Golf Genius is well named

By Neville Idour

 

The Golf Genius app is proving to be a wonderful asset in the administration and running of any golf event for those clubs and organisations utilising it. 

Whether it be a small club event or a major open event, once in place it can be rolled out subsequently with ease saving huge amounts of time and number of people required to run the tournament.

Australian Peter Shaw, the director of sales for the APAC region (Australia, New Zealand and Asia) for Golf Genius was at The Hills Pro-Am assisting The Hills general manager Craig Palmer and seeing how successful it is.  It was a good opportunity for Golfer Pacific to get the lowdown on the Golf Genius story and experience why it is aptly named.

So how did it all start?

Shaw explains: ``It all started about eight years ago. I was running some corporate and pro-am events myself and I found Golf Genius because I wanted a better system. I contacted Craig Higgs who is the managing director now and is based in the UK. So we worked together to get it working for my events. After a couple of years other people in Australia wanted to do it. I was promoting it and the opportunity came up to work for Golf Genius.”

So who started Golf Genius?

``A chap named Mike Zisman started it and Craig was the first international employee. Zisman has over 40 years history in Enterprise Software and has worked for IBM and other companies. So he is the leading force having created this based on a problem scheduling a buddy trip with all his mates. He decided to build the software. There was a young guy at the time, Alex Tandrau. He was in Germany and wrote the first code for the scheduling called Golf Trip Genius. Alex who was the first employee still works for the company 14 years later. He is vice president of engineering now as we have developed.

“So it is a product that has gone from scheduling buddy trips to handling absolutely everything there is from clubs, social clubs to associations and most recently we helped Golf Australia run the Australian Open. In the USA we work with the PGA and the USGA and run majors. We did the PGA Championship and the PGA Senior Championship. Without being arrogant we feel we do it better than anyone else having 14 years of history building and continually developing the product. In two years time there will be 200 to 400 product enhancements. We do about six product releases a year to meet the needs of what a club like The Hills might want, or a golf association,  for example.

“The biggest thing for us is we have more than 100 developers which is more than any other business in golf.” 

Developers, what does that mean?

``These are the guys behind the product. They write the codes for the software that may be required. A recent one was how we scored college golf in the USA. They wanted it done differently. There are so many complexities within the golf industry and Golf Genius has done exceptionally well to meet those needs, but we are always learning. What we are doing for the USGA can be rolled out anywhere. We are working in England and Singapore.”

Many people think Golf Genius is just live scoring. That could not be further from the reality. Shaw pulls no punches. 

“It is way more than that. It is complete tournament management. The fans want to see what is happening in any event whether it be a club match, inter district or whatever. So we provide all the information for the event from start to finish.”

Who are you working with in New Zealand?

``We are working with The Hills, Tara Iti and Millbrook doing all their events. Many clubs are interested but we have to get the message out that this is a different system that adds to what clubs are already doing. We are not trying to replace Dot Golf (software provider for Golf New Zealand) by any means. Dot Golf is the system that clubs know and use daily. What we are trying to do is say there is another product out there that adds a lot of bells and whistles and a lot of engagement when you are doing special events like pro-ams and club championships. My focus is to work with New Zealand clubs.”

We asked Shaw where he is based.

``I am based on the Gold Coast. I’m originally from Sydney and moved there 20 years ago. I played a little bit of golf on tour and then ran events and taught so I have kind of come at it from a different angle now in administration.”

So did your hope of working with Golf New Zealand and Dot Golf fall over?

``We have been talking to Golf New Zealand and the PGA on and off for a number of years. They have just merged and that has put a bit of a halt to things. We like to work with the national association but the complexity here is that Dot Golf is owned by Golf NZ. So they have their own product and that is going to be their number one choice. But we think we add a lot and it would be nice at some point to be integrated to a degree where we can use the best of both worlds and they can leverage some of what we do to improve some of their events.”

We chatted with Dean Murphy the chief executive of Golf New Zealand and asked what the likelihood of a partnership with Golf Genius was. 

Murphy said: “Dot Golf is working with Golf Genius to investigate areas where we might be able to work together in markets around the world. Each company has a lot to offer and we are exploring how we might be able to work together on many fronts. At the same time Dot Golf is also significantly investing into its software platform including tournament management. While Dot Golf already runs tournament software solutions for club events right through to professional events our rapid expansion and customer demand is driving increased need to expand our offering in this area.

“Dot Golf was established in 1998 as a provider of software and IT (information technology) solutions for golf associations and clubs. It became the official technology provider to Golf New Zealand in 1999 and created the world’s first national centralised handicapping system in 2001.” 

In 2015 the software systems were developed to allow for international expansion. In 2019 Dot Golf became the official handicap and technology partner for England and Wales Golf and Golf Ireland. Scottish Golf came on board in January this year and further international expansion is scheduled for 2024 and 2025.

About three years ago Golf Genius extended it's tournament coverage product to another area of golf as Shaw relates. 

``We released a product for golf shops where we streamlined what the head pro or director of golf can do. Controlling demo clubs, customer orders and such like. So that was our second software product. The pro will have all his demo clubs listed and when someone tries a driver it can be attached to their profile. Reminders can be sent. One of the problems a pro can have is losing demo clubs if they are not returned. All orders are put on line and also tracking club repairs which no one has mastered. We say what can we do and the pro can tell us, and we will try to oblige.

“Recently in the USA, September I think, we released a product for coaches called Coach 360. So it will allow them to use it for scheduling, payments, lockers, data, communications. It is taking what a lot of apps already do and aggregating it all into one. We think it can be a real game changer because it gives a student that connection with their coach. We will look at bringing it out in the latter half of 2023 to the golf pros in Australia, England and internationally. We will localise it for each market. These are exciting times, however the hard part is breaking into new markets. Getting people to understand we are not an enemy but we are trying to work together with organisations.

“Quite simply it is another product and if it is done right it adds to the members' experience, the pros job and what they can do. Here at The Hills they use it all the time. We were at Millbrook this morning and they also use it all the time. They love it and have done hundreds of events. It is all about finding people who don’t look at something and say this is what we always do. In any market the established product is just that. So we come into a new market as we have expanded globally and we do tend to become the enemy instead of that’s a good product, let's work together. That is our hope in all markets especially New Zealand. Being based in Australia I have spent plenty of time here (NZ) over the years. Aussies and Kiwis fought together so why can’t we work together. That is kind of where we want to be.”

So how does Golf New Zealand fit in all of this?

``A lot of that revolves around what Golf New Zealand see in the future for us. Whether they want to do something officially or not we will keep working with the clubs. That is what we want the market to know. We are just a phone call or zoom meeting away and now the borders are open we are just a hop, skip and jump away and can come across to help clubs. Face to face meetings are so much more pleasant.”

As well as The Hills and Millbrook and Tara Iti they hope to add more marquee courses and clubs to it's stable.

We discussed the LIV golf coverage. Shaw pointed out the league scenario LIV has and that any golf club could use them to run a league. So you could run four person teams every week throughout the year and you could score it through Golf Genius. 

“Anyone can score stableford events but it is matchplay, round robins and other formats where clubs may want to make the change. We do it live, although we don’t have to. But scoring everything live is the key.”

From this writer's experience in The Hills Pro-Am, Golf Genius is indeed aptly named. To be able to have all the individual and team scores immediately available on your mobile phone because each group entered their scores on the app when each hole was finished was eye opening. It was easy to see why the USGA PGA Championship and Australian Open are using Golf Genius.

As for clubs currently using Golf Genius along with Dot Golf the general comments in favour of Golf Genius especially for resorts and courses dealing with groups and many events was that for overall service of requirements it fitted the needs better at the time.

Shaw concluded on a positive note. 

“It is always evolving. We are never sitting back. We just keep working and chipping away at all the golf associations. They might call me a pest but I think we are doing it for the right reasons which is to improve golf for the player.”