The Concept Basics
Joining PGCI
The Tiered Course / Member System
Finding Other Private Courses or Members to Play With
The “Request” to Play
Tokens
Hosting Other PGCI Members at Your Home Club
Wish List
Invitations
Maintaining a High Member Standard
Notifications
Mulligan Reward Program
Charity Programs
………It’s all about Networking with other Private Golfers from around the world and Playing More Private Golf Courses than you ever thought possible.
Please read this entire section, it will give you a complete overview of the system.
Private Golf Connections Inc. (PGCI) is a new web based global golf community for private golfers from all over the world. As long as you are currently a member in good standing at a private golf club anywhere in the world (and you must be able to prove it), you are eligible to join the PGCI global member community.
What makes this membership organization so special? It’s focused only and specifically on private golf club members who have a passion to play the game of golf for business or pleasure. The features of the site are truly unique and will give the PGCI member an exciting way to find and meet other private golfers and to play on their home courses.
The Concept Basics
The fundamental idea of PGCI is focused on providing the ability for private golf members to connect with other private golfers from within the same city or from anywhere around the world. Just think, six (6) million plus private golfers, that’s a lot of great people to meet and network with.
The concept is built around a web platform that allows members to reach out and connect with other members in a very confidential way. The system’s built in communication tools then allow you to send out a Request to Play at the other member’s home course. At the same time, other PGCI members are connecting with you to play on your home course. It’s fun, it’s easy.
Meet for business, meet for golf, meet for pleasure, or all three - it’s your choice. This concept is going to truly enhance your current private golf club membership.
How Does It Work?
Joining PGCI
To join and become a PGCI member, you MUST already be a private golf club member at a private club somewhere in the world. Not a tennis club, not a semi-private club - it must be a private golf club. As part of the on-line membership application you will have to prove that you are a member of a recognized private Club ad in good standing. The annual membership fee is based on what Tier your home club is. Tier One membership fees are $350 USD annually, and Tier Two membership fees are $500 USD annually.
Should you belong to two or more private clubs and one is a Tier One and the other a Tier Two, then your annual membership fee is based on the lower of the two fees.
Once your membership into PGCI is approved and your account is activated, you will then be able to gain access to the full features of PGCI member web site.
The Tiered Course / Member System
Private courses can be thought of in two main categories. Private courses that are highly ranked in the world by legitimate ranking authorities, and the others. Within the PGCI system there are two tiers of courses.
Tier One – These are private courses that have been ranked as follows:
- in the Top 100 in the world courses by Golf Digest
- in the top 50 of all courses in the USA
- in the top 20 of all courses in Canada
- in the top 20 of all courses in Australia
Please note that others may be added over time.
Tier Two – all other private courses.
Finding Other Private Courses or Members to Play With
One of the key activities that a PGCI member will undertake is the searching and finding of other PGCI members and the courses they belong to. Members will use the Search function in one of three keys ways:
- to find a list of courses that are in a country, state or province, or city
- this method is helpful to find a list of courses in an area that you might be traveling to or currently reside in
- to find a course by its name, anywhere in the world
- this method allows you to quickly find that favorite private club. If there is a PGCI member already at the club, then you send an immediate request. If not, then you can add the club to your “wish list”. Once someone joins PGCI from that club, you will be notified
- to find a list of members by select criteria
- perfect for searching out a member in a geographical area or by a member's personal attributes such as business or golf related criteria
In all cases the search results will be presented for the members' review and selection. All searchs can be saved as a “favorites” for quickly running again in the future.
Please note that most of the time the members' real names aren’t used in the system. All PGCI members will select a “pseudo” name to be used as the name that other PGCI members see. This is to keep information confidential as long as possible. Only at the end of the “Request” process, are the playing partners' names, picture and other personal details revealed, but only to the other playing partner.
The “Request” to Play
At the core of the system is the Request. Once you find a PGCI member at a course that you want to play, through the system you will then send that member a Request to play. Each request costs 3 (or 6) tokens (see below for more details). The Request has built in communications system that will allow both players to dialogue back and forth in order to propose dates and times to play, send reply notes, confirm details such as guest fees, where to meet, how and who to pay, special club rules, etc. Once both PGCI members (Host and Requestor) confirm the game, then additional personal identification information about your playing partner such as their photo and phone numbers, are revealed to you, so that meeting your playing partner at the course on the day of play will be easy.
Tokens
In order to send a Request to another PGCI member, a small charge of 3 tokens will be applied to a Tier Two member course and 6 Tokens will be applied to a Tier One member course. Each Token is valued at $1 USD. Purchasing Tokens is easily completed on-line. The number of Tokens in your bank, is always displayed on the top of each page of the website once you have signed in.
As a way of saying thanks for joining, PGCI provides three (3) FREE Tokens when you sign up, so your first “Request” to play at a Tier Two cousre, is on us.
Hosting Other PGCI Members at Your Home Club
The system works both ways. Not only will you be excited to send out Requests to Play at other private golf clubs that you always wanted to, or just for a change – but you will be receiving requests from PGCI Members to play at your club. You will not only meet new and wonderful people, but the system will reward you with Mulligans as part of the Mulligan Reward System.
Wish List
There are thousands of private golf courses all over the world. Both locally and globally most golfers have a number of private courses that they would like to play. If there are currently no PGCI members at your wish list course(s), the PGCI Wish List system allows its members to add those courses to their Wish List. When a PGCI member finally joins that course, the system automatically sends out a notification to your e-mail address. This way you can react quickly to finally request to play on that wish list courses. Dreams can come true!
Invitations
An Invitation is just that. It is an open invitation posted to all other PGCI members globally, that you are willing to host others during a certain time period at your home course(s). Many PGCI members will love to host other PGCI members at their club. Meeting new friends and possible business contacts while playing golf and earning valuable Mulligan points for hosting are great reasons to do it. Maybe you’re on vacation or retired and are flexible to play, or have an extra tee-time that’s available. Posting an Invitation to Play is easy and you can post as many as you like. This way, other PGCI members from around the world can see you as someone who willing, available and in fact inviting others to play. What could be easier or more fun?
Maintaining a High Member Standard
Critical to the success of the system is the need for members to have confidence that the other person they are playing with at their home club will have high standards as it relates to golf etiquette, respect for the game, and the players and the host surroundings. PGCI has created a member managed "member" rating system. After each round played, both players (Host and Guest) will have an opportunity to rate their playing partner based on six criteria such as their golf etiquette, respect of golf, were they on time, would you recommend them to another member, etc.
Should a member reach a low rating, they will be reviewed and if they do not improve their rating to a satisfactory level, they could have their PGCI membership cancelled.
Notifications
There are a lot of exciting activities happening within the PGCI website. To keep the members informed quickly, e-mail notifications are sent directly to your external e-mail systems allowing members to see immediately when Requests have been sent to them, when their requests have been approved, or changes to a Request have been made, newsletter updates, etc.
Mulligan Reward Program
To keep things really fun, PGCI has created the Mulligan Reward Program. Just for doing things on the members’ only side of the website, PGCI will reward members with Mulligans. A form of currency that you build up until you’re ready to trade them in for gifts and rewards that are posted in the Gifts/Rewards section of the website. Imagine not only having fun networking with other private club members, playing fabulous private golf courses, but collecting Mulligans for doing it, that get you closer to new equipment, trips, and many other rewards gifts.
Charity Programs
PGCI is focused on “giving back” to those in need. As a result, PGCI will be donating significant amount of its revenues to Charities. In the future PGCI Members will be able to obtain donation receipts for tax purposes.
PGCI along with its Partners will sponsor regional and one annual golf event, from which the fundraising efforts will be donated to a charity or charities geographically local to that event.
