Golf Course Revenue Ideas: How Golf Operators Can Grow Their Top Line

The recreational golf industry is well and truly out of the rough. According to the National Golf Federation’s 2024 Graffis Report, the total number of golf participants in the U.S. has increased 53% over the last 10 years, with massive increases in youth, female and POC participation. So how do golf courses convert this surge in popularity into revenue? Here we look at 17 golf course revenue ideas, from targeted email marketing to membership options to golf simulators and beyond.

1. Bundle and sell enticing packages
2. Offer custom membership options
3. Retain members with a loyalty rewards program
4. Market your course with branded merchandise
5. Approach potential sponsors
6. Add an ecommerce page to your website
7. Open up an online booking channel
8. Upsell and cross-sell products and services
9. List your course on a tee time marketplace
10. Send an email blast to a highly targeted list
11. Implement self check-in
12. Offer golf by the hole
13. Leverage dynamic pricing
14. Use text message marketing
15. Offer food and beverage preordering
16. Provide off-course golf services and amenities
17. Invest in stay-and-play infrastructure

1. Bundle and sell enticing packages

Selling online golf packages is a smart revenue-generating opportunity and can help you offload slow-moving inventory items or promote new goods and services. Bundling is often more effective than discounting, too: two thirds of consumers prefer getting a “free” item in a BOGO deal rather than a percentage discount.

In the golf industry, packages can take many forms, such as:

• Bundles of prepaid rounds (ticket books)
• Rounds combined with food or equipment
• Golf and accommodation packages

You can also offer preferred rates on golf carts, food and beverage items or pro shop equipment if your customers buy a certain number of prepaid rounds upfront, catering to customers who are loyal but not quite willing to take the next step and purchase a membership just yet.

2. Offer custom membership options

Private and semi-private clubs are increasingly turning to custom membership plans, letting members personalize their contracts according to their lifestyle, budget and requirements.

You can use your online tee sheet and point of sale software to allow members to pick and choose only the services they want. A common tiered membership strategy is to offer discounted rates for members who only want access on certain days of the week.

Here are some other potential options:

1. Subscription style memberships: Allow the purchase of a month-long membership that renews automatically like a gym pass
2. Weekend memberships: Offering a weekend membership is a great way to appeal to professionals who don’t have time to come and play during the work week
3. Intermediate memberships: Set different prices based on age brackets. Consider offering memberships at a reduced price for 21 to 29-year-olds, and 30 to 35-year-olds.
4. Flex pay memberships: Offer members the option to pay less in the offseason, and more in the high season
5. Packaged memberships: Gives players the right to purchase several games which they can redeem throughout the season. Many golf courses use this tried and true strategy, but moving past the “ticket book” label, and branding it as a “packaged membership” is a better method to increase the perceived value

Public golf courses can also introduce certain types of memberships at their facilities. For example, Advance Golf Partners bundles access to many under utilized assets into a single membership that appeals to a wider range of customers.

Learn more about how Lightspeed Golf helps Advance Golf Partners speed up the workflows associated with their unique membership program. 

3. Retain members with a loyalty rewards program

On average, a returning customer spends 67% more than a new one. This, coupled with the fact that gaining a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one, means that increasing customer loyalty should be a key point of focus at your golf facility.

Implementing a well-designed rewards program will encourage higher spending and give golfers greater incentive to buy exclusively from your pro shop. You can do this by giving out points for purchases, which can then be redeemed on rounds, pro sho purchases, food or other items. Loyalty programs can increase revenue by:

• Keeping golfers at your course and not competing locations
• Helping you identify your VIPs (and at-risk customers) through spending data
• Generating business during slow periods with targeted offers

4. Market your course with branded merchandise

Having your logo on windbreakers, balls, umbrellas, hats and shirts is a huge opportunity to gain exposure and improve brand awareness. Offer these branded items at a discount or as part of your loyalty program to get more golfers putting your name out there and generating more bookings.

In certain cases, you can even give out branded merchandise for free—when customers spend a certain amount in your pro shop, for example. According to a study done by the BPMA, 79% of people who receive promotional products would do business with that company again.

5. Approach potential sponsors

If you’ve been making stellar merchandise sales over the years, you can approach golf apparel and equipment vendors for potential sponsorships. Banners, countertop displays and preferred rates on the merchandise are all forms of sponsorship and can easily create another source of revenue.

These kinds of sponsorships require very little effort on your part: once the deal is in place, all you need to do is set up the display.

If your golf POS software tracks data, you can use it to pull historical sales data and leverage those numbers when you approach vendors. Keep in mind that you’re asking someone to give you money or a better deal in exchange for exposure, so you need to convince them that your golf course is worth the investment.

6. Add an ecommerce page to your website

An ecommerce site is a great way to broaden revenue streams and expand your online presence. Online shopping is now an essential portion of retailing, and its importance keeps growing. In 2023, global retail e-commerce sales reached 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars, and that number is set to reach eight trillion dollars by 2027. For golf courses, online stores are the perfect place to:

• Sell pro shop equipment 24/7
• Sell golf packages, memberships and bundles that require no inventory space
• Sell to a wider audience beyond members and guests that visit the course

As far as golf course revenue ideas go, ecommerce can be a major win. By revamping its online strategy and selling memberships and passes online, Sioux Falls Golf in South Dakota has increased its percentage of online sales from 20% to 80%. In addition to more than doubling its number of pass holders, the course has been able to exploit busy periods with timely promotions: during Black Friday 2023, it generated over $230,000 in online pass sales over just four days.

7. Open up an online booking channel

Of all the golf course revenue ideas on this list, this one may be the most crucial.

Lightspeed 2024 survey data of more than 300 North American golfers shows that 59% sometimes or often book rounds online, while an additional 16% always book online. For younger golfers, the figures are even higher.¹

The convenience of booking online goes both ways, too. With a pen and paper reservation system, golf course managers spend lots of time taking phone calls from players looking to schedule, cancel or reschedule their tee times. Online tee sheet booking takes away that hassle and provides other important benefits like:

• 24/7 self-serve booking
• Online payment to reduce no-shows
• Direct links to the booking page from ads, email blasts and social media posts—local golf course booking is the number one reason why golfers aged 18–44 follow golf courses on social media¹

8. Upsell and cross-sell products and services

Upselling and cross-selling are great strategies to maximize your revenue by persuading existing customers to buy more expensive or supplemental products and services.

• Upselling is when you convince a customer to buy a bigger and better version of what they want (like a package of three rounds instead of a single round, or a custom engraved bag of clubs instead of a standard set)
• Cross-selling is when you convince a customer to buy a separate product or service alongside their current purchase (like a sleeve of balls for their round). Amazon attributes 35% of its revenue to cross-selling

A good moment to upsell or cross-sell is during the booking process. When a player books a round, they aren’t necessarily thinking about balls or tomorrow’s lunch.

However, if you present the opportunity in front of them, they might be tempted by a new sleeve of balls, refreshments or even prepaid future rounds. Digital tools such as Lightspeed Golf’s Booking Extras make it easy to implement such a strategy.

9. List your course on a tee time marketplace

Third-party marketplaces offer golf course managers the opportunity to get their tee times in front of a wider audience. While these services may charge a price for the exposure (it’s completely free to list to the more than 6 million golfers who use Lightspeed’s Chronogolf Marketplace for Lightspeed Golf customers) the return on investment is often worth it. Using a third-party marketplace allows you to:

• Attract new golfers in the area who may not have previously considered your course
• Offer promotions and discounts to fill up your tee sheet
• Take online bookings without running your own website

10. Send an email blast to a highly targeted list

Lightspeed survey data shows that 53.5% of golfers aged 18–54 like to receive emails from golf courses regarding news, promos and events at least weekly.¹

With a highly targeted email marketing program, you can create personalized emails that are relevant to different types of customers. Businesses using segmented email lists see a 760% increase in email revenues.

A targeted and automated email marketing strategy makes life easier for course managers and helps drive revenue by:

1. Segmenting customers by age, membership status, purchase history, cancellation rate, date of last tee time and other relevant characteristics, allowing for highly targeted marketing
2. Timing email blasts strategically to maximize interest
3. Collecting data such as open rates, bounce rates and click-through rates to measure marketing success

Check out our blog on our complete guide to golf marketing. 

11. Implement self check-in

Why do some people always show up with just enough time to spare? When you have a packed tee sheet and multiple groups arriving at the same time, it’s easy to get thrown off-schedule.

By installing self-service stations at your course, you can considerably improve the golfing experience while letting staff take care of more important matters. Furthermore, Mobile self check-in is the perfect way to save time, keep things moving in the pro shop, free up your staff for other tasks and get golfers on the course faster.

• With Lightspeed Golf’s mobile self check-in feature, courses can confirm arrivals in two ways:
• They can allow golfers to confirm it themselves
• Or they can confirm via GPS location tracking
• With GPS, golfers can only check in if they are within 500 meters of your course

12. Offer golf by the hole

Selling golf by the hole is one of the more unorthodox, but potentially lucrative golf course revenue ideas, as it allows your customers to determine how long they want to play outside the traditional confines of 9- and 18-hole rounds. You could limit this option to certain hours to reduce interference with players playing full rounds.

Modern tee time booking software makes it possible to let casual or busy players pay for however many holes they want. They might choose to play only their favorite holes, or challenge themselves with only par 5’s. This can help drive revenue by appealing to players with less spare time and even filling the less-busy twilight hours on the tee sheet.

Check out our blog on making golf fun with different scorecard layouts and an informal atmosphere.

13. Leverage dynamic pricing

Many individuals in the golf industry think of dynamic pricing as a discounting tool—and that scares them. While discounting is one aspect of how it works, that shouldn’t stop you from thinking of dynamic pricing as one of your main golf course revenue ideas. Why? You are in full control of the parameters such as the minimum price. In fact, dynamic pricing can help you increase revenue by:

• Discounting your least popular tee times to fill up the tee sheet
• Maximizing income during busy times like holidays
• Attracting more players for weekday tee times
• Automating the entire process to save time

As our friend Leif Hanson, Director of Golf Operations at Mickelson National Golf Club, says, “Tee times are only worth what someone is willing to pay for it—it’s a commodity.”

14. Use text message marketing

Text message marketing is a powerful tool for improving the golfing experience and generating more revenue at your golf course. Text messages on average receive a 90% open rate as opposed to 20% for emails and a response rate 7.5x higher than emails. And with SMS marketing you can more easily reach golfers while they’re out on the course—tempting them with a new lunch menu item, for example.

Keep in mind that text messages can be used for much more than promotions, too. You can also use them to welcome golfers to the course, solicit feedback or invite them to an event. The idea here is to be timely and convey a clear message.

15. Offer food and beverage preordering

After a round of golf, players are hungry and want to enjoy a meal and drinks with their friends.

With curbside pickup and order ahead, they can order ahead while they’re still on the course and have their meal waiting for them once they’re done. This makes it easier for kitchen staff to manage the lunch rush and ultimately get more paying diners through the door or back out onto the course.

This strategy can be combined with SMS marketing to create a streamlined ordering experience. Having the ability to order ahead can also help with issues of the pace of play as golfers can quickly pick up their order after the 9th hole and continue playing without any interruptions or delays.

To maximize interest in food preorders, try putting QR codes for the ordering page on golf carts, signs and other visible areas.

16. Provide off-course golf services and amenities

If green grass golf is like going to the movie theater, off-course golf is like pulling up a YouTube video or streaming a show on your phone: less demanding, but often just as engaging.

Off-course is riding a huge wave of popularity, too. According to a report by the National Golf Foundation (NGF), the number of total US off-course golf participants (32.9 million) surpassed total on-course golf participants (26.6 million) in 2023.

Installing amenities like driving ranges, golf simulator bays and even miniature golf requires investment, but there are many reasons why it can quickly pay off:

• Shorter rounds to appeal to busy customers
• Integration with your existing online booking system
• A level of informality that encourages socializing (and money spent at the bar)

17. Invest in stay-and-play infrastructure

Golfing and getaways go hand in hand. According to data from the National Golf Foundation (NGF), 2024 is set to be the third straight year in which more than 12 million people take a trip to play golf. What’s more, Lightspeed survey data shows that 72% of golfers are at least somewhat likely to plan a stay-and-play golf trip over the next 12 months.¹

While some golf course revenue ideas are relatively easy to implement, this one certainly isn’t. Adding on-site accommodation like lodges or pods is a major investment, but the demand for such facilities is huge. (Alternatively, you could consider partnering with a local hotel to offer stay-and-play packages without investing in new accommodation.) Potential benefits of stay-and-play investment include:

• Raising the profile of your course
• Getting afternoon and evening tee time reservations from overnight guests
• Generating further opportunities for food and beverage purchases

It’s time to focus on growth

Is owning a golf course profitable? With the right strategies, it absolutely can be. Whether your facility is private, semi-private, public, municipal or resort, knowing how to increase golf course revenue involves relying on multiple golf course revenue ideas: Green fees, memberships, pro shop and food and beverage—and using those streams in tandem at every opportunity. 

Furthermore, by building a detailed customer database through your POS, you can devise successful targeted marketing strategies that tempt the right customers with the right offers.

Are you looking to increase revenue and make this season your most profitable yet? Talk to one of our experts today and discover how Lightspeed Golf can help you bring your golf course operation to the next level.