Announcing Golf Select

[jeffc]

Our goal is to keep our members happy and have them play as much golf as possible, and we buy our passes based on statistical data and courses that are most in demand... If we only have 4 or 8 passes at certain courses it's either because of one of 2 factors:

1. The number of passes at that course reflects the demand for It ... We can't permit ourselves to buy 20 spots at a course when past usage indicates that we would only fill 4-8 of those on a daily basis. If we did that we would not be in business for very long.

2. The course sells a limited amount of Corperate memberships to its course


We want you to play golf, the more golf you play the more you can see your savings and the advantage of being a member, it's ibviously good for us as well. When will continue to offer the best course list and best ratio of member/memberships at partner courses in the business.

Cheers,

you are missing the point. if there are still 8 spots at equinelle and there are 3x the # of people vying for those spots it will be impossible to get them. I get that equinelle may not want to offer more sports but we all know which courses were hard to book at. If they become harder than for me anyways, it's a downgrade.

[Duckhook81]

you are missing the point. if there are still 8 spots at equinelle and there are 3x the # of people vying for those spots it will be impossible to get them. I get that equinelle may not want to offer more sports but we all know which courses were hard to book at. If they become harder than for me anyways, it's a downgrade.

At GolfXtra we had 8 spots at eQuinelle this year and there were open spots every day. We had too many... We sent an average of 3 ppl a day all year... Just to say that not all member value the same courses as you do. The core membership of Golfxtra member is based in the Gatineau area and eQuinelle is a 1+ hour drive for most. we have over 65 courses,

If our biggest problem/complaint is that it's difficult to get on one or two of our 65+ courses because of factors beyond our control then I would say that as a whole were doing pretty darn good !
Wouldn't you ?

[jeffc]

At GolfXtra we had 8 spots at eQuinelle this year and there were open spots every day. We had too many... We sent an average of 3 ppl a day all year... Just to say that not all member value the same courses as you do. The core membership of Golfxtra member is based in the Gatineau area and eQuinelle is a 1+ hour drive for most. we have over 65 courses,

If our biggest problem/complaint is that it's difficult to get on one or two of our 65+ courses because of factors beyond our control then I would say that as a whole were doing pretty darn good !
Wouldn't you ?

I only play a few courses in town regularly so for me its whether I can get on those when I want to. Adding Corporate as well and keeing the same number of spots at certain courses will impact my decision. For others it may be an advantage.

[Chieflongtee]

At GolfXtra we had 8 spots at eQuinelle this year and there were open spots every day. We had too many... We sent an average of 3 ppl a day all year... Just to say that not all member value the same courses as you do. The core membership of Golfxtra member is based in the Gatineau area and eQuinelle is a 1+ hour drive for most. we have over 65 courses,

If our biggest problem/complaint is that it's difficult to get on one or two of our 65+ courses because of factors beyond our control then I would say that as a whole were doing pretty darn good !

Wouldn't you ?

Just curious as to how many spots were booked on a daily basis at Equinelle by RM and Corporate Golf members this year. Of course if you live near downtown Ottawa or on the Quebec side playing Equinelle is not the best choice unless you have plenty of time on your hands or are wiling to travel over 50 minutes to get there. But for people living in Bells Corner and Kanata, South Ottawa etc.. it is a much shorter drive and I can easily understand why they are not happy with the number of spots offered. Your competitor as of now offers 16 spots at $40. Just wondering if they will be able to buy another 16 spots for next year I guess you can't please everyone but the westerners have a point

[John]

I'm with Jeff. This doesn't bode well for next year.

[Duckhook81]

Just curious as to how many spots were booked on a daily basis at Equinelle by RM and Corporate Golf members this year. Of course if you live near downtown Ottawa or on the Quebec side playing Equinelle is not the best choice unless you have plenty of time on your hands or are wiling to travel over 50 minutes to get there. But for people living in Bells Corner and Kanata, South Ottawa etc.. it is a much shorter drive and I can easily understand why they are not happy with the number of spots offered. Your competitor as of now offers 16 spots at $40. Just wondering if they will be able to buy another 16 spots for next year I guess you can't please everyone but the westerners have a point

I guess my message about eQuinelle limiting Corperate memberships and how all companies will be affected by this reduction got lost in the mix....all I can say is our spots are up to date for
2015...

[John]

So am i confused or are there 8 spots available at equinelle across RM/Corp/Golf Xtra?

[big mac]

This thread is getting more confusing the longer it goes----???????????????

[justsomeguy]

you are missing the point. if there are still 8 spots at equinelle and there are 3x the # of people vying for those spots it will be impossible to get them. I get that equinelle may not want to offer more sports but we all know which courses were hard to book at. If they become harder than for me anyways, it's a downgrade.

Actually Jeff, I think that YOU are missing the point. This is how I understand it - perhaps Dan or Duckhook81 will correct me if I am wrong.

Equinelle has decided (for their own business reasons) that they want to sell fewer corporate memberships to discount golf organizations for next year. Instead of allowing 8 spots x 3 discount golf organizations = 24 tee times available to RM, CG and GolfXtra next year, they have decided that they will only have 8 spots available IN TOTAL to these organizations for 2015. (I'm guessing that there may be similar cutbacks in the EG spots for next year as well). So if you only care about Equinelle, then in 2015 there will be fewer spots available and more competition for them regardless of which discount golf organization you choose.

There may be other golf courses that feel the same way. Rather than risk losing access to a popular course entirely, these three golf discount golf organizations have decided to form an alliance where they would take all of the spots that the golf courses are willing to make available to each organization and combine them.

If you are happy with your current membership in RM, CG or GolfXtra then I don't see any reason why this should change anything. The question becomes whether you want to upgrade to Golf Select for a few more $$$. That decision boils down to:

a) if you have a difficult time booking at your favourite courses. There will now be more spaces available (yes, they will also be available to more people), but as Duckhook81 has pointed out there will likely will be a greater probability of open spots.
b) you want to play a course that is not currently available to your current organization but is available on another one. For example, The Meadows is currently not available to CG members - with Golf Select it would be.

[jeffc]

Thanks for the condescending tone but I am not missing the point. If there were 3 different clubs there would still likely be 8 spots at each. Now there are 8 total for a lot more golfers. In the end this is of less interest to me than before.

[Hanoman]

Kak I understand
With tax we're paying more
Buckingham goes from $18 to $24, Gatineau from $25 to $32
rezadue and jeffc I get
We now have 3X the members chasing 4 spots at Meadows, 8 spots at eQuinelle
Where I'm confused, justsomeguy, is this upgrade to Golf Select
That implies CG, GolfXtra, RM still exist
But now they don't have eQuinelle
But if it's an actual merger, the cynic in me says monopoly, then we have slightly higher prices
and less access to some courses

[BogeyGolf]

It reminds me of....when the City of Ottawa decided to amalgamate years back, it was going to save $ as it would merge all the various cities into one super city, saving the taxpayers money, reducing staff from duplicity of work, etc.... we all know how that worked out....

I can see why the 3 merged, saves on the business administrative costs, by becoming one...I think....

I am with jeffc, if we have 3x as many people going for the same number of spots at equinelle, meadows, our chance of getting a spot have now been reduced considerably by the merge...

The one thing that bothered me about CG and why I never joined, is that as an example, Bob would call in it 7am (telephone reservations were open one hour before online booking, not sure if this is still the case) and he would book 8 spots at eQuinelle for him and all his golfing buddies, taking up all the spots in one call, and leaving none for anyone else. I would in the future limit the number of spots one person can book at one time, maybe a restriction of only being allowed to book 2 spots with each reservation on each independent booking...or something like that...

Just my $0.02

[Chieflongtee]

Kak I understand
With tax we're paying more
Buckingham goes from $18 to $24, Gatineau from $25 to $32
rezadue and jeffc I get
We now have 3X the members chasing 4 spots at Meadows, 8 spots at eQuinelle
Where I'm confused, justsomeguy, is this upgrade to Golf Select
That implies CG, GolfXtra, RM still exist
But now they don't have eQuinelle
But if it's an actual merger, the cynic in me says monopoly, then we have slightly higher prices
and less access to some courses

Where did you get the prices posted above?
Gatineau is $26 plus tax with 48 spots. Buckingham is $21 with 20 spots. Last year's early renewal membership with Corporate was $280. This year it went down to $229.20. plus tax. So a $21 reduction. If you factor in the same amount of games there will be a slight increase but not much. Some courses there will be more access as you can see 48 spots at Gatineau(which tells me that Gatineau is not getting the traffic they were expecting-if they are willing to sell that many passes)' I could care less about Buckingham with their weekend lottery system. All and all I think it is very competititve but it is just a bummer that they only have 8 passes at Equinelle and 4 at Meadows for the folks living closer to those courses.

Buckingham

$21

20

Gatineau

$26

48

[Chieflongtee]

It reminds me of....when the City of Ottawa decided to amalgamate years back, it was going to save $ as it would merge all the various cities into one super city, saving the taxpayers money, reducing staff from duplicity of work, etc.... we all know how that worked out....

I can see why the 3 merged, saves on the business administrative costs, by becoming one...I think....

I am with jeffc, if we have 3x as many people going for the same number of spots at equinelle, meadows, our chance of getting a spot have now been reduced considerably by the merge...

The one thing that bothered me about CG and why I never joined, is that as an example, Bob would call in it 7am (telephone reservations were open one hour before online booking, not sure if this is still the case) and he would book 8 spots at eQuinelle for him and all his golfing buddies, taking up all the spots in one call, and leaving none for anyone else. I would in the future limit the number of spots one person can book at one time, maybe a restriction of only being allowed to book 2 spots with each reservation on each independent booking...or something like that...

Just my $0.02

Corporate has had online reservations starting at 7 for the last 2 years(so no longer the case) which in my case made it a lot easier to get the courses Before the implementation it was very annoying to wait on the line for 5 to 10 minutes just to be told that all the spots at a particular course I wanted were taken.
As far as Equinelle the week passes will be somewhat easy to get but the weekend will be hell. So as Cleek mentioned above if you want to get to those courses you'll have to be organized.

[Chieflongtee]

So am i confused or are there 8 spots available at equinelle across RM/Corp/Golf Xtra?

Only 8 spots available at Equinelle in 2015 for all 3 organizations and Golf select.
So what you see here http://golfselect.ca/courses-rates.html is what will be available to Corporate Golf, Golf Xtra, RM and the new Golf select if you pay the full pop membership.

[Hanoman]

Andre
I just rounded the price for Buckingham off
$21 plus tax is 23.73, basically $24
With Corporate it was 18, tax included, a 32% increase
Gatineau was 25, with tax , now 29.38, a 18% increase
I think someone mentioned golfing Gatineau 40 times
Now you're looking at almost $200 more a year
I guess it depends on one's definition of a slight increase

[John]

Looks like it's time to go another avenue next year.

[Bouboude]

John for sure with this merger you have some good and some bad. But for me and my guys who are located in Orleans we will consider switching from EG and we have been with them for years. For our group Equinelle is one we rarely play( it is a beautiful course) because of distance. One course that I could never figure out and maybe you guys can help me here is why Meadows does not offer more spots and with EG it is not on the list. I enjoy that course and it is 36 holes and usually busy but you would think a few more spots would be available.

[cleek]

'If it ain't broke , don't fix it' I am not seeing any benefit except for members who play on the Quebec side which I do not. Glad to see Hawksbury added , Meadows too but 4 only passes is like playing a lottery. I unlike some others who are retired or work shift work pretty much only play weekends on the more popular courses. We'll see what transpires , I had some luck with some last minute rounds on Golf Now last year so that could fill a void. I am loyal to CG so I will play along .....for at least one more year.

[big mac]

I think fellas before this is all done and finalized there will be a lot more "so called options" available. As Cleek says "if it ain't broke don't fix it" This --I think is just a sign of things to come.

Personally I think it is an over reaction to the state of the overall market.

As someone said----what a horrible launch .

I'm staying put.

[Duckhook81]

Actually Jeff, I think that YOU are missing the point. This is how I understand it - perhaps Dan or Duckhook81 will correct me if I am wrong.

Equinelle has decided (for their own business reasons) that they want to sell fewer corporate memberships to discount golf organizations for next year. Instead of allowing 8 spots x 3 discount golf organizations = 24 tee times available to RM, CG and GolfXtra next year, they have decided that they will only have 8 spots available IN TOTAL to these organizations for 2015. (I'm guessing that there may be similar cutbacks in the EG spots for next year as well). So if you only care about Equinelle, then in 2015 there will be fewer spots available and more competition for them regardless of which discount golf organization you choose.

There may be other golf courses that feel the same way. Rather than risk losing access to a popular course entirely, these three golf discount golf organizations have decided to form an alliance where they would take all of the spots that the golf courses are willing to make available to each organization and combine them.

If you are happy with your current membership in RM, CG or GolfXtra then I don't see any reason why this should change anything. The question becomes whether you want to upgrade to Golf Select for a few more $$$. That decision boils down to:

a) if you have a difficult time booking at your favourite courses. There will now be more spaces available (yes, they will also be available to more people), but as Duckhook81 has pointed out there will likely will be a greater probability of open spots.
b) you want to play a course that is not currently available to your current organization but is available on another one. For example, The Meadows is currently not available to CG members - with Golf Select it would be.

This is all pretty much correct apart from paying more money for golf select.... The only "upgrade" people have to pay is for members of reservation masters that renewed before the Golf Select alliance ... If you renewed for 2015 season with GolfXtra or Corperate golf then you have access to all golf select courses in 2015.

[Duckhook81]

'If it ain't broke , don't fix it' I am not seeing any benefit except for members who play on the Quebec side which I do not. Glad to see Hawksbury added , Meadows too but 4 only passes is like playing a lottery. I unlike some others who are retired or work shift work pretty much only play weekends on the more popular courses. We'll see what transpires , I had some luck with some last minute rounds on Golf Now last year so that could fill a void. I am loyal to CG so I will play along .....for at least one more year.

Like I already said if spots seem low at a popular course like meadows it's because that's all we have confirmed at the moment. We are talking about the 2015 season here. Many negotiations happen during the winter.

We are being upfront with all of you and not exagerating our spots just to have them go down at the start of the 2015 season .

[Break68]

I think I will be sticking with my current golf discount club for 2015 which is not 1 of these 3 discussed here.
The only course I would want from the list is Mississippi, and Golf Select shows no restrictions there, strange. I don't know how Mississippi's members let that happen.

[Break68]

Additionally Golf Select shows 7 days advanced booking at Mississippi and Mississippi members can't even book 7 days in advance on weekends now, this is very strange.

[Duckhook81]

Andre
I just rounded the price for Buckingham off
$21 plus tax is 23.73, basically $24
With Corporate it was 18, tax included, a 32% increase
Gatineau was 25, with tax , now 29.38, a 18% increase
I think someone mentioned golfing Gatineau 40 times
Now you're looking at almost $200 more a year
I guess it depends on one's definition of a slight increase

Eg is 24 plus tax at Buckingham
Gatineau is 25 plus tax at EG...

If golf courses increase the price they sell us Corperate memberships guys we also have to increase... And you should also take into
Account that cost of membership to GX,CG, and RM have actually gone down from previous years...: you are all free to make comparisons and choose the company which you fell will bring you the best savings and choice... I just think it's a no brainier when you look at everything.

[Chieflongtee]

[QUOTE=Break68;515112]Additionally Golf Select shows 7 days advanced booking at Mississippi and Mississippi members can't even book 7 days in advance on weekends now, this is very strange. [/QUOTE

Hey Jonathan. Read the note at the bottom:

Please note that the course list is preliminary and that the restrictions and advance booking information is under review and will be updated as information becomes available.

[justsomeguy]

Thanks for the condescending tone but I am not missing the point. If there were 3 different clubs there would still likely be 8 spots at each. Now there are 8 total for a lot more golfers. In the end this is of less interest to me than before.

No, there would not be 8 spots at each club for Equinelle next year regardless of whether Golf Select existed or not. Without this alliance, there would be 8 spots at one club or 4 spots at two clubs and the others would have nothing at Equinelle.

Equinelle has apparently decided to make less spots available next year, and that means that there was going to be more competition for the spots at Equinelle regardless of whether these 3 clubs merged or not. I don't know how many spots EG will have next year but I would be willing to bet that it will be considerably less than the 16 they had this year (if any). If you feel that this is a downgrade, then it is because Equinelle has made it so.

I didn't play Equinelle this year, although I could have played it whenever I wanted to at pretty much the same rates as the discount golf clubs. That's because my membership at Metcalfe included an Ottawa Golf Trail membership (only 26 courses, but Equinelle was one of them). It would be interesting to see if there are any changes with OGT for next year.

[Duckhook81]

No, there would not be 8 spots at each club for Equinelle next year regardless of whether Golf Select existed or not. Without this alliance, there would be 8 spots at one club or 4 spots at two clubs and the others would have nothing at Equinelle.

Equinelle has apparently decided to make less spots available next year, and that means that there was going to be more competition for the spots at Equinelle regardless of whether these 3 clubs merged or not. I don't know how many spots EG will have next year but I would be willing to bet that it will be considerably less than the 16 they had this year (if any). If you feel that this is a downgrade, then it is because Equinelle has made it so.

I didn't play Equinelle this year, although I could have played it whenever I wanted to at pretty much the same rates as the discount golf clubs. That's because my membership at Metcalfe included an Ottawa Golf Trail membership (only 26 courses, but Equinelle was one of them). It would be interesting to see if there are any changes with OGT for next year.

Again this is correct, Regarding eQuinelle. Equinelle are selling a set number of corporate memberships total ... Has absolutely nothing to do with the golf select alliance.

[BogeyGolf]

This is all pretty much correct apart from paying more money for golf select.... The only "upgrade" people have to pay is for members of reservation masters that renewed before the Golf Select alliance ... If you renewed for 2015 season with GolfXtra or Corperate golf then you have access to all golf select courses in 2015.

Is there any reason why people with Reservation Master have to pay a $50.00 upgrade fee while the other 2 discount providers do not? Would it not be that all 3 members would have to pay the upgrade? Maybe I am missing something, doesn't seem right that 2 providers get full access, and one can for an additional fee. As all have merged, would it not be that all 3 are now equal, and all 3 pay an upgrade fee, or none pay an upgrade fee???

[BogeyGolf]

Can I ask another question, were any of the 3 providers bought out by another discount provider within? Foe example, did CG buy out Golf Extra and RM, and along with that their clients? I am just curious....