Tee Time Booking Site Swings Into B.C. Courses
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2024-03-27
By Gord Montgomery, Senior Writer, Inside Golf
SHERWOOD PARK, Alberta — Slow and steady, like a good backswing, is the path golf entrepreneur Jeff Sveen is taking with his online tee time booking site, Play Golf Canada (www.playgolfcanada.com).
Sveen, a Class A professional, said he has always had the start-up business spirit and as such noted his original site, Play Golf Alberta (www.playgolfalberta.com), is now in expansion mode. It was first teed up 14 years ago and since then, he concentrated on the Edmonton area, where he still holds a firm grip. In 2014, he expanded into the Calgary market and courses in central Alberta in 2024.
He explained why he’d chosen this route rather than stay on as a club professional: “I feel like I’d paid my dues as a club professional, working 20 years in that industry. I’m a little more entrepreneurial, always ventured out a little bit.”
He added that the Golf Now site caught his attention when it first hit the internet and that set him off on his undertaking. “I just felt from a consumer standpoint that they could go to one website and have the option to play many different golf courses. It was the convenience of booking and to make golf a little more affordable.”
Jeff Sveen, The Owner Of Play Golf Alberta & Play Golf BC, Has Amalgamated Those Two Sites—And Others To Come—Into Play Golf Canada, An Online Site For Tee Time Bookings At Select Courses. The Site Allows Users To Book One To Four Spots At Reduced Rates Between 25% & 35% At Several Courses. For More, Go To www.playgolfcanada.com. (Photo By Gord Montgomery/Inside Golf)
Having done just that in Alberta, he’s now heading west into British Columbia with his first five courses split between Kelowna and Kamloops. “We’re going to start slow,” he noted, adding those four courses for now.
The thing about using this online booking site is that your fee, paid upfront, includes your round, use of a power cart, and range balls at facilities that include a range. Using Play Golf Canada, golfers can save between 25% and 35% on rack rates.
For three of the five courses in B.C. that have joined Play Golf Canada, public online bookings can be made well in advance of when you want to test your skill on some great tracks. Tower Ranch and Sunset Ranch in Kelowna and Rivershore Estates and Links in Kamloops all have 60-day advance bookings. At Bighorn G&CC and Eaglepoint Golf Resort, also in Kamloops, their booking timeline is 14 days in advance.
About launching in British Columbia, Sveen noted, “We’re just going slowly in B.C. We want good partners. Good courses. A nice variety, but we’re not looking at having 60 golf courses in the province. We want to be very selective and grow this out.”
Given the business name change, Sveen begins to look further to the east. He toured parts of Saskatchewan in the summer of 2023 and is looking into Manitoba and Ontario.
“It’s a little more incentive with that name. We have to go across Canada so I’m looking forward to that.” For now, though the focus remains on Alberta and B.C. to give travelling golfers, or those staying at home, a chance to play the game for a bit less money.
To access those discounted tee times at some great B.C. courses, go to www.playgolfcanada.com and follow the links.