What are private golf clubs most focused on right now?
At the 2026 Northstar User Conference, private club operators said member experience was their top priority, with tee time access at the center of it. Members refresh the tee sheet, call the pro shop, and miss last-minute openings, especially at lottery clubs. Clubs want to make access easier without adding work for staff, which is where a tee time waitlist like Noteefy's helps.
Last week, Marshall Ruffing and Scott Low represented Noteefy at the Northstar Annual User Conference at The Roosevelt in New Orleans. Northstar runs club management software for hundreds of clubs, most of them private, and its annual conference brings those operators together for two days. Noteefy was proud to be there as a Gold Sponsor, and we want to thank the Northstar team for a great event and a strong partnership.
Two days of conversations with private club operators raised one question for us: what's actually on their minds right now? We asked Marshall Ruffing, Noteefy's Business Development Team Lead, about his interactions at the Northstar Annual User Conference.
You spent two days talking with private club operators in New Orleans. What was the number one thing on their minds?
Member experience. Private clubs work hard to deliver a premium experience, and tee time access is a big part of that. When members struggle to find times, miss cancellations, or have to keep checking the tee sheet, it creates unnecessary friction. Operators want to make access easier without adding more work for their staff.
What does tee time frustration look like day to day at a full private club?
A lot of this includes their members refreshing the tee sheet over and over, calling the pro shop to ask about openings, and relying on word of mouth to hear about cancellations. At lottery-based clubs, a tee time can open up at the last minute and go unfilled simply because the right member never hears about it. Meanwhile, staff spend valuable time answering calls and managing requests that could be handled automatically.
Why does the Waitlist land so well with private clubs, compared with the public courses you usually talk to?
Public courses often focus on filling open inventory and recovering revenue. Private clubs care just as much, if not more, about delivering a great member experience. The Waitlist gives members an easy way to say which times they want and get notified when one opens up. It helps members get more golf while taking load off the pro shop, without changing how the club manages its tee sheet.
Where does the AI Pro Shop Assistant fit as a member service?
It's another way to make the club more accessible without needing staff available for every question. Members can get answers to common questions about the course and its services without calling the pro shop and waiting for someone to pick up. The bigger opportunity is giving members convenient, responsive service while letting staff focus on the in-person experience.
The key is using AI to complement the team, not replace the personal service that makes private clubs special.
What surprised you most this week? And tell us about the comedian at the networking night.
The biggest surprise was the level of interest, and almost every club we talked to said they hear members voice frustration about tee time availability and access.
The networking night comedian was another memorable moment. He was doing crowd work and happened to pick on us, with plenty of jokes about me being young, and then he asked what I do for work. I told him we're like OpenTable for golf courses, and he ran with it. It was all in good fun, it got the room going, and it gave us an easy way to start conversations with clubs afterward.
If a private club GM on Northstar reads this, what's the one thing you'd want them to take away?
Making tee time access easier doesn't have to mean changing your operation or giving up the personal touch members expect. Noteefy's Waitlist notifies members when the times they want become available, and it gives the pro shop time back. It's a simple way to improve the member experience with the tee sheet and processes the club already has.
Private clubs are already doing the hard part: building a membership that wants to play. When a time opens up, the member who wants it should hear about it first, without a phone call or a refresh. If your club runs on Northstar, let us show you how Waitlist can enhance your member experience.
Never Let a Cancellation Go Empty
The moment a golfer's preferred tee time opens, Waitlist alerts everyone waiting for it instantly, so the slot gets rebooked before it's lost, not logged as a missed opportunity.
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