Golfers find this Web service suits them to a tee

Computerworld - Most golfers would be pleased if Lee Trevino or Arnold Palmer came to tee off at their country club during a Senior PGA tournament.

For Bill Walsh, having the golf stars at his country club was almost a nightmare.

Walsh is the golf director for Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord, Mass., which hosted a Senior PGA Tournament last weekend. Usually, the Senior PGA event at Nashawtuc is in August. But this year, it was rescheduled to be held the same weekend as the annual Member-Guest Tournament, when club members invite guests from all over the country to play. Walsh had to reach the members fast to inform them that the Member-Guest Tournament was being rescheduled for August and that the Senior PGA tournament would be held June 22 to 25.

Fortunately, a few months earlier, Walsh had begun developing an interactive Web page for the club with a Web hosting company. Although the site wasn't fully operational, Walsh was able to post a notice almost immediately on the Web to inform members of the change in the tournament schedule. That saved him hours of angry phone calls, and it spared his members the expense of useless airline tickets.

"If we had to go through [a] mailing to everybody, it would've taken three weeks," Walsh said, and the notices would have arrived in members' mailboxes after they had made travel arrangements.

Without having to pass off the work to the Web hosting company, The Country Club Network in Sudbury, Mass., Walsh was able to put up an advisory himself about the change in tournament dates two hours after he got word from the PGA.

The nascent service provider hosts Web sites for 89 golf clubs and a handful of athletic clubs across the country. The company provides a template of the Web site, based on what club members are used to seeing in the clubhouse and pro shop.

Members can track their tournament scores hours after the last golfer sinks his final putt, instead of driving back to the pro shop days later to see handwritten results posted on a club bulletin board. Walsh said that is the most popular feature so far for the members at Nashawtuc. They can also make reservations in the club dining room via e-mail and check tee times. Most important, the club can save thousands of dollars in mailing costs by sending targeted member e-mails through a database hosted by The Country Club Network.

With 1,093 total members, Walsh said his club spends around $20,000