[thunky]

> Because it's convenient to have all buyers operating through a single network

I just don't see Golfnow as a "single network". I golf with a lot of people that have never heard of them. If a course isn't on Golfnow and I want to golf there, I still book with them however they want me to even though it's not as convenient.

Just like Booking.com has competition from Google, Google also makes it easy to find and link directly to any golf course to book.

I'm not saying you're wrong about some courses not liking them but I have a hard time understanding why it's so hard for courses to just not deal with Golfnow and take bookings another way if they think it's so harmful.

[scoofy]

Networks are natural monopolies. It’s no more complicated than that.

[thunky]

Obviously it is, because Golfnow is certainly not a monopoly.

There are small golf courses near me that don't use them and that's fine. Please don't shame the ones that do.

[scoofy]

With respect, I don’t think you understand what you’re talking about.

They are far and away the leading tee time advertiser. The golf courses are the “customers” I’m worried about. They are operated by the parent company of the Golf Channel. Comcast was their long term owner until they got spun off.

There isn’t really many companies in the golf space that can compete with that. I don’t want to have to explain things like the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index. My point is that ultimately, these companies are natural monopolies, and should be regulated like utilities because of that.

[thunky]

> With respect, I don’t think you understand what you’re talking about.

Probably not. I'm just telling you my observation.

And you're pointing out a problem without offering a solution. Your advice to OP is "don't link to Golfnow". So I suppose they should do what you do and just link to the course homepage... which links to Golfnow? What does that accomplish?

In any case, the golfnow.com is not what most people use to find courses. OP even said they are building their search app because "Google filters for golf course results are terrible". Not because golfnow.com searches are terrible. Golfnow is for booking, for which there are other alternatives that courses can use.

[scoofy]

>Golfnow is for booking

This is the misunderstanding. Golfnow is for advertising. The people booking tee times are not the customer, the course advertising their tee times on Golfnow are the real customers of Golfnow.

My concern is that market for tee time advertising is effectively completely controlled by one company. That should be concerning.

[thunky]

> This is the misunderstanding. Golfnow is for advertising.

Yes that is the misunderstanding. Lets agree to disagree.