It’s 2025, and a whole host of new trends are sweeping through the sport of golf, including new golf cart GPS systems, software to help courses create tailored player experiences, shifts in golfer demographics, and a call for more sustainability in the field. Any savvy golf course operator knows the importance of keeping an eye on current trends, not to mention how they can be capitalized upon.
Tagmarshal is a platform that champions the digital tools course operators are using to keep business flourishing in the contemporary golf climate. This article breaks down all the new expectations, tools, and trends in the sport, helping golf course management understand how to properly embrace modern-day golfing. Staying on top of trends keeps your course competitive, efficient, and attractive to a new generation of players.
Golf cart GPS systems are one of the tools that golf course operators are using to help themselves meet the growing aspirations of a generation deeply accustomed to digitized convenience. Most people, especially the younger generation, expect the ease of being able to plan out their lives from the comfort of their touchscreens. This applies to golf too, where we’re seeing people expect to be able to book tee times, check out yardage information, view course layouts, and more, all from a digital device. As a golf course operator, embracing tech-driven player experiences is the key to remaining competitive.
Golf cart GPS systems can give you a huge advantage in this area. This is because rather than just helping golfers get around the course, these systems are chock-full of features that let players plan out their time on the course, render services from the operator, and access information relevant to their play.
From the operators’ perspective, you’re benefiting from all of the data that the golf cart GPS is extracting from players as they use them. By keeping an eye on player movement and behavior, management can make courses more efficient by spotting potential hold-ups or lagging groups before they become a real issue. On top of this, information about a player’s behavior can help you put together smarter marketing strategies and targeted promotions that are more likely to appeal to specific players.
If golf course operators are looking for ways to get better engagement from their players, there’s no better way than to invest in creating tailor-made experiences that appeal to each player’s needs and make them feel valued. The best foundation for this is reliable data collection, driven by accurate AI and machine learning tools, capable of compiling information that might be relevant to a golfer’s spending habits and personal desires.
With golf cart GPS, golf course operators have a platform from which they can collect and analyze data that can be applied to creating anything. From a straightforward loyalty system and targeted promotion alerts to suggesting a player’s favorite foods and beverages, golf cart GPS features can be used in a range of different ways to personalize the overall experience.
These might not seem like particularly complex ways to appease clients, but sometimes it’s the simplest strategies that are effective. Trends are showing that customers across various industries are becoming more accustomed to receiving these carefully crafted experiences, effectively raising a global standard for customer service expectations. By including little personalized touches like those mentioned above, your golf course operation gives itself a competitive edge and builds up loyalty with your customers. Ultimately, this all means more revenue overall.
We’ve all heard it a thousand times: It’s about the journey, not the destination. Well, it’s particularly true for golf, where a good experience isn’t summarized by just completing 18 holes. Rather, it’s about getting a holistically enjoyable experience throughout the time on the course. A good way for you to give players an unforgettable experience is to minimize any interruptions to rounds, like bottlenecks or slow play.
You can use smart technology and machine learning features to keep an eye on all of the golfers currently enjoying a round and proactively work to prevent any bottlenecks or lagging. It’s not just about herding golfers, however, as players who have access to a golf cart GPS system can also stay informed of performances and pace of play, letting them more effectively manage themselves to avoid falling out of position.
At the end of the day, it’s factors like great pace and on-course flow that make a round memorable, so any course that has the right tools to ensure this will end up with happier players, a better reputation, and greater returns.
As the golf industry evolved to become more high-tech, running a course has become more competitive, too. Now, any golf course looking to maximize profitability and player satisfaction needs to rely on a data-driven style of course management. We’re seeing more and more how advanced AI-driven analytics and predictive tools are being used to manage and streamline virtually every new faucet of the course, including everything from maintenance to staffing.
Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS and AI-powered platform make all of this possible, helping your golf course optimize tee sheets and pace management to maintain high standards of efficiency. Essentially, a course-wide campaign of data collection, driven by AI and machine learning tools, gives you the ultimate upgrade in course management by providing you with all the key information you need to make an educated decision.
No longer reliant on guesswork or human error, golf courses can allocate resources, conduct maintenance, and deploy staff in a targeted and precise manner, helping eliminate unnecessary costs. Tagmarshal’s new smart technologies give golf courses the means needed to run more efficiently than they ever have before. With a golf cart GPS platform, you can guarantee that you never fall behind your competition and keep raising the reputation of your course.
Sustainability and environmental concerns have become an increasingly prominent topic throughout the world, and golf is certainly not left unaffected. Clearly, planning an environmentally conscious future for the sport is essential for its long-term survival. This is compounded by a growing sentiment of environmental consciousness among the modern player base. Any course not taking active steps to reduce the environmental impact therefore endangers its profitability in the years to come.
Fortunately, data-driven operations can help courses become greener without sacrificing the efficiency or profitability of the course; it may even increase both. Intelligent pace management systems help reduce unnecessary cart traffic to minimize wear and maintenance demands, refine water management systems, and reduce wastage by ensuring resources are applied sparingly and effectively. One of the clearest ways in which this is demonstrated is through course traffic control, stopping certain parts of the course from becoming over-trafficked and in frequent need of maintenance, effectively making the operation more eco-friendly and inexpensive.
As the need for sustainability becomes more obvious, you will need to take the initiative as an operator to drive eco-friendly practices and appeal to eco-conscious players while helping extend the longevity of the sport and increasing the efficiency of your whole operation.
In recent years, we’ve seen golf’s player base take a visible demographic shift towards younger players, who have different ideas about how the game is both played and experienced. Younger players are often more casual about the sport, preferring an experience that is more relaxed and social-centered than what older generations are accustomed to. These new desires have driven the spread of non-traditional golf courses, such as 9-hole courses, driving ranges with entertainment elements, pay-as-you-play models, and digital membership options.
The common thread amongst many of these trends is centered around technology and digitalization, as newer players have convenient and flexible options that are available to them from the comfort of their phones. As accessibility to golf increases, the way the game is played evolves, too, and AI-driven platforms like Tagmarshal help you stay on top of these changing demographics and needs at all times.
While some traditionalists might scoff at a more casual approach to the sport, a savvy operator embraces change and equips their courses with the necessary tools to capitalize from it. Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS and smart technology platform is perfect for this, providing you with all that you need to effectively include more entertainment-focused, personalized, and digitalized features into your player’s experience.
Another key trend in 2025 is the personalization of advertising and promotional strategies, as new tech provides you with the data needed to step up your course’s marketing game, giving you a personalized edge that manages to simultaneously bolster player engagement and increase revenue. With AI-powered tools like Tagmarshal and other course management systems, courses have access to a player’s habits, spending patterns, and preferences, which can be used to create the personal and relevant marketing techniques that can be applied to boost loyalty.
The insights help shape personalized messages, such as exclusive offers on future rounds, player-centric promotions, such as a free round on a birthday, and even tailored food and drink options. Furthermore, Tagmarshal’s 2Way cart screen technology keeps all of these offers delivered in a timely fashion, like prompting food orders at the 8th hole or nodding at a drinks special once the 18th is reached. These tools help you increase the effectiveness of your marketing in a targeted and precise way, drawing in more revenue without inadvertently pushing your clientele too hard with advertisements.
The game of golf is an exciting place of evolution, witnessing a series of transformations brought upon by new technologies and social trends. Rather than resisting change, golf course operators should seek the means to benefit from these shifts, taking advantage of innovations to meet the rising ambitions and needs of a new player base whilst also streamlining operations to maximize profitability.
Tagmarshal is leading this charge, equipping golf courses with an arsenal of contemporary tools to meet new challenges and opportunities. Golf cart GPS systems, AI-powered data collection and predictive analytics, personalization features, and more are used to streamline operations, save costs, promote sustainability, draw in a new player base, enhance marketing strategies, and adapt to an ever-evolving environment.
With a proven track record of success, Tagmarshal has helped top courses (including major championship venues and leading golf resorts) collect over 10 billion data points, optimizing more than 75 million rounds of golf around the world. Don’t get left behind on the trends, and use Tagmarshal’s feature-filled platform to keep your course evolving with the times. To learn more, book a demo or reach out today!
Tagmarshal, the market leader in on-course optimization technology, provides courses with full, real-time operational oversight and reporting, giving golf operators the tools to manage pace and flow of play effectively, resulting in enhanced player experiences, increased efficiency through automation, and additional revenue generation.
Tagmarshal’s technology has collected over 10 billion data points from more than 75 million rounds of golf and has relationships with in excess of 700 partners, including Hazeltine, Whistling Straits, Baltusrol, Fieldstone, Bandon Dunes, Serenoa and Erin Hills.
Tagmarshal partners with several golf management groups, private, daily fee, public and resort courses, including 40 of the Top 100 US courses, as well as many $40-$60 green fee courses, which are seeing excellent results using the system.