Golf: County streamlines tee time, discount card systems
The golf bag has been removed from deep inside the storage closet. The tire pressure on the three-wheel cart meets specifications. The grooves on the irons have been scrubbed clean.
You need a tee time.
Golf isn’t the easiest game, but securing a tee time at the three Spokane County courses – MeadowWood, Liberty Lake and Hangman Valley – just got easier. Thanks to technological upgrades, customers can compare and book tee times at any of the three courses with a single phone call.
“We’ve switched our software and now all three (pro shops) can see what’s available at the other courses,” said Nautice Pham, accountant for the Spokane County Parks, Recreation and Golf Department. “It’s something we think we needed and we’re trying to do whatever we can to make it as simple as possible.”
Gone are the days of multiple calls and multiple reservations in search of the ideal tee time.
“The old way you’d call up the course, find out the tee times and if it looked good you booked it,” Pham said. “Then you’d call another course and if they had a better time you took it and called the other back to cancel, or maybe you didn’t. Some don’t call to cancel. It was pretty cumbersome for the customers.”
The new software is also convenient for out-of-town visitors trying to play multiple courses in a limited time frame, as well as the staff at the pro shop.
“We have a number of Canadians that come down and enjoy playing Liberty Lake and MeadowWood,” Liberty Lake pro Kit DeAndre said. “With just that one long-distance call, they can not only book our course but both courses. It might be a scenario where they want to play Liberty in the morning and MeadowWood in the afternoon and I can peek over at MeadowWood’s tee sheets and see that they might have something going in the afternoon, let’s change it around.”
Cardless discounts
There’s a change regarding the popular $30 discount cards for county courses. There won’t be an actual card issued. The golfer’s name will be entered into database so they don’t have to show their discount card in the pro shop. Players still might be asked to show ID.
“That information is shared at all three courses so the computer will pull up the name and the appropriate rate,” Pham said. “The comment we hear time and time again is, ‘Hey, that’s great, I won’t have another card to lose.’ ”