Data analysis showed too many golf courses ignored when asking for fair play and timely updates.
Upper Arlington, OH– smbGOLF, the golf industry’s leading provider of data and tech strategy insights, has launched its first golf course monthly report subscription and service. Google Business Profile Service for golf courses provides course operators with a monthly “Google Business Profile Grade Card” – a personalized report scoring the course’s Google listing across ten key metrics – and offers hands-on optimization to improve those metrics. The goal is to help golf courses stand out in online search results and convert more searching golfers into bookings. For members of the Ohio Golf Course Owners Association (OGCOA), the service is offered at no charge as part of their annual membership package, while other golf courses and country clubs can subscribe for a low annual fee.
The idea for the service was sparked by a troubling discovery in smbGOLF’s recent data work.
“In the last month, we found multiple golf courses with broken Google booking buttons that led to dead or outdated reservation pages—often from vendors the course no longer even uses,” said Mike Hendrix, President of smbGOLF. “I reached out to the tech vendors and the golf course owners. One tech exec told me they’d take care of it, but the course owner said this had happened before. It was fixed once, then wrong again. Two weeks later, no change from the tech vendor. I spoke with Google and they confirmed: vendors are required to correct these errors within five days, but if bad data gets resubmitted, the burden falls back on the golf course to start the removal process all over again.”
“That’s when it hit me,” Hendrix continued. “In this scenario, the golf course—the business that owns the land, employs the staff, and serves the community—is the last priority. Somehow, the power dynamic got flipped, and no one’s fixing it. That’s the stuff that keeps me up at night. So we decided to do something about it.”
smbGOLF’s Google Business Profile Service is designed to put power back in the hands of course operators by ensuring their Google listings are accurate, high-quality, and fully optimized. Each month, the service delivers a clear report card that grades a course’s profile based on ten data points, including:
- Verification status
- Presence and accuracy of booking link
- Review count and response activity
- Positive and negative review tags
- Business category usage and subtypes
If smbGOLF is granted access as a manager on the listing, their team also fixes any errors directly, updates content, removes outdated third-party links, and ensures the listing reflects the course’s brand—not a vendor’s.
The service is priced at $395 per year. For an additional $995 each year Hendrix’s team manages review responses.
“Google has become the front door for golf courses, and AI agents have begun to open windows, and the back door” Hendrix said. “Your tee sheet, your photos, your reviews—it’s all there before a golfer ever lands on your website. If your profile is broken, outdated, or misdirected, you’re losing business before you even know it.”
About smbGOLF
smbGOLF provides unmatched vendor intelligence, Coursographics™, and consulting services for the golf industry. Trusted by golf tech companies, management groups, and owner associations, smbGOLF tracks vendor usage at over 17,500 courses and helps clients make better data-backed decisions.
