YOUR EMAIL LIST IS YOUR BEST SALES TOOL. BEST PART, YOU OWN IT.

Author

Colby Johannson

Date

May 8, 2026

Read Time

4 min

MORNING ROUND: Issue #002

Here’s Where We’re At

May is here. The season is open. And I’m watching a lot of golf courses trying to figure out how to fill tee sheets they could have filled in February.

Here’s the thing nobody talks about: you already own the most powerful marketing tool in golf. It’s not Instagram (you don’t own that). It’s not Google Ads (you don’t own that either). It’s your email list. People have willingly given their email to you so you can market to them. It’s an invitation into their home. Most operators treat it like a bulletin board instead of a revenue engine.

One email. The right message. The right time. That’s the whole game.

The best part…you own the email list.

What We Saw

Kokanee Springs Resort is six hours from the nearest city. No drive-by traffic. No walk-in bookings. Every guest they get has to choose to make the trip.

In 2024, they had 124 event bookings. Good, but not scalable. Their Hummingbird Classic (women’s event) had 17 entries in 2024. It sold out before it was even announced in 2026.

We didn’t add more channels. We didn’t run a bigger ad budget. We built a system: events marketed like deadlines, emails that created urgency without cheapening the brand, and landing pages with one job. Convert.

The result? 546 event bookings in 2025. 340% increase year over year. 91% of total event capacity filled.

Then 2026 showed up early. One month into the year — 77% of the entire event inventory already sold. Four of six events sold out with waitlists. Nine golf schools scheduled. Nine sold out.

Before the snow started melting.

*Note here: this is not all marketing. Kokanee Springs staff services the sh!t out of their customers when they are onsite.

→ Read the full Kokanee Springs breakdown

Steal This

What Airbnb figured out about email that most hotels still haven’t.

Airbnb doesn’t send emails about rooms. They send emails about trips — the experience, the destination, the feeling of being somewhere worth being. The booking is just what happens at the end.

What it was: A shift from product-first to experience-first email marketing. Every send leads with story, not inventory
Why it worked: It made readers feel something before they were ever asked to do something
The takeaway: Your email list doesn’t want to hear about tee time availability. They want to feel the pull of your course. Lead with the experience. The booking follows.

What not to do: sell. sell. sell. sell.

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Run This

Three things. All tied to revenue. All executable this week.

Send one email this month with a single CTA. Not a newsletter. Not a promo blast. One email, one offer, one link. Pick your slowest revenue window: shoulder season, a Tuesday morning, an unfilled event, and write directly to that problem. Most courses never do this. That’s why it works.
Segment your list by intent. You don’t need a fancy ESP to do this. Just ask: who on this list has booked an event before? Who has stayed overnight? Who has only ever played a round? Those are three different emails. Start there.
Schedule your next three sends right now. Consistency is the entire game with email. One send a month, committed in advance, is worth more than five sends when you remember to do it. Block the time. Write the emails. Send them.

What’s On The Course

What was published this month — in case you missed it.

Last Months Email: Issue #001

Golf Course That Fills Tee Sheets:

Golf Courses don’t have a marketing problem. They have a clarity and execution problem. Most courses can’t clearly answer: Who are we actually for? (it can’t be everyone). Why should someone choose us? What do we want them to do next? How does this turn into money? When those answers are fuzzy, your marketing is just guessing. Here’s the playbook

Quick Tap-ins

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