For Jake Gordon, helping solve Los Angeles County’s public golf booking challenges represents more than just business success – it’s a personal mission.

The Noteefy founder and CEO spent countless hours as the designated “booker” for his golf buddies, often fruitlessly placing calls to local golf facilities or frantically refreshing multiple browser tabs on Thursday and Friday mornings in the hope of securing coveted weekend tee times at local courses.

That frustration – “madness,” as Gordon has more aptly termed it — led him to create Noteefy, an automated tee time demand system that’s among the fastest-growing companies in the golf industry. The platform has helped some operators realize a $250,000 boost within the first six months of their partnership. And Noteefy has now found its way home after teaming with American Golf, perhaps most notably its 20 courses in the Los Angeles County market, the busiest public golf region in the U.S.

“As a Los Angeles County native and avid public golfer, there is tremendous fulfillment to help make the game more accessible to play in the local market,” Gordon said. “We know there are bad actors with bots and brokers, and this partnership highlights the importance of technology to make tee time access more equitable.”

Recouping Revenue

Often likened to OpenTable or Resy for golf, Noteefy has sent over 3.5 million text messages to golfers this year about unused inventory. The company’s technology helps courses recoup significant revenue from the more than 20% of tee times that it says are typically cancelled and not re-booked – a problem that costs some courses $50,000 or more annually in lost revenue.

Given the increased play, participation and engagement across the U.S. golf landscape in recent years, almost two-thirds of public courses in the U.S. report being at or near playing capacity, according to the National Golf Foundation. Because of this increased demand, it’s not surprising coveted tee times often get snatched up as soon as they become available.

Noteefy is not only helping ensure they don’t go unused when the early bookers drop out, but making the process easier and more equitable for consumers.

American Golf Partnership

Since launching with American Golf in September, thousands of golfers have used Noteefy through the course’s online booking platform to play almost 8,000 rounds, generating nearly $175,000 in added revenue from cancellations inside 48 hours alone. Los Angeles has the second-most golfers per public course of any major metro area in the country, per the NGF.

The success at an immensely popular public facility like Los Verdes Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes illustrates the Noteefy impact. Los Verdes shares a similar oceanfront setting as nearby Trump National Los Angeles but costs about $50 to play and hosts around 100,000 rounds annually.

On the home page of the course’s website, golfers can find the Notefy tee time wait list. In this particular case, the branding is there, but in many others it simply looks like the property’s booking engine that Noteefy works with seamlessly. From there, golfers can add parameters – from days of the week and time windows to the number of players. A golfer can put in a recurring search for Saturdays, for example, and receive a text message alert if a tee time that meets their parameters opens.

Because Noteefy is integrated with all the other L.A. County courses, golfers could add those to their recurring searches as well.

“It goes back to this idea of accessibility,” said Gordon. “It’s nearly impossible that you’re going to get an 8 a.m. tee time as Los Verdes, but there’s a very high probability that of the other 20 courses within 45 minutes, one of them will have an 8 a.m. tee time on Saturday. You can spread the demand, almost democratize that across the portfolio. As a result, rounds are up, accessibility is up, and calls (to the busy staff at golf shops) are down.”

Improving Accessibility

While golfers tend to have a first-choice course, it’s notable that 60% of the bookings from the thousands of searches end up going to courses that have more inventory, not the original course that had been searched.

American Golf’s Head of Revenue Management, Rick Crowder, acknowledges the historical challenges in the L.A. market.

“We know there has been frustration by golfers with accessibility, and our partnership with Noteefy highlights our commitment to enhance golfers’ experiences,” Crowder said. “At the same time, we are seeing a major spike in utilization, particularly from cancellations inside three days.”

Noteefy’s growth extends far beyond Southern California.

The company has expanded from just under 100 course partnerships a year ago to over 570 golf courses today, with more than 400 additions in 2024 alone. The platform is now used by seven of the top 10 management companies and has coordinated more than 100,000 rounds for golfers this year.

“This is just perishable inventory that’s at risk for the course,” Gordon noted. “If you have this, effectively an insurance policy, and are making money, it’s a great service for the golfers and the operators. Everybody wins.”