Tee Times at Simsbury Farms Go High Tech

It just got a little easier to go golfing at .

On Monday night, the board of selectmen unanimously approved an agreement between the culture, parks and recreation department and EZLinks Golf, Inc. to provide an automated tee time reservation system.

In late June the culture, parks and recreation commission voted unanimously to enter into the agreement between EZLinks and the Simsbury Farms Golf Course.

The system is slated to be in use by mid-September.

EZLinks, based in Chicago, IL, provides features that are necessary to increase the golf course’s ability to attract additional play, said Gerry Toner, director of the culture, parks and recreation department. He said the automated system with 24/7 access to the reservation center, unlimited customer support, as well as advanced and detailed reporting to the department help increase the marketing ability of the golf course. 

“It accomplishes a lot of what we’re trying to do,” said Toner.

Today, the system of taking reservations and keeping information on golfers is “pretty much all pencil and paper,” said Toner.

“It streamlines the whole process,” he said.

In this way when people make reservations online their information is captured to create a database for Simsbury Farms to use to understand more about who is golfing at the course, from where, how often, etc., which in turn informs the marketing decisions. The created database is for Simsbury Farms use not EZLinks.

In addition to seeing where players are coming from and being able to create a database of users, the system allows more efficiency in staffing decisions.

The best part? There is no cost to the town.

The licensor is compensated through a tee time exchange program where two tee times are made available daily to the vendor in low utilization time. The arrangement was viewed by the town attorney and approved. The agreement is for a period of three years and the town can opt out any time.

Courses in the area also using the EZ system include Wintonbury Hills Golf Course, the municipal course in Bloomfield; Blue Fox Run golf course, a public course in Avon and Richter Park Golf Course, the municipal course in Danbury. in Simsbury also uses the service.

“This is becoming state-of-the-art,” said selectmen Robert Hensley. “I think it’s great.”