News

The golf.com top 100 courses in the world has been released.

Epic Software would like to congratulate all at the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, Royal Dornoch Golf Club, Kingsbarns Golf Links, Castle Stuart Golf Links, North Berwick Golf Club and Royal Porthcawl Golf Club on their inclusion in the list.

We are proud to work alongside these clubs.

Being amongst the highest rated courses in the world creates a great demand for tee times at these courses.

Using our software solution Freetime to manage reservations and on the day play ensures that the standard of the course is matched by the efficiency of the service, allowing the staff to concentrate on giving golfers the warmest of greeting and the friendliest of service, leading to the best of days. 

The Championship Course at Royal Dornoch Golf Club is viewed as one of the finest courses anywhere. It is ranked as the 16th best course in the World and 4th best in Great Britain & Ireland.

Whilst this status has been enjoyed for many years the Club has not rested on its laurels.

In 2010, the Club undertook a review of its strategy and position in the market place, which has led to the development of a new marketing strategy and to Royal Dornoch forging partnerships with other courses and relevant businesses so that it can tap into the worldwide golfing market and maximise its position amongst the world’s elite.

A core element of the Club’s intention to have an improved presence in the marketplace has led to the development of a new website, www.royaldornoch.com, with a complete online booking and payment facility.

The new website and services were first launched to the Club’s membership early in 2011 and received rave reviews for the content and the functionality that has allowed the members to access many new features, one of which was online tee time booking. After the success of this the Club then moved on to the next stage of its plan: online visitor tee time booking and payment. This was developed in conjunction with the website creators, The Cheryl Hopkins Consultancy, and the Club’s existing software provider Epic Software.

From the moment the online system went live at the beginning of July the world’s golfers have taken to it immediately and have been using it to great effect ever since with over 60 golfers booking and paying for tee times in the first month.

Club Captain Hamish Macrae comments: “We have always been very keen to share our course with golfers from all around the world and the online booking system allows us to continue to offer golfers from every corner of the globe access to the tee times that they want and guarantee their game at Royal Dornoch in a very modern fashion. This facility is an excellent addition to the service we already provide and will allow our staff to give our members and visitors an even higher level of experience every time they play our course.”

Peter Halton of Epic Software added “We have already seen many of our customers adopt the growing range of online facilities that we offer as they realise the benefits of providing online services. The specific requirements of a busy club such as Royal Dornoch warranted further development of the booking engine and from working with the team at Royal Dornoch I am pleased to say that we have been able to introduce additional features that will ensure that they can serve the online customer without compromising the needs of the Club and its members.”

Luke Donald, the world number 1 won the first Barclays Scottish Open to be held at the Castle Stuart Golf Links, just outside Inverness.

The tournament unfortunately fell prey to the heaviest rain showers in July for 40 years and led to it being shortened to 54 holes.

The event attracted more than 50,000 people despite the reduction in play, the local area hugely supported the tournament and its importance to the Highlands was apparent to all.

Next year we hope its 23C and sunny.

Great job by all concerned and good luck to the staff for the rest of the year.

As one of the premier pay and play golf facilities in the world Kingsbarns Golf Links is open to any golfer.

As a further enhancement to the opportunity to play at Kingsbarns, they have recently launched an online booking service.

This service is aimed at golfers who have not already made an advanced reservation for Kingsbarns or who have been unable to secure a booking elsewhere in the golf rich area and are looking for a game.

The system utilises a simple online booking form which is fully integrated and synchronised in real time with the Freetime booking system in operation at Kingsbarns, the tee times available online are those within three days of play and instant authorisation and confirmation is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Speaking about the new service, Donna Clark, Business Development Manager said

“The online booking tool is very easy and quick to use. It guides golfers through the process of booking tee times and gives them instant confirmation of the both the reservations and their payment.”

“We recognise the importance of online booking, it has been working successfully for the travel and leisure industry for many years and we would like to give our clients the same flexibility. Our Freetime software has given us the ability to do this without compromising our core activities or adding any additional work or inconvenience for the staff or the customer.”

To book a last minute tee time at Kingsbarns visit the websate at

https://www.kingsbarns.com/last-minute-bookings

John Dinsdale former Secretary at Royal Portcawl has recently been elected as National Captain of the Golf Club Managers' Association.

John is someone we worked with closely during his time at Royal Porthcawl and we wish him great success in his year in office. The honour is a greatly deserved one and we wish John a very successful year, he can only hope the weather is better for him than it was for his predecessor Mike Hoare, who by all accounts had a rain cloud following him around the golf courses of the UK and Ireland for 12 months.

Congratulations John and have a great year.

Barclays Scottish Open adds 2 more current major winners to the field

http://www.castlestuartgolf.com/press/Charl-and-Louis-BSO-Release.pdf