66 year-old golf club moves into Cyberspace…
June 9, 1999 — The 66 year old San Mateo Men’s Golf Club has announced that they have secured the internet domain, http://smgc.net and intend to have a permanent web presence.
Ironically, along with this announcement, the men’s golf club is without a home course, as the City of San Mateo is undertaking a major, $10 million renovation, which has the course closed until June of 2000.
“The San Mateo Men’s Golf Club (SMGC) is alive and well and continuing to attract new members throughout the closed period”, says SMGC President Bill Stevens. The anticipation of the new, greatly refined golf course, along with a state-of-the-art Pro Shop and restaurant facilities, continues to drive membership.”
“Now that we have a presence on the web”, adds Stevens, “new members can join the club on a 24 x 7 basis, (24 hours, 7 day-a week) directly from their home PC.” “The possibilities for our new web site are endless. Eventually, our new web site will offer the membership the opportunity to sign up and pay for tournaments, from the comfort of their own home, via their PC.”
Tournament Chairman Scott Smith continues to wrestle with the tournament schedule during this difficult communications period, while the course is closed and face-to-face communication are interrupted. “No longer can the tournament schedules or tournament changes be posted in a location at the club, where people congregate”, says Smith. “Even though our schedule is mailed out to all members, the tournament posting and change process gets no immediate view by the membership. Our new web site should take care of that during the closure period and into the millennium.”
Club Secretary Dave D’Arche, has been preparing to design and launch the club’s new web site for a month or so. D’Arche, a 20 year veteran in the PC services industry, has helped to move the SMGC to computerize their entire back-office operations, which included a greatly-enhanced membership renewal system, a new Microsoft Access membership database and other systems. “One of our near-term goals, is to offer web-based tournament signup along with a web-based, credit card payment system. Of equal importance, we are prioritizing the web-based credit-card system to be up and running and thoroughly tested, so that we can utilize it for the upcoming membership dues renewal process this fall,” says D’Arche.