It's been a wild ride in 2020.
Launched Deemples Pay in Sept 2019
After 3 years of Deemples running on just 1 main feature of helping golfers find each other, where golfers post games and other golfers can join in. We finally turned on the all-awaited payment module. Which allowed golf courses to accept payments from golfers from games hosted on Deemples, starting Sept 2019.
Seri Selangor, amongst other courses supported Deemples Pay
Starting with a few very supportive golf courses - Seri Selangor, Monterez, Kinrara, Seriemas, and Danau to begin with, we saw the uptick of usage of golfers, because now not only they were able to find other golfers to get a game going, they were also able to book and secure their slots by making payment to the club.
Golf courses secured payments upfront
Golf courses loved it because instead of waiting for golfers to come by on game day before they could register, confirm and get paid, they now have all this done way before hand. Allowing for lower drop off rates and earlier securing of revenue.
COVID19 Lockdown
All this went away very quickly in the month of March when Malaysia and almost all the countries that Deemples was available in went on full lockdown mode. Everything went on shut down, schools, businesses, shops, and even our beloved golf courses.
It was a time of uncertainty, no one really knew how long this would last. A month, a year, 5 years? We were horrified, and scared, and went on conservation mode. We scaled the team down, cut monthly burn by over 60%, and was thinking of alternatives that we could do.
Golf courses opening again was the last thing on our minds. The world was faced with much bigger problems, and we were thinking what if everything stays as the way it was during lockdown for an extended period of time, or worst what if everyone started dying.
The launch of Deemples Golf Store
If you remember, a lot of people were getting creative at home, playing home golf, putting, chipping into nets, or doing lotsa golf tricks and posting them on TikTok, etc. The surge in demand for home chipping and putting sets went off the roof! We explored the Deemples Golf Store and got it set up to learn a bit more about e-commerce and drop shipping.
Golf courses opened again after 1.5 months of closure
Thankfully, within 1.5 months, countries allowed some business to open again and golf courses were included in the allowed to open list, with different operating procedures. Mostly around the notion of not sharing buggies and not taking showers at the golf course.
Surge of golf demand
This started the surge of demand of golf. No sharing buggies meant that golf course capacity were now down to 50%. Coupled with the pent up demand of golfers that haven't been on the golf course in 1.5 months, everyone wanted to play.
What didn't help was that, other close contact sports, the more regular sports, like swimming, badminton, football, going to the gym, fitness classes were all put on hold to promote social distancing. Golf being the sport with the least contact and out in the open, garnered lots of attention and non-golfers started to pick the sport up.
Golfers mostly fall into the wealthy segment, so whilst the rest of the economy was on survival mode, trying to keep jobs and put food on the table, golfers was on the opposite side of the spectrum with both money and time at hand, with no travels and other luxuries to spend it on, hence the surge on golfing activities.
Deemples facilitated the digitisation of golf courses
It was no different for Deemples. As soon as golf courses opened up again in May, transactions at the very few golf courses that we partnered with increased by 60% from previous pre-lockdown levels.
More golf courses came on board to use the Deemples payment facility. To accelerate their digitisation process, enabling online and contactless bookings and payments for the safety and convenience of both golfers and their own booking teams.
Keeping up technologically with the travel industry
It is unfortunate, that some golf courses are still behind schedules in their digitisation efforts. It's our goal in 2021 to continue helping them transition from a low-tech state, to a level to keep up with current consumer habits. So that golfers get the experience they deserve, similar to the rest of the travel, entertainment, and fitness industry.
2021 Outlook of golf and Deemples
We are very happy that all of us have made it through 2020. 2021 isn't going to be much easier, and we foresee that golf travel wouldn't be back to normal anytime soon, but the awareness of technology in the golf space is increasing from all angles.
The time is now to activate the local golfing community, there's tons of golf available in your local areas. We have some exciting new features for all golfers and golf courses in 2021. Will continue efforts in educating and assisting the adoption of technology for the benefit and advancement of the golf industry.
Thank you and join more games on Deemples!
-David Wong, Founder of Deemples.
Click below 👇 to watch the Deemples Wrapped 2020 video!
