Good golf club web sites?

[LarryLong]

Hi folks,

I have recently put up my hand to give the club web site a bit of an upgrade, and I was wondering if people could suggest some good examples so that I can look around and steal learn from some of the better sites out there.

Not just looking for sites that look fancy (graphic design is definitely not my forte, so we'll be going minimalist for starters); I'm also interested in sites that are easy to navigate, well set out and provide good info/content for members and visitors.

[sms316]

I tend to like the MiClub ones. Take a look at www.miclub.com.au (http://www.miclub.com.au) to see their list of clubs. They are plain in some ways but just classy and not overdone. Too many clubs do what Nudgee has done and look cheap and shitty IMO.

[henno]

I think Golf QLD's website is rather well designed, as far as golf websites are concerned.

http://golfqueensland.org.au/

[Minor_Threat]

My home club Newcastle GC (http://www.newcastlegolf.com.au/) has a website, it is not the best I have seen but not the worst either.

[sms316]

I think Golf QLD's website is rather well designed, as far as golf websites are concerned.

http://golfqueensland.org.au/

Explain why the calendar is so rooted then?

[henno]

Explain why the calendar is so rooted then?

What's wrong with it?

[sms316]

Change the month and it just refreshes the current month. Then you have to choose next to move onwards.

Bit like how they do Country champs - half arsed.

[henno]

Change the month and it just refreshes the current month. Then you have to choose next to move onwards.

Bit like how they do Country champs - half arsed.

Works fine for me. I'm calling PEBKAC on this one.

You did read the error message that says you have to pick a year as well I hope.

[LarryLong]

Now back to me.

8183

[sms316]

Works fine for me. I'm calling PEBKAC on this one.

You did read the error message that says you have to pick a year as well I hope.
PEBKAC?

And yes, numbnuts. Maybe it is an IE thing.

[henno]

PEBKAC?

Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair. PEBKAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEBKAC).


And yes, numbnuts. Maybe it is an IE thing.

What version? If it's less than IE8 then it's your own damn fault.

[Hawkers2008]

Its a pretty good site compared to lots of others MT.

On a unrelated note, do you expect you will displace slappa as club champ when you get your amateur status back.

[kingslayer33]

Now back to me.

8183
No chance Larry once this has started.

I'm on a horse.

[dan]

A lot of the mi club sites just adopt a template style.

[3oneday]

Not sure about the club sites, but I reckon every club should have an online booking system, this is one my club in Sydney uses http://golf.micropower.com.au/contents/6186-booking-solutions

[henno]

What's the affiliation with ISG?

[3oneday]

I saw that on there, couldn't see anything referring to isg on my clubs website, so I didn't look any further. Probably makes sense though that isg is on as many golf related sites and doesn't isg have some booking system too ?

[henno]

Good point. I was just curious as to whether they are a sponsor, a partner or an implementation.

[LarryLong]

I think they are the developers for ISG. They also host the content management system for our web site, which looks reasonably good on my first quick browse. No PMs though. :)

Like the look of the MiClub sites SMS - I think you're right about the layout. They do look like they have a good graphic designer on board for most of them and the front pages tend to be very striking. Not sure if I can live up to that standard of appearance, but the content is important too. I'm also not a big fan of overly busy homepages (somewhere between the two extremes of a splash screen and a busy page is what I'm thinking), but I might not win that fight after talking to somebody at the club. They like Trentham's site, which really well done, but it does have heaps of stuff on the homepage competing for your interest. Are there any from MiClub's (long) list of sites that you would point to and say "This is well set out from a content point of view"? Interested in your opinion as somebody in the business.

I like the look of the Newcastle site, and the blog-style content is an interesting way of going about it. A little bit different to the usual site map. Cheers MT.

I also liked the calendar on the golf Qld site - even if it is rooted. :)

Still looking for specific golf club web site recommendations. It's much harder to rip off a broad concept. :D

[sms316]

What's the affiliation with ISG?


I saw that on there, couldn't see anything referring to isg on my clubs website, so I didn't look any further. Probably makes sense though that isg is on as many golf related sites and doesn't isg have some booking system too ?

Micropower and iseekgolf.com are the same company.

I'm hoping to get banned from Micropower shortly (an abusive phone call yesterday should get the ball rolling).

[sms316]

I think they are the developers for ISG. They also host the content management system for our web site, which looks reasonably good on my first quick browse. No PMs though. :)

Like the look of the MiClub sites SMS - I think you're right about the layout. They do look like they have a good graphic designer on board for most of them and the front pages tend to be very striking. Not sure if I can live up to that standard of appearance, but the content is important too. I'm also not a big fan of overly busy homepages (somewhere between the two extremes of a splash screen and a busy page is what I'm thinking), but I might not win that fight after talking to somebody at the club. They like Trentham's site, which really well done, but it does have heaps of stuff on the homepage competing for your interest. Are there any from MiClub's (long) list of sites that you would point to and say "This is well set out from a content point of view"? Interested in your opinion as somebody in the business.

I like the look of the Newcastle site, and the blog-style content is an interesting way of going about it. A little bit different to the usual site map. Cheers MT.

I also liked the calendar on the golf Qld site - even if it is rooted. :)

Still looking for specific golf club web site recommendations. It's much harder to rip off a broad concept. :D


PM sent with a couple of club website usernames and passwords.

[Hawkers2008]

The miclub sites tend to look the same because they sell clubs a web template and a tool to update the template. The cost of this as an addon to the rest of the software (membeship & handicap management amongst others) is absolutely nominal. I think micropower have a similar offering.

Its an easy solution for clubs - mostly they don't have the skills in house to do webpages from scratch, they don't want to keep spending time and money on developing and refreshing website designs, especially when their members mostly just want a bit of news and a facility to manage their golf bookings.

[Dotty]

Another vote for MiClub.
I thought our over-60s would struggle with any computer based systems for bookings, etc. They use it better than the old paper booking sheets.

Ditto for scorecard reader system installed six months ago. (I think it is AutoScore.)

[Minor_Threat]

Its a pretty good site compared to lots of others MT.

On a unrelated note, do you expect you will displace slappa as club champ when you get your amateur status back.To be honest I have no idea mate.. I have met him a couple of times, but haven't played with him. Ill be happy to make the matchplay qualification which is Top 8. My main problem will be getting enough gametime under the belt, although coming into summer will help. I would like to think I can give the regulars a good shake, but I have no expectations..

[LarryLong]

Just a bit of clarification - I'm not so much after a company or system to host the site - we already have the MicroPower system and it looks more than adequate (and we don't have a budget to change even if it didn't). All decent sites are ran from some sort of template / content management system, I've even developed one myself in a previous job, but in this case I'm more interested in sites that look good and are well set out in terms of what they put on the homepage and how they structure the content/menus so that I can check them out, learn from them, and make some suggestions to the committee.

Thanks for the links SMS!

Hey Dotty, I'm interested in knowing what your club offers on the site in terms of results etc and how much the members make use of this? Our membership is mostly old blokes, but more and more of them are becoming web-literate these days.

[Dotty]

With our original MiClub system, the section on the members' homepage had links to a PDF pages. (I think there was the member's last 5 games and 2nd list of the club's last fortnight.) These were just the sheets that go put into the result folder beside the club noticeboard. (CCR, Winners and Runners-Ups names and scores, NTP winner (and teammates as balls are usually shared) and score needed for the ball comp.)

Since adding on the AutoScore system, there is a list of the last 12 club results (no personal list), which includes live updates of the event being played. This lists every players score, and a tick-of-the-box will give a hole-by-hole breakdown of every player.

It seems to get used, as people that I haven't seen in a while know what I scored recently. (You just made me recall that I too often searched for a newspaper at work, to find the previous day's results.) Grandkids, joke-forwarding, shares, etc. have made 95% of our over-60's familiar with using a PC.

There is no longer the queueing at the club at 5pm Friday/Tuesday to get the names down for next week. They mostly wait until 7pm that night for the booking sheets to be opened up to the internet.

On big advantage is that a player can check his tee-time anytime, and also see if a mate has booked him in, which he may or may not be aware of. (We often book in 4-8 names in one go.) And there is also an automated waiting list, that finds a player a timeslot, when someone drops out, and it will notify the player with an email.