Let golfers book online

Quick answer. On the tee sheet press More, then Sheet settings, and tick Let golfers book online under Online booking. Choose how many days ahead golfers can book, and press Save. Your booking page then opens at your club's link with /book on the end. A golfer picks a day, a time, how many are playing, types a name and a phone or email, and presses Book it. This article covers the booking. It does not cover paying online: we did not walk that, so it says nothing about it.

Who can do this: an Admin or an Organizer of the club. We walked the setup as the club Admin. We walked the golfer's side without signing in.

Before you start

Set up the sheet first: Set up your tee sheet. A booking page with no tee times on it is no use to anyone.

The steps

1. Press Tee Sheet in the side menu, then More, then Sheet settings. Move down to Online booking.
2. Tick Let golfers book online. Under it the page says "Opens your public booking page — one link, no account needed, no booking fees." We did not check the last part.
3. Choose Golfers can book: 3, 5, 7, 10 or 14 days ahead. In our walk we chose 3 days ahead on a Wednesday, and the golfer's page offered Today, Tomorrow, Fri and Sat.
4. Look at the other choices on the same page. We only walked these two:
   • Online cancellation closes: Any time before tee-off, 2 hours before, 4 hours before or A day before. When we chose A day before, a golfer's change-or-cancel page said "Online cancellation closes 24 hours before the tee time — call the course instead."
   • Strangers can share a tee time. When a time was partly booked, the golfer's page showed it as "2 open" and "shared".
5. The page also has Members can book, New days open at, Golfers can book without signing in, Ask guests for a phone number, Member perks only for signed-in members and After this many no-shows, stop online booking. We did not walk these, so we cannot tell you what they do on a golfer's screen.
6. Press Save. The page says Saved and takes you back to the sheet.
7. Open your booking page yourself. It is your club's page address with /book on the end. Your club's page also has a Book a Tee Time button, and the QR card points to it once booking is on.
8. Book a time as a golfer would. The page says "Book a tee time — no account needed." and asks "When do you want to play?" Press a day, then a time. Times are grouped, such as "Afternoon 11 times".
9. The next step asks "Who's playing?" and "How many players?" (1 to 4 in our walk), "Your name" and "Phone or email". Press Book it. Left empty, it says "Tell us a name for the booking." Under the button the page says "Nothing to pay online. Free to change or cancel — your confirmation comes with a link." That is what the page said on our demo club. We did not check it for any other club.
10. The next page says You're booked! with the day, the time, the number of players, the holes and the course. In our walk we typed a phone number and no email, and the page said: "We don't have an email for you, so nothing is coming by message — the course has your number. Add an email and we'll send your booking, or use the buttons below."
11. The buttons are Email it to me, Change or cancel this booking, Add to your calendar and Book another time. We typed a bad email and the page said "That doesn't look like an email address — check it and try again." With a good one it said "We sent the details and a change-or-cancel link to" that address. We did not check an inbox.
12. Check that it reached you. We saw the booking on the printed day sheet at its time, with the phone number the golfer typed: Print the day's sheet. We did not look for it on the sheet itself.

What you should see

With the box ticked and saved, your booking page lists days and times. Without it, it says "Online booking isn't open here yet. Call the pro shop to book a tee time." and offers Call the pro shop with your phone number.

If it goes wrong

• Golfers see "Online booking isn't open here yet." The box Let golfers book online is not ticked, or it was not saved. Open Sheet settings, tick it and press Save. We saw this message while the box was off.
• A golfer cannot see a day you expected. Look at Golfers can book. It limits how many days ahead they see. At 3 days ahead we saw four days on the strip.
• A golfer cannot cancel online. Look at Online cancellation closes. Past that time the page tells them to call the course.
• A partly booked time shows "2 open" and "shared", or a booked time is gone. That comes from Strangers can share a tee time. The settings page says that with it off, once anyone books a tee time the rest of it comes off your booking page. We saw the "shared" label with the box as it was and did not walk the off case.
• The golfer typed a wrong email. The page says "That doesn't look like an email address — check it and try again."
• A golfer wants a different time. The page has "Want a different time? Join the waitlist". We did not walk the waitlist.
• A member is booking. The page has a box "Phone or email the course has on file" under "A member here? Add your phone or email to see member days". We did not walk member days.
• Paying online. We did not walk any payment, and we did not touch a payment provider. If you need that, ask us at support@back9ops.com before you promise it to your golfers.

Director's tip

Open your own booking link on your own phone before you tell anyone about it. Book a time, then cancel it with the link in the confirmation. That is exactly what your golfers will do.

Related

• Set up your tee sheet
• A golfer's booking link
• Print a QR card for the counter

Still stuck?

Email support@back9ops.com and tell us your club's name, your booking link and what the page showed.