Derek Sprague, general manager of the Malone Golf Club, pondered changes in the marketing and distribution strategy for his club for the upcoming season. The Malone Golf Club had made significant progress in the past three years. The club completed the construction of a new clubhouse, made minor design changes to several of the 36 holes that make up the two golf courses, and upgraded the food and beverage offerings of the club.

The Malone Golf Club operates as a semiprivate club, offering both annual memberships and daily greens fee access. Many of the daily fee players come to the club, located in Malone, New York, from Canada—Montreal is only a 90-minute drive from the club. The club has used a Web site for several years to promote the golf, golf packages, food and beverage service, and other amenities. The club’s approach to the Web site (www.malonegolfclub.

com) has been primarily “brochure-ware,” that is, it is used as an addition to the printed brochures. Derek is thinking of taking a more aggressive approach to electronic commerce. He is considering a number of options, including accepting reservations online; developing a chat room where members and players could discuss the course, trade stories, and stay in touch with each other; and developing an online push e-mail and promotional strategy for frequent daily fee players and members of the club.

You have been retained as a consultant to the club. Derek has asked you to research the following questions and then meet with him next week.

He wants to review your early research before proceeding further or retaining additional consulting assistance.

Case Study Questions and Issues

1. What are the pros and cons of accepting tee time reservations online?
2. Will online reservations impact the staffing of the pro shop?
3. What electronic commerce business model should Malone Golf Club adopt? Should it auction off tee times at low-demand periods or keep the traditional pricing model in place? What are the financial implications of these options?

4. Should the club consider developing its own online reservation system or outsource this to another company that provides the service for other golf clubs?
5. What increase in greens fee and membership revenue will be required to offset the costs of an online reservation system?
6.How will potential online systems integrate with the current tee time system?
7. How might the members and frequent players react to online reservations? Will it be viewed positively or negatively?