got the kids to Duluth, thanks to wonder-wife and her mom’s car
the MINI opted for an extended stay at Tobies
stopped at Tobies in Hinckley for gas and more health food
heading for the North Shore
out of money – must be time to leave the fair
39th straight Great Minnesota Get-Together
nothing beats a Pronto Pup for breakfast
kid one and I finished the 5K in about 35:00
T-minus 30 minutes to the 2008 Milk Run at the MN State Fair
loaded the new 2008-09 JMC software for HSRA Minnesota – the school year is near
shot 91 from the whites at Bunker Hills in what turned out to be my longest round in several years
Almost ten years to the day of my last round there, our Saturday group visited Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids today. Our afternoon tee time had us on the West-North nines at the 27 hole facility (36 holes if you count the nine hole short course). The walking weekend rate was $40.
almost 3 hours for the first nine…
summer BBQ at the Kellgren’s house
won a T-shirt at the big Holiday open house (great hot dogs too)
This morning I had the opportunity to interview Bob Parise, president and founder of ForeTees, an online tee time reservation system designed by golf professionals exclusively for private country clubs.
In use by 24 of the top 100 clubs in the nation (300+ clubs overall), the system has processed more than 8 million tee times since the March 2002 launch. Top Minnesota clubs using the system include Interlachen, Hazeltine National and Northland.
Parise was a member at Dellwood Hills and owned a technology consulting firm, RDP Consulting. In the spring of 2001, Dellwood assistant professional Travis Galleberg and head professional Jay Norman led the charge to bring an online system for tee times to their members. Finding nothing to their liking in the market, Parise stepped in and the initial ForeTees system was born.
Five additional clubs joined by the end of the first year and Galleberg left Dellwood to join the company. Current director of technology Paul Sindelar was also involved from the start and the company now employs nine people in their new office, located just down the road from North Oaks.
System features have expanded over time to meet the custom needs of each club. For example, tee time lotteries are popular with Florida clubs, so that feature was added in 2005. Other new features include event sign-up, handicap integration with GHIN and expanded reporting capabilities for club managers.
With sensitive member rosters and information, security and backup systems are vital. ForeTees hosts their servers in a Minneapolis data center and have multiple procedures in place for contingencies (such as when a club loses its internet connection).
Techies will be interested to know that Macs play a big part in the ForeTees operation, while Linux is used on the back-end servers. The development platform is Java-based, with MySQL databases used to store system data.
ForeTees is a true Minnesota golf success story. Parise said they’d like to improve the look and feel of the product in the future and are managing through the difficult economy. They also continue to partner and integrate with existing club systems and web sites.
Everyone I’ve talked to at a private club that has ForeTees loves it. After visiting the operation, it’s easy to see why. Kudos!
It’s been ten years since my first (and only) fantasy football league, but the neighbors asked us to fill an opening in their league this year. We plan to set it and forget it for the most part, but here is the starting lineup (courtesy of fanball.com).
heading to interview Bob Parise of ForeTees
ran 3 miles with kid one in Eagan – last practice before the Milk Run
contemplation on the back deck
met with TC – it will be a long, stressful few weeks for me
the scenery in Dinkytown doesn’t suck
lunch with Rubin at Loring Pasta Bar in Dinkytown
Studio 4 admin presentation by Bonnie and Saintanne – great job
fixed staff page on HSRA Minnesota page