irrigation system together with new grassing throughout.

Much attention has been given to the design of the fairways, raising them above the flood plain, and enlarging the course’s water features so that, even in the worst of the Southern Indian monsoons, the course recovers quickly for play.

Swan said: “We are delighted that the objective in raising the bar at KGA has been achieved and that the first nine holes of the course, opened after completion of the first stage of the renovation, are proving playable even in the most inclement of weather. We look forward to seeing the full 18 holes opening soon.

The course is long, yet reasonable and will set an exciting challenge for all standards of player – member and visitor alike – at this Premier Club.

“It is, after all, one of India’s best clubs and it now has a course to match that status.

“I believe it will be a benchmark for many more in the sub-continent”.

Issued by the Azalea Group on behalf of Swan Golf Designs.

For more information contact Steve Bailey:

Email – steve.bailey@theazaleagroup.com Telephone – 08700 330 55

By Pete Richardson, Azalea 

The major 10-year renovation of Workington Golf Course is nearing completion.

The redesign is the work of world-renowned international golf course architects Swan Golf Designs.

Workington Golf Course, originally designed by James Baird and situated in beautiful countryside on the edge of the Lake District required attention for it to meet modern standards when Fred Cashmore, Chairman of Greens, called for the assistance of Howard Swan and his team.

Eric Ellwood, Club Captain said: “We are delighted with the changes Swan Golf Designs has made. The alterations have undoubtedly enhanced the beauty of the course, and a sprinkling of interesting challenges have been added for our visitors.

“Swan Golf Designs’ dedicated team has enthusiastically set about remodelling the course with a view to giving golfers a wonderful golfing experience.”

Work on 17 of the 18 holes has already been finished and with only one hole awaiting transformation, the project is scheduled to be completed early in 2009.

Issued by the Azalea Group on behalf of Swan Golf Designs.
For more information contact Steve Bailey:
Email – steve.bailey@theazaleagroup.com Telephone – 08700 330 55