PGA of America × Sota · Player Retention Platform

The golfers
nobody can name.

A rewards program for golf, owned and run by the PGA of America for its facilities and PGA Professionals. The industry doesn’t have one yet.

Prepared for the Northern Texas PGA staff and PGA Professionals · September 2026

Confidential

PGA Frisco · Home of the PGA of America

Already proven

Sota Platforms already runs at national scale.

Members

600k+

Annual retention

~90%

Invested in the platform

$25M+

Sales through the platform

$100M+

And the team that built it

In daily production

20 yrs

enterprise software, live

Clients delivered

35+

government & enterprise

Senior engineers

100%

in-house, no outsourcing

Security validated by

Deloitte + KPMG

independent cyber compliance

Winner, 2026 Asia Pacific Loyalty Awards, Best Use of Digital Technology, alongside Eagle Eye, Qatar Airways and Accor.

Motor Culture Australia operating figures to August 2026 · 2026 Asia Pacific Loyalty Awards, Best Use of Digital Technology

The core opportunity

Acquisition is solved.
The people leaving are invisible.

The top of the funnel has been overflowing for six years. The game has no way of knowing who came in, or who walked away.

Tried golf, 2020 to 2025

19.5M

30% above the Tiger era peak

Net growth, same six years

4.3M

1 in 4 beginners stays

Three out of four walk away, and the game does not know their name.

National Golf Foundation, August 2026 (19.5M first-time participants 2020 to 2025, 4.3M net growth) · National Golf Foundation 2025 (48.1M total participants, 29.1M on-course) · USGA 2025 (3.68M Handicap Indexes, +8.2% year on year, 82M scores posted)

Another national program?

You’ve heard this before.

The PGA said it in 2012, the NGF said it again in August, and Get Golf Ready was the answer.

“Key facility personnel need to employ strategies to better understand and communicate with customers so that they continue to return to your facility.”

PGA of America · Know Your Customer 101 · 2012

“Operators need to lean into the opportunity, first by elegantly identifying the beginners who require a higher level of service…”

National Golf Foundation · August 2026

It was already run. Get Golf Ready, on the PGA’s own reporting

Facilities certified to run it

3,065

at its peak, of roughly 14,000

Golf shops that had never heard of it

45%

at facilities certified to run it

Where it ran, 83% of students were still playing a year later. But it was labor intensive, and facilities are busier than ever. This one has to be the easy button.

National Golf Foundation, August 2026 · PGA of America, Know Your Customer 101, April 2012 · Get Golf Ready Program Manual, PGA of America: 3,065 certified facilities, 83% of students still playing, and 45% of shop staff at certified facilities unaware of any beginner program, 2012

The solution

A free identity, paid tiers, and a ladder between them.

The journey a golfer already takes, broken into steps, with every step captured and every step given a reason to reach the next one.

Identify

Golfer ID · free to join

Micro rewards on ordinary play, prizes and giveaways everyone with an ID is eligible for, and a reason to come back next week.

The facility earnsGreen fees, cart fees, range balls and F&B

Engage

Golfer ID+ · the paid tiers

Priority access to Ryder Cup and PGA Championship tickets, experiences money can’t buy, and status perks that grow with every round.

The facility earnsAll of the above, plus lessons and equipment sales

Retain

The frequent golfer

Nearly 12x an occasional player, from frequency alone. A private club member spends about $14,000 a year.

The facility earnsAll of the above, plus retail and golf travel

Triangulated three ways, midpoint shown. Bottom up: $41 green fee, $20 cart, $12 food and beverage a round, plus $1,100 equipment (Golf Datatech) and $250 apparel. Top down: $33.3B US golf facility operations revenue plus $6B golfer supplies (SRI International), inflation adjusted across 29M golfers, of whom NGF’s 13M core golfers take over 90% of spend. Survey: golf.com, 2,817 golfers. Rounds: NGF, 545M in 2024. Club dues: GGA Partners and CMAA 2024, average $10,700

The product

AAdvantage, for golf.

American Airlines never changed how anyone flies. The flight is the same. What changed is that the airline knows who flew, and has something to bring them back.

1981the program, not the airline

23MAAdvantage members

$5.9BAAdvantage cash sales, 2019

$19.5–31.5BAAdvantage appraised alone

The loyalty layer was appraised at several times the airline underneath it. Golf has never had that layer.

A potential direct line to 48.1 million

The easy button for the PGA Professional

The data sits with the PGA of America

American Airlines Group, AAdvantage loyalty financing disclosure, June 2020: program launched 1981, approximately 23 million active members, approximately $5.9B of pro forma cash sales in 2019, third party appraised value of $19.5B to $31.5B

Prediction game · closes Wednesday 11:59pm

Who wins the
PGA Championship?

Free to enter. +2 entries if you pick the winner.

Where your subscription goes

Half of your Golfer ID+
funds PGA REACH.

PGA Jr. League

Team golf for kids, with a jersey and a captain. 3,096 scholarships in 2025.

PGA HOPE

Free golf instruction for veterans, taught by PGA Professionals. 65,000+ served.

PGA WORKS

Careers in golf for people the game has not reached. 150 graduates since 2017.

Of every Golfer ID+ subscription50% to PGA REACH

Fields Ranch EastClose

TimePlayersExtrasDone

Live tee sheet · synced with the facility

DateSat 26 Sep ▾

GroupUp to 4

Available times

Green fee set by Fields Ranch East · card on fileSelect a time

No booking fee. No commission. The facility keeps every dollar.

Booked. Sat 7:40am · +3 entries

Who’s playing
with you?

3 spots left in your group. Playing together earns +2 entries each.

SWYou

+Open

MB

Mike B.

Played with you 6 times

JK

Jess K.

Played with you 3 times

DW

Dave W.

In your Golfer ID contacts

CP

Chris P.

Shoots about 95 · plays Saturday mornings

TR

Taylor R.

Shoots about 100 · new to golf this year

JM

Jordan M.

Shoots about 90 · walks, quick pace

Add to
your round

Optional. Everything here earns points.

PGA Pro Now

Two tips before
you tee off

A PGA Professional on site meets you on the range. 15 minutes, $25.

You’re all set.

It’s on your Golfer ID. Scan at check-in and the round earns.

Open game · matched on skill and pace

Saturday 9
Coyote Ridge

Who’s playing

You’re in.

It’s in your tee times, and playing together earns +2 entries each.

Group lesson · beginners

Saturday, 8:00am
Fields Ranch

60 minutes with 2 PGA Professionals

Grip, stance and your first full swings

Clubs provided. Up to 20 golfers, all new

Bring a mate

You both get +2 entries.

You’re in.

See you Saturday at 8. It’s on your Golfer ID, and the lesson earns +2 entries.

What’s next

Graduates’ 9-hole scramble

Tue 5:30pm · $25 · this group only

9:41

Golfer ID3 entries

PGA Golfer ID

Sam Whitfield

4021 8847 66

StatusSilver

Since2026

Rounds14

Scan at the counter

4021 8847 66

3

Draw entries

1

Win to claim

This week · PGA Championship

Inside the ropes

Walk the fairway with the players. A money can't buy experience.

Next draw

A dream golf escape

Every round = more entries

A dozen Titleist Pro V1

Instant win · ready to claim

Tee times

Courses
near you.

Where are you playing?

City or zip · Frisco, TX

Your location finds courses. It is never shared with a facility.

PGA Coach

Ask now.
Fix it with a pro.

Location not set

I keep slicing my driver off the tee

How it works

Ask a question or upload your swing

An instant tip from PGA Coach AI, in seconds

Your top 3 PGA Professionals nearby, ready to book

The tip gets you started. The Professional fixes it.

Common questions

0:05

Delivered · Analysing swing

I keep slicing my driver off the tee

PGA Coach AI Instant tip · 3 seconds

That’s an open clubface at impact.

The ball starts left of your target and curves right. Nearly every slice comes from the face pointing right of the path when you strike it. Three things to try on the range:

1Turn your lead hand a touch stronger at address, so you can see two knuckles.

2Feel the toe of the club rotating over the heel through impact. Half swings first, ten balls.

3Aim the clubface at the target before you set your feet, not after.

A slice is a pattern, and a pattern is what a lesson fixes. Your top 3 PGA Professionals are below. Matt at Fields Ranch works on exactly this.

Your top 3 PGA Professionals nearby

Top match

Matt Reyes, PGA

PGA Professional · Fields Ranch, PGA Frisco · 2.1 mi
12 years teaching · Answers within the hour

DriverBall flightSlice fixTrackManVideo

Next available · Today 4:00pm

3 more slots this week

Dana Kim, PGA

The Tribute · 6.4 mi · Full swing, video lessons
Sat 9:00am

James Okafor, PGA

Coyote Ridge · 8.9 mi · Beginners, slices, short game
Thu 6:00pm

Nearest group lesson

Group lesson · beginners

Learn it together

Fields Ranch · Sat 8:00am · 2 PGA Professionals

$20 · 6 of 20 spots left · clubs provided

PGA Pro Now

On the range
right now?

A PGA Professional on site comes to you. 2 tips, 15 minutes, $25.

Every tip ends with a PGA Professional. Book, and the lesson earns you points.

3 minWalking over

Two tips before
you tee off

Fields Ranch · Driving range, Bay 12
Tee time 7:40am

What should they look at?

15 minutes on the range · 2 tips
Paid with your Golfer ID$25

Only PGA Professionals on site right now. They choose when they’re available.

Pinging PGA Professionals

2 on site at Fields Ranch · 1 between lessons

Matt Reyes, PGA

★ 4.9 · 212 tips · 12 years teaching
Accepted in 9 seconds

Walking over from the lesson tee. Arriving in 3 min.

Matt is at Bay 12

15:00

Your session is running. Tee time 7:40am.

Matt’s 2 tips

1Aim the clubface at the target before you set your feet, not after.

2Half swings first, ten balls, then build to full.

Rate Matt

Keep it going

A full lesson with Matt

Today 4:00pm · lesson earns +2 entries

Your status

Two rounds
from Gold.

Silver14 of 16 rounds

EntrySilverGoldPlatinum

Double entries on every round

Priority Ryder Cup ticket access

Gold: guest passes and event access

Gold unlocks

A dream golf escape

Gold unlocks · PGA Championship

Inside the ropes

Your rewards

2,480 points.
3 entries earned.

Weekly instant win3 of a kind wins

Three of a kind

A dozen Pro V1s

Drag to scratch

Your golf, this month

4 rounds played.

Fields Ranch at PGA Frisco · 18 holes

Saturday

+3

Instant win

A dozen Titleist Pro V1

Won

Brought a friend

Jack joined

+2

PGA Championship predictions

Round three

+1

Picked for you

Because you’ve
played 14 rounds.

Golf destination

Play Pinehurst

Two nights, two courses, 500 bonus points.

15% off a new set

14 rounds this year, and your clubs are six seasons old.

Double points at Rancho Park

Public course, 20 minutes away, tee times free Saturday.

Discover a club near you

Quiet midweek and taking new members. You’ve never played it.

Every offer is picked from how you actually play.

Where you've played

23 courses.
4 states.

Pinehurst No. 22026

Bethpage Black2026

Chambers Bay2025

Bandon Dunes2025

Harbour Town2025

+

The Carolinas5 / 8

America’s Top 10012 / 100

Every state4 / 50

Try it on
your phone

Point your camera here. Join in 10 seconds.

PGA Coach, in the app · complementing the existing PGA Coach effort

The golfer asks now. The PGA Golf Professional gets the lesson.

Built to complement the existing PGA Coach effort, not replace it. Golfer ID answers the first question in seconds, then hands the golfer to a PGA Professional nearby, or to the nearest group lesson. The app cannot finish the job. Only the lesson can.

What it is not

Not a coaching platform

PGA Coach keeps the booking and the payment. We send it the golfers at no charge.

Not a lesson

One tip, once. Every answer ends with the PGA Golf Professional’s name.

PGA certified

The PGA of America approves every tip. A benefit the Association owns.

More first questions answered. More lessons booked, group lessons included. More golfers who stay. This sends PGA Professionals the golfers, at no charge to the Professional or the facility.

PGA Coach: 6,000+ coaches, 1M+ lessons booked (pga.coach)

The PGA’s own tee time platform · phase one, before the PGA Show

A brand-new tee sheet for the game, on a commerce engine that already works.

Built for the PGA of America, not bolted onto GolfNow. The facility keeps its own tee sheet and POS. The calendars sync both ways so nothing double books, payment settles to the facility, and nobody pays a booking fee or a commission. No bartered tee times. The only cost is the card fee.

Platform ready

The commerce engine and Golfer ID exist on our platform today. Configured for the PGA.

To build for January

The live tee sheet and the two-way calendar sync with each facility.

The PGA leads the rollout

Facility by facility, on the PGA of America’s directive.

Commerce engine: $100M+ processed for Motor Culture Australia since 2020, 600,000+ members · GolfNow barter and Hot Deals: NGCOA, Beware of Barter, Jan 2020

The facility

The easy button for the facility.

Nothing about the facility’s day changes. What it already does becomes an identity, a reward, and a reason for the golfer to come back.

Nothing to build

No software, no new hardware, one page for the counter.

Nothing given away

Brands fund the rewards, not the facility.

Nothing taken

The facility keeps its own customer data.

NGCOA Operator’s Bill of Rights, 2018. This meets all eight points, and the coalition that published it was co-founded by the NGCOA and the PGA of America

The facility and the PGA Professional

What’s in it for the facility, and for the PGA Professional.

The PGA of America packages it, promotes it and supplies the tools. The facility asks one question at check-in, and it pays back in golfers.

The facility gets

Its golfers, and a reason
for them to come back

Knows its golfers. Who played, how often, what they spent. Most facilities cannot name them today.
Can talk to them. A 9-hole scramble, a league, a quiet tee sheet, sent to its own golfers with tools the PGA supplies.
A reason to come back. Points, status and prizes earned at that facility, funded by brands.
Tee times with no fees. No booking fee, no commission, no bartered times.
A backfill for the next downturn. A list to call on when members leave.

The PGA Professional gets

More lessons, and
golfers who stay

Lesson leads. Every golfer who asks PGA Coach is sent to the top 3 Professionals nearby, at no charge.
Group lessons filled. Beginners see the nearest group lesson, not just the hour-long one-to-one.
Knows who is new and who is drifting. In time to do something about it.
Incentive trips. Hit sign-up targets and earn a trip, the way equipment brands reward facilities.
Deferred Compensation. Sign-ups could count toward it, and the program helps fund it.

What the facility does

One question
at check-in

“Are you on Golfer ID?” Scan to join. It logs the round and earns rewards.
A launch box. QR signs for the counter, range and restaurant, and a card for the back of the cart’s tee time slot.
A one-page rundown. What to say at the counter, and why it matters.
Uses what is there. The scanner already at the counter, or the golfer’s QR code.
Costs nothing. No fee, no software, no new system to learn.

The launch box, rundown and incentive trips are proposed for the Northern Texas pilot, and will be shaped with facilities during the sourcing sessions · Get Golf Ready Program Manual, PGA of America

Data ownership

The PGA of America owns the data. A facility sees its own golfers.

Owned by the PGA of America

One identity for every golfer, held by the game’s governing body.

Scoped to the facility

A facility gets the golfers who play there. Never where else they play.

Kept by the facility

Its own list, its own relationship with its own customers, untouched.

The Amex model: the network holds the member and the points, the merchant keeps its own customer profile · access rules are set by the PGA of America at the scoping workshop

Ideas to test this week

Built with the people who run the game.

Ideas from the Section this week. None of them are built yet. Tell us which ones matter, and what is missing.

01

The nearest group lesson

Next to the top 3 PGA Professionals: a Saturday morning, $20, social, and far less intimidating than an hour one-to-one.

02

Two tips before the tee time

The golfer asks in the app and it pings a PGA Professional on site. 15 minutes, 4 golfers, $25 each.

03

The daily special

The facility bundles a tee time with a 15-minute lesson, or a drink at the turn, as that day’s offer.

04

Find a game

Match golfers by skill and age for an open tee time, the way padel and pickleball apps already do.

05

Formats for everyone

Stableford and 9-hole scrambles, so a golfer who shoots 100 still has something to play for.

06

One giveaway, every facility

A single national draw run by the PGA of America. Sign up at any facility and you are in.

From conversations with the Northern Texas PGA, September 2026 · Concepts for the sourcing sessions, not yet in the build

Lessons from industry history

We have been reactionary three times. The fourth is happening now.

Handicapping

The one national golfer identity that exists, administered by somebody else and delivered through 59 regional associations.

Online tee times

25M+ rounds booked a year and $2.3B in payments processed. The largest consumer golfer file in America, sitting with a booking company.

Tournament management

11,000 facilities and 41M rounds. Now the operating layer of club competition.

Golfer ID

Still open. The only one of the four a governing body can own, and the only one that can potentially reach all 48.1 million.

And in March, two of the biggest names in the game moved four days apart

PGA TOUR Pass launches

A free digital membership. It identifies fans, not players.

Troon relaunches Access

A full paid subscription platform, 200+ courses and expanding beyond Troon.

Each of the first three is now infrastructure the game depends on and does not control, and the software layer around it reaches $4.1B by 2034 (Market Intelo golf software market forecast). An identity is only ever held once.

USGA 2025 · NBC Sports Next, January 2024: 25M+ rounds booked and $2.3B processed in payments from 3,200 technology partners in 2023, delivering over $1.04B to partner courses · Market Intelo, Golf Management Software Market Report 2034 · Golf Genius 2025 · PGA TOUR Pass, March 2026 · Troon, 10 March 2026 · NGF 2025

Lessons from the last cycle

The last boom gave back 6.8 million golfers.

Sooner or later there will be a recession, and clubs will lose members again. Last time, nobody could reach the golfers who might have backfilled them. A direct line to every golfer, on-course and off-course, is that pipeline.

National Golf Foundation, US on-course participation 2003 to 2025, charted above · NGF 2025: 48.1M total participants, of whom 29.1M played on-course · NGF course supply: more closures than openings in every year since 2006, roughly 2,000 net facilities lost

The release plan

Potential announcement at the PGA Show. Launch in conjunction with the PGA Championship.

28 weeks, November to May · each block starts as soon as the month named

1

WEEKS 1–4

As soon as November

Sourcing sessions

In-depth sessions with PGA Members, facility staff and golfers in Northern Texas: what they earn, what they redeem, how a tee time and a lesson should feel.

2

WEEKS 5–8

As soon as December

Complete the build

PGA Coach AI and the PGA tee sheet built out in full. The Golfer ID app developed on the commerce engine, launch draw rules and brand partners in place.

3

WEEKS 9–12

As soon as January

Pilot in North Texas

First facilities and PGA Members live, partners recruited. Potential announcement at the PGA Show, Orlando, January 26 to 29.

4

WEEKS 13–16

As soon as February

Pilot expands

The pilot continues across North Texas and potentially into South Texas, facilities added on the results of the first cohort.

5

WEEKS 17–20

As soon as March

Golfers on Golfer ID

Local golfers join at the counter, on the tee sheet and after the lesson. Earning, status and the first draws run in public.

6

WEEKS 21–24

As soon as April

Finalize the app

Every aspect of the Golfer ID app finalized on pilot data: journeys, rewards, tee times and coaching, ready for national scale.

7

WEEKS 25–28

As soon as May

Official launch

Official launch in conjunction with the PGA Championship at PGA Frisco, May 17 to 23, on the PGA of America’s own home ground.

Northern Texas goes first. The first four weeks are sessions with you, your PGA Professionals and your golfers.

Targets, subject to the scoping workshop and the launch gates · PGA Show, Orlando, January 26 to 29, 2027 · PGA Championship, Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, May 17 to 23, 2027

PGA Frisco · Home of the PGA of America

The ask

Start with one Section.
And the game starts naming them.

The Northern Texas Section will prove that it will work. Brand funded, and the same easy button for every facility and every PGA Member.

One identity, growing outward until the game can name everyone who plays it.

Building the future of the PGA of America.

The primary conduit connecting PGA Professionals with every golfer in the United States.

A permanent funding pipeline for core priorities: PGA REACH and Deferred Compensation.

Compliance and regulation

The most powerful tool in marketing, done right. The biggest brands in America run it every year.

Their own pages, as they ran them · tap any tile to expand

Done right means

No purchase necessary

Free entry, equal odds, official rules, published winners.

Registered and bonded

Florida and New York above $5,000. Rhode Island above $500.

Outside the casino statutes

No cash prizes, no dual currency, no casino visuals.

Privacy by design

20 state laws mapped. No sale of sensitive data. Location never stored.

Adults and families

Under-13s excluded, juniors on a parent’s account. Opt-in messaging.

Built to be compliant

Fully compliant with US sweepstakes and trade promotion law, in every state it runs.

McDonald’s Q4 2025 results and call, SEC 8-K Nov 2011 · Starbucks FY25 and Q2 FY26 · Ridge pages 2025 and 2026, Sean Frank on X and podcast 2026 · PGA TOUR, Mar 2026 · AARP Form 990 · Fla. Stat. 849.094 · N.Y. GBL 369-e · R.I. Gen. Laws 11-50 · Conn. Gen. Stat. 42-301 · Cal. Penal Code 337o · 11 CCR 7016 · COPPA 16 CFR 312

The golfersnobody can name.