iDealGolfer

iDealGolfer.com is a website that provides daily deals for rounds of golf.  Are you familiar with Groupon or Living Social?  Well, iDealGolfer is just like a Groupon for Golf Courses.  I must admit, with all the hype of Groupon and the tremendous growth that the site has gone through, I had the idea of doing some kind of daily deal golf site.  Well, the folks from Avid Golfer are one step ahead of me and started iDealGolfer.  I think this is a great idea, the model works out well for both golfers and golf courses.

Golf Courses are always competing to fill all of their tee times, especially with the growing number of golf courses being built.  iDealGolfer can provide a golf course a lot of golfers and awareness with golfers.  The golf course will have to provide a pretty large discount, say 30-50% off a standard green fee, but they will be promoted in front of thousands of golfers.  For each person who buys a deal, that golfer will play the golf course.  The goal of the golf course is to turn that golfer into a repeat customer.  In addition to people who buy the deal, iDealGolfer will be promoting each deal, so the golf course will receive quite a bit of advertising for their deal.

Each deal is different, as some of the deals have certain blackout dates and/or times.  Deals also expire, so make sure when you are going to buy a deal that you can actually use the deal without it expiring.

iDealGolfer has integrated well with Facebook to help promote their deals.  They have a fan page setup, with over 850+ people liking the page.  It appears from the past deals that anywhere from 200 to 600+ people buy each deal.  Each deal can also be liked on Facebook, emailed to a friend, or send to Google Buzz.  It's interesting that they do not have some kind of Twitter integration for the ongoing deal?  There are twitter buttons on the past deals, which is kind of interesting.

Locations

Currently, iDealGolfer seems to be most active in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  Luckily for me, that's where I currently live.  They just started doing deals in the Hill Country.  For those of you not in Texas, that is the Austin, TX area.  They also have listed Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and St. Louis, however, it doesn't appear to have much activity for deals.  I'm sure those areas will be the next cities they are going to grow into.

How It Works

The website is pretty intuitive, and easy to figure out.  When you see a deal that you like, you click on the deal to "buy" it.  You'll have to create an account, so that when the deal is done you can print the coupon and be able to redeem it.

Each deal has a time limit that you can buy it.  The time limit is usually several days.  Once the deal time limit has expired, you will have the chance to log in and get the coupon to use.

• CHECK THE DEAL. Once they begin you will get an email daily showing the discounted deal of the day.
• BUY. If your interest peaks, then click BUY NOW!
• SHARE. Then share your findings with friends, family, coworkers and even that golf buddy that still owes you for losing the last round!
• REDEEM. Print your coupon and present it at the golf course or business featured by the expiration date.

I will be watching iDealGolfer over the next year to see how this idea progresses.  I think this will be very successful because it is good for the golfer, and for the golf course.  I wish I would have acted on my idea before iDealGolfer made its debut.

If anyone has used this site, I would be interested in hearing about your experience with the process.  Just leave a comment.