Less than a week into the return of golf in England and GOLFNOW – the world’s largest distributor of online tee times with 9,000 course partners globally – has seen unprecedented demand on its UK website and app.
The relaxation of Covid-19 lockdown rules in England, which saw golf clubs reopen on 13th May for the first time in months, resulted in a boom in people looking to book safely online and enjoy socially distanced sport.
At its peak GOLFNOW traffic hit 25,000 users in a single day with a total of 90,826 visitors last week – a 681% increase in sessions, year-on-year and smashing the previous record week of 34,777 (during The Open last year). Since 13th May, more than 6,000 rounds of golf have been booked at available courses in England.
The GOLFNOW app was downloaded more than 5,600 times last week and saw 32,400 unique users.
Many courses in England however are, understandably, prioritising member play at this time, making the number of visitor rounds booked all the more impressive as less courses are available. GOLFNOW usually vaunts a selection of 1,700 courses in the UK & Ireland – however clubs that are happy to receive visitors are being added on to the platform daily.
GOLFNOW’s business-to-business technology brand, BRS GOLF, has seen unparalleled levels of demand on its tee sheet, members booking website and mobile app from golf club members.
BRS GOLF is the most installed tee sheet in the world, used by 3,500 golf clubs across 14 countries. In the last seven days, clubs in England using BRS GOLF technology have sent 2 million member emails with over 2.3 million rounds booked or updated. Unique logins across BRS GOLF admin, members and visitors’ sites last week hit 687,000 users with over 14 million page views.
At peak traffic BRS GOLF saw over 36,000 member requests per minute last week – these include logins, tee sheet visits, bookings and booking updates.
BRS GOLF’s senior director of product and technology, Phil Doherty, said: “This level of demand has never been seen before. The team here are working incredibly hard to ensure all our systems are running smoothly now, and in the coming weeks. People understandably are eager to get back out on the course, and we want to help golfers and golf clubs get back to doing what they love after a very uncertain couple of months.”
