How does dynamic pricing affect how much you pay to play golf?

What exactly is dynamic pricing when it comes to golf course tee times?

Dynamic pricing has taken over in many sports, from baseball to the NBA. It’s the idea that the price for admission for games can change from day to day based on the demand for a certain day or a certain opponent. A $20 ticket to watch the Los Angeles Angels face the Miami Marlins might be a $50 ticket for the exact same seat when the Angels face the New York Yankees.

In golf, pricing changes are a tradition, with weekend prices greater than weekday prices and morning tee times garnering higher prices than later afternoon times.

But dynamic pricing in golf has more to do with availability on that day of the week.

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“So our pricing changes with the booking schedule,” said Ben Dobbs, executive director of PGA West in La Quinta, California, which oversees five resort courses with available outside tee times and four private courses. “If booking is light on a particular day and there are more tee times available as we get closer to that date, you see better rates.”

An example would be consecutive hours on a given day. If the tee sheet has just one time left in the 10 a.m. hour, that tee time will sell at what Dobbs called a premium increased rate. But if the 11 a.m. hour has a dozen unsold times, PGA West will charge less for those reservations to encourage the tee sheet to be as full as possible.

“So we are using technology,” Dobbs said. “We set floors and ceilings on rates, but we are letting technology and booking patterns determine the rates.”

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on X at @larry_bohannan.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Dynamic pricing for golf tee times explained