Inglewood Golf Club is a course situated on the outskirts of the Inglewood township in Taranaki, a typical country golf course.

The golf club is run by volunteers, has no permanent staff at the club house and is only manned during club events.

When it came to the collection of money for green fees, they used a cash based honesty system. Visitors pay with cash put into an envelope and put into a slot in the wall.

The club identified a few issues with the cash based honesty based system

• Taking and storing cash makes the unattended clubhouse a security risk
• Handling of cash internally by club members is also a risk and temptation. Inglewood Golf Club had previously been victim to losing cash in this area, as have many other clubs.
• Many visitors don't realise that a country club is unattended most of the time and would not have the correct change or even cash availble.
• Some less honest visitors when challenged over the payment of green fees by committee that happened to be playing, would claim that they intended to pay, but didn't have the right change, or only eftpos available. This intent to pay made it difficult to confront non-paying visitors and remove them.
• International visitors often had no cash or eftpos, only credit cards
• Visitors would often pay random incorrect amounts for green fees

The FeeMinder Unattended system addressed these issues.

Once the system was installed on site, the club saw an increase in the number of payments that it received compared to previous years.

The club saw it's revenue grow by almost 100% over the 4 years that it has had the system installed.

Cash payments are still accepted, but they account for less that 10% of the fees collected so cash handling is much less of an issue.

Additional benefits

Having the FeeMinder Unattended Payment system installed also brought along other features that are a bonus for the club.

• Green Fee Pass Cards

  The FeeMinder system supports the use of a 'Green Fee Pass Card'. The card is a standard credit card sized plastic card with a magnetic strip.

  The card is registered to the system and can be pre-loaded with any number of free rounds. The card can then be given as a gift to sponsors of the club, or to prospective club members.

  When the card holder arrives at the club, they 'pay' for their green fee using the Green Fee Pass Card. The FeeMinder system checks that they have the desired number of rounds available on their card and deducts the number of rounds being used.

  The use of the green fee pass card with the FeeMinder system means that the club is able to keep track of the number of rounds, and by whom. They can also expire the unused rounds if they wish.

  Inglewood Golf club went a step further and for the last 2 years given their members a free round via their membership card. Members are able to bring out a friend for a free round of golf at their course. This has been popular with the club members and has resulted in new memberships of for the club.

• Tracking of Green Fees

  Being a digital based system means that the FeeMinder system not only collects the green fees, it also collects other useful information. For example, when a player pays. Knowing when green fee players are playing is a useful tool to determine if the club should offer lower green fees for less used course days and times. Of course, the FeeMinder system can change the green fee based on the day and time of day to match the club's requirement.

• Payment of Competition Entry Fees

  Besides green fees, there are also competition fees to be collected on the day. Having the FeeMinder system on site means that the club can also collect competition entry fees on the day. The club tells the FeeMinder system the date and times to collect competition fees, and the name of the competition. The FeeMinder system does the rest. All competition fees collected are summarised by the FeeMinder system.

• Advertising

  The FeeMinder system has the facility to provide information on upcoming events and advertising.