Why did Noteefy build its own golf booking engine?
Noteefy built its Booking Engine because operators and golfers kept asking for a faster, easier booking experience. The team focused on instant tee sheet inventory, fewer clicks, group booking for golfers two through four, and making it easy for AI agents to book on a golfer's behalf.
There's a lot of talk right now about technology and AI in golf, so we wanted to put a human perspective on it.
We caught up Dathan Wong, Noteefy's CTO and Co-Founder, to shed light on why Noteefy set out to build its own booking engine, what's next in AI and golfer behavior, and how Noteefy's product and engineering teams worked closely with operators who helped shape the booking engine.
Why Did Noteefy Build Its Own Booking Engine?
Course operators already have booking engines, so why build another one?
"We constantly got requests from operators and golfers that they wanted a better booking experience," Dathan said.
"All of us at the company are golfers as well, so we felt a lot of the pain that others were experiencing too. If we do anything well, it's listening to our users and customers for feedback, so we decided to do something about it."
What Did Courses Tell You That Shaped the Build?
One request came up again and again: operators couldn't get information on golfers two through four.
"That was one of the main things we wanted to tackle first," Dathan said. "How could we get golfers to share their information, but more importantly, share their buddies' information, to provide a better golfer experience as well as an operator experience? That's where the group golf feature came into play."
The other theme was simpler. "We heard a lot from golfers and operators that the current booking experiences weren't very user-friendly. Sometimes it required a lot of clicks even to see the inventory, or it was just hard to navigate, resulting in golfers getting frustrated. We really wanted to focus on speed and usability."
How Did Working Alongside Operators Shape the Product?
"We've been working very closely with some of the best golf courses in the country to really nail this experience and build something that can be a game-changer for these operators," Dathan said. "We pride ourselves on staying very close to the operator experience to constantly get feedback and have really tight feedback loops."
That includes courses like Green River Golf Club, Portland Parks, Tobacco Road Golf Club and The Broadlands Golf Course, whose teams helped shape the Booking Engine and now run it every day.
What Feels Different for the Golfer?
Speed, first. "When a golfer lands on the tee sheet, they're able to see the inventory instantly. As they navigate through different days, that inventory also shows up instantly," Dathan said. "Getting the golfer through the booking flow as quickly as possible is really important to help increase conversion rates and ultimately provide a better golfer experience."
Then what happens after the booking. "After a golfer books, they're able to add their friends to the tee time. Golfers no longer have to reach out through their chat threads or email threads to organize all of their friends together." That matters for the course, too: "It encourages them to come back and play the same course again."
Is the Booking Engine Ready for AI Assistants?
AI assistants like Meta's Muse are starting to book reservations for people. The course still sets the tee sheet, the pricing and the rules. What changes is how easily a golfer's own AI assistant can work within them.
"We've made the booking engine really friendly for agents to use," Dathan said. "AI agents are already able to navigate our booking engine easily and book end-to-end."
Part of that comes down to one login. "You log in once and stay logged in for a very long time, and that's across the entire Noteefy suite of products and courses. Staying logged in for longer means you only have to log your agent in once, and then it can run your golf life for you."
What's Next That You're Most Excited About?
Split payments. "As golfers, we know it's always annoying to have to pay for all of your friends, who may or may not even show up, and you end up being on the hook for the whole tee time," Dathan said.
It's a problem for operators, too. "Sometimes operators feel like they have to just eat the missed tee time to provide a better golfer experience. If we could put this back on the friends who are hard to collect from, or flag those tee times and try to refill them early, it could just be a much better experience for both sides."
One Thing People Would Be Surprised to Learn About the Engineering Team?
"Our engineering team are probably the most die-hard golf fanatics in the whole company," Dathan said. "We're definitely not the best in the company, but they're up there as the most passionate. They just really love the game and want to have an impact in the golf world, which is a really cool mission to rally behind."
See It for Yourself
The Noteefy Booking Engine was built by golfers, for the courses they love to play.
