Golf Tourism and AI
By Jim Stewart
Like many other business owners, my mind often wanders into the unknown abyss of where technology might lead our chosen industry in the short, medium, and longer term. It’s understandable to feel apprehensive. When these thoughts appear, it’s also important to remember that there’s a reason why you’ve succeeded to this point. You’ve made prudent decisions, you understand the importance of timing, you’ve treated people well and something that often goes overlooked – you haven’t followed the flock. But AI and how it will affect golf tourism is a lot to think about. Where do we even begin?
The starting point for any discussion on the future is to analyse how we’ve arrived at this point in time. Inbound luxury golf travel to the UK and Ireland is less than fifty years old. Computers were scarce, and the internet didn’t exist. Bookings at golf courses and nearby hotels were sometimes made by telephone, but much was still done by written letter. Imagine the admin and workload that went into designing a golf trip to Scotland or Ireland in the early 80’s. It must have taken weeks, if not months. The early pioneers saw this niche and began to build businesses that helped shoulder the above burden. The fax machine was a god send. Access to the best golf courses was easy and inexpensive. Being a Golf Tour Operator (GTO) in this era was a very lucrative business. Those at the top became wealthy in a short space of time. One of the early frontrunners, Fergus McCann, went on to acquire a 51% controlling stake in Celtic Football Club. The following 25 years saw many budding operators, but not all were signing cheques to buy world famous sports teams. The most notable success stories were Perry Golf and Links Golf St Andrews. These two companies pulled clear of the field with a professional approach and a deep understanding of the level of customer service that was required by a mainly North American clientele. It’s tough to know what happened first, market saturation or the award of a single commercial licence to one company (Keith Prowse Hospitality) but 1995 was when life started to become that little bit harder for GTO’s. By the mid-noughties there were 100+ companies manoeuvring for scraps from the monopoly-holding Prowse. In 2015, St Andrews Links Trust took back control of the commercial tee-times, a move that would define the industry until the current day. The world’s most famous golf course decided that having ownership of who played it outweighed a lucrative and easy-to-facilitate ‘one stop shop’. Not only did it allow the Trust to re-assume control, but it provided a level playing field for around 50 accredited ‘Authorised Providers’ to separate themselves through a clear set of criteria that promoted an ever-improving experience for the visiting golfer. This competitive environment resulted in an influx of talent, one that has resulted in probably the best industry-wide delivery of sports related tourism in the world. St Andrews now has a manageable number of expert companies ensuring that the local economy continues to thrive in a controlled environment.
What is Rory McIlroy’s quickfire answer when asked by a beginner on how best to learn and improve? “Play with better golfers. Surround yourself with better players”. I’ve always felt the same about business. Don’t be afraid to learn. Let’s begin to look at AI and listen to those at the forefront of this breakthrough in technology. Someone I’ve worked for, admired for many years, and who I can now call a confidant and friend is Declan Kelly - Founder and CEO of Consello. Why do so many of the world’s leading companies pay six and sometimes seven or eight figure sums for Consello’s advisory services? Put simply, they predict the future before it happens and manage it when it does. They predict “the consequences of the consequences”. And, as you imagine, recurring payments of that magnitude don’t stay in place unless results are good.
Perhaps a little background on Declan to understand why he is uniquely positioned to offer his thoughts on the subject. Hands down, the best part of working at Connoisseur Golf is that I can service business leaders and C-suite executives on a weekly basis. I’ve learned to absorb their behaviour, question myself as to why they make certain decisions, watch how they carry themselves and how they treat people. They come in all shapes and sizes but those, such as Declan, who succeed at the highest level over a sustained period are the ones who think differently. Yes, they all have analytical minds, but the very best CEO’s process hundreds of scenarios and distil all those variables into a succinct solution. They do this with conviction, speed and precision. Rarely is it the obvious answer, and often it’s a solution that would’ve been overlooked by the other members of the boardroom. Another significant arrow in Declan’s quiver is the ability (and the firepower) to bring the world’s greatest minds in-house. It’s critically important to know when others are better equipped than yourself to make specialist decisions. This is why he recruited the inventor of Uber - Oscar Salazar, who now heads up Consello’s tech division and will advise many of the world’s most influential business leaders on how to stay ahead of the curve. Declan calls AI “…the new Gluten-Free. Everyone wants to talk about it, but not many people really understand what it means or what it does. But that’s going to change, people will develop a greater understanding of it because it will affect billions of people around the world in the next five years. The adoption rates will differ depending on the sector within which you operate. The change to AI will very likely be consumer led, by corporates second and by governments third.”
Consello showed their hand on where they believe major change will take place early – the legal world. In October 2023, they acquired ProSearch Strategies who are the best-in-class provider of AI-enabled legal services to Fortune 500 companies. These companies want fast and accurate legal solutions, and in some cases, solutions that will set precedents going forward. These aren’t found in statutes, understood and read by overpaid lawyers, they’re found by combining accurate data with intuition. When AI gets better and better at this, the best legal answers will be tech-driven.
I believe travel and tourism is another sector which will morph rapidly. But how will it affect golf tourism in particular? The obvious thought is to think of the battle between the software developers to build the best AI-driven aggregator (in layman’s terms – a really smart website or plug-in that builds your golf trip in seconds with the best available tee-times and hotel rooms). Will this be the future of golf travel? For 80% of consumers, most likely. Most golf resorts and golf dependent hotels are purely driven by revenue. They want the maximum number of people visiting their resort with no real filter on who or why. All that matters is when and how many. The higher stratosphere of golf is a markedly different ecosystem. The premium venues are more interested in preserving control over their own business, their reputation and ensuring that it’s the correct people visiting their property. For the top echelon of golf courses such as The Old Course, Muirfield, Royal County Down, visitor numbers are not the leading driver. They sell out of tee-times in a matter of hours without any tech assistance. Their modus operandi is to get the best people playing their golf courses, and by best we mean those with the highest on-site spend / those who have been vetted for exemplary behaviour / generally those with lower handicaps (or at least below a cut-off point) / those who will be dropped off and collected by trusted transport operators and perhaps most importantly those that will not result in thousands of hours of communication. These barriers to entry and volumes of administration have until now been taken care of by a select number of GTO’s, and there’s no reason why this chain of delivery would change with the onset of AI. The golfers who fit within these criteria want complete golf trip solutions with a high-touch service level. They don’t blink at a £500 green fee, and in all honesty would pay £5000 for a game of golf if they knew the weather would be nice and they’d play well. They also value the human-element of the trip. They have the cell number of their travel advisor on speed-dial, they chat with their driver (in many instances helicopter pilot) about family and children, and they feel secure in placing their most valued commodity, time, in their preferred GTO’s safe hands.
The other main reason why AI won’t control the highest end of the golf travel spectrum, at least in the short-term, is because the above-mentioned clubs value working with a controlled set of GTO’s. Having one all-encompassing super-powered booking engine takes away their control. Having too many GTO’s is a headache. But having a medium number of trusted operators not only maintains their command but it also promotes competition with service level – elevating client experience to the highest possible level.
The most famous golf course in the world that allows public play and 'The Home of Golf’, St Andrews has spent decades distilling a formula that optimises this complicated logistical process. The cornerstone of this system has been the protection of 1-year contracts for operators to be “Authorised Providers”. For those fortunate enough to have played Chicago Golf Club, it’s a system that can be likened to their locker room designation. Member names are written in biro and slotted inside little paper card holders. Nothing is permanent and no-one is more important than the club. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing at St Andrews but they now have a system in place that works for everyone involved. Another superb case study is Muirfield, home to The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. They have opted for a hybrid model that allows some direct public booking (internally vetted), but the vast majority of tee-times are divided between a very similar list of GTO’s to those authorised by St Andrews. In return for such lucrative access, the GTO’s handle all the client administration and deliver perfectly suited golfers with zero drama.
However, familiarity can breed complacency. Ten years ago, I made the trip to play Oak Hill Country Club, host to seven major championships and a Ryder Cup. It’s located 15mins from downtown Rochester in Upstate New York. What struck me straight away was the feeling of a city in decline. There was an underlying presence of crime and destitution, but this was in stark contrast to the huge number of sprawling mansions and estates that surrounded the course and the area in general, although many appeared run down and dilapidated. The story became clear after my host explained what happened to Rochester’s most famous corporation – Kodak. If you owned a camera towards the end of the 20th century you would very likely find inside a small yellow cylindrical roll of film branded Kodak. The company was based just a few miles from the club and they enjoyed a dominant market share throughout the world. This global success meant a high level of wealth in Rochester, and life was good. However, their leadership moved late and ineffectively on a technological shift to digital cameras – astonishingly their own invention. They held on to film (and its astronomical profit model) for too long, before being trampled on by their competitors in the race for digital supremacy. Kodak was declared bankrupt in 2012 and the highly paid Rochester executives were now replaced by a lower paid workforce from different industries. No business remains at the peak by standing still.
I’m convinced that the lower end of the golf travel market will become controlled by a couple of high-volume providers who have been developing and testing AI-based technology for the past few years. You’ll be able to ask questions such as - “What is the best available golf trip to Scotland in September 2025?” or “What is the cheapest 4 night package to Ireland including 3 links golf courses?”. But for the time being, and for the reasoning described above, the answers won’t include the most premium golf courses. Ultimately, what does Connoisseur Golf do? We sell access and we sell the highest level of customer service. That won’t change. What may change for Connoisseur Golf in the short term is our internal processes and how we run our business.
The other significant movement I see in the golf travel sector isn’t from changes in the material world, but a new offering in the metaverse. Imagine the cash-rich / time-poor individual wanting to travel to play the famous courses of Scotland and Ireland. What if a virtual world existed where they could teleport their mind and senses into being there. These ‘experiences’ would have virtual tee-times, they would have virtual weather, they would have a virtual pro-shop with virtually logoed polo shirts. Golfers could virtually see and hear their playing partners, and they could play with their favourite brand of virtual golf clubs. However, this is all payable by non-virtual means. If you think this sounds like a step too far, think again. The early tech is already there, and in a parallel world, golfers are already parting with their hard-earned cash for high performance golf balls that don’t actually exist. If the accuracy of the experience develops to the extent where it feels real enough to be enjoyable, then why not? Where would the revenue stream end? Could you buy a virtual Links Ticket to St Andrews, and get preferential virtual tee-times? Could this be possible by buying a virtual apartment from a virtual realtor (who charges a virtual agency percentage), and walk the streets of the Auld Grey Toon as a fully-fledged virtual local? The options are endless, and the usual suspects have invested generously in the best specialist tech developers. The A-list venues and their peers named previously will hopefully be aware of the potential of infinite growth in this secondary golfing world and protect their assets accordingly. Who knows, in a few years you could be buying your virtual 11:30am Tuesday round on the Old Course from Connoisseur Golf in advance of your real-life visit…
