ClubSoft North America

Press Release
By - CMAA Carlonia Chapter (Jan 2012)The Carolinas Chapter of the Club Managers Association of America is pleased to announce the addition of ClubSoft as a Partner in the Carolinas Sponsorship Program. This partnership represents a one-year commitment by ClubSoft to support the Carolinas Chapter and the Carolinas Club Foundation (CCF) in its efforts to deliver outstanding education, networking opportunities and services to its members.
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Message from the CEO
By ClubSoft (October, 2011)Just returned from the annual HFTP show in Atlanta and thank you to all the customers who stopped by our booth to say hello. It is always nice to see the faces of people that I e-mail or speak to on a regular basis.

This has been a very exciting summer and fall for our company. As most are aware, in August we acquired the Back 9 Links company and have integrated their product with our ClubSoft Office system. The integration allows for seamless information flow from the member website to the back office accounting, complete with POS integration with the reservation system. In this short period of time we already have 10 clubs who have converted their current member websites to the new On-Line Community and we have another 12 new clubs using it. The integrated reservation system has proven to be a powerful addition to Clubs looking for ways to drive more activity to club events.

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Contract with the Private Club Industry
By ClubSoft (October, 2011) — ClubSoft North America enters into contract with the private club industry.

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The New Refrigerator
By Ray McDonald (September, 2011) — Unless you happen to be that fella from the Geico commercial who has been living under a rock, it should come as no surprise when I suggest that technological advancements of the past decade have propelled our methods and means of communicating with one another at speeds best measured in light years.

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook in February 2004. Seven years later his brainchild reached 750 million users. Along with Twitter, LinkedIn and the many other social networking services — not to mention laptops, iPhones, PDAs and the ubiquitous "tablet" computers — most people these days communicate with one another and organize their lives in ways that did not exist as recently as the turn of the 21st century.

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The Carolina Contrarian
By Peter Finch Golf Digest (September, 2011) — Tough as the U.S. economy has been on golf in recent years, there has been an upside for John McConnell: buying opportunities. McConnell, a deep-pocketed former software entrepreneur, has bought seven private clubs throughout the Carolinas. He expected to close on his eighth, TPC Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, in mid-July.

McConnell, 61, is a tiny player in a business increasingly dominated by big corporations. But he has a clear vision for his little portfolio of courses, and a lot of cash. That combination has many in the industry paying attention. "Golf has been decimated by investors who have no vision other than their short-term exit strategy," says Davis Sezna, president of La Quinta Resort & Club. "Clubs have to earn their members to survive, and John understands that."

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Power Players
clubandresortbusiness.com (August 22, 2011) — There are also many "boutique" companies that have blossomed over the past five years, by staking out distinctive niches as they focus on specific markets, regions or property types, or develop cutting-edge expertise in specific aspects of club operations.

One emerging firm that has successfully combined several of these strategic steps is Raleigh, N.C.-based McConnell Golf, LLC. The company also has a software division, ClubSoft, and McConnell's VP Sales & Marketing, Ray McDonald, is also ClubSoft's President.

Not surprisingly, technology is a major part of McConnell's strategy for developing its business and distinguishing its clubs.

"From a management standpoint, we always begin by trying to save money with efficiencies," says McDonald. "We run seven properties with one accounts receivable and one accounts payable. We also recently acquired Back Nine Links, a private social network company that turns club websites into social networking sites.

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ClubSoft Announces Upcoming Summer Learning Sessions in Four States
RALEIGH, N.C. (August 18, 2011) — One of the industry's fastest-growing club management systems, ClubSoft North America, is introducing various cutting-edge updates and new software in its product line at upcoming summer learning sessions in Florida, California, North Carolina and Illinois.

The events are scheduled to be conducted from 10 am to 4 pm on August 19 at Bocaire Country Club in Boca Raton, Fla.; August 22 at Round Hill Country Club in Alamo, Calif.; September 20 at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.; and September 23 at Chicago Yacht Club in Chicago, Ill.

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McConnell Golf, LLC Makes its Stamp on PGA's Nationwide Tour with Acquisition of TPC Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C.
RALEIGH, N.C. (August 09, 2011) — McConnell Golf, LLC has announced the purchase of its eighth premier golf club in the Carolinas, TPC Wakefield Plantation — host to golf's annual Nationwide Tour event, The Rex Hospital Open.

With the purchase, McConnell Golf not only adds another highly ranked private golf course to its stable of offerings, it also adds another popular golf course architect who joins the likes of Donald Ross, Tom Fazio, Pete Dye, Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman in the McConnell Golf fold. Former U.S. Open champion and veteran PGA TOUR player Hale Irwin designed the TPC Wakefield golf course over 217 acres of land amidst the serene natural beauty of Wake County adjacent to Falls Lake, within the community of Wakefield Plantation in north Raleigh.

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Raleigh-based ClubSoft merges with Boston firm
RALEIGH, N.C. (July 28, 2011) — ClubSoft North America, which provides software used by golf clubs to run their operations, has merged with Back 9 Links, a Boston company that offers a tee time reservation system that is tied to a private social media network.

ClubSoft is owned by McConnell Golf, the Raleigh company founded by serial entrepreneur John McConnell.

McConnell Golf owns seven courses in the Carolinas, including the Raleigh Country Club and Durham's Treyburn Country Club.

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ClubSoft Aquires Back 9 Links
RALEIGH, N.C. (July 26, 2011) — ClubSoft North America announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Boston-based Back 9 Links. The two organizations have been working as a partnership for the past three months, which led to today's acquisition.

"This has been an exciting year for ClubSoft and we have seen tremendous growth in our client base," said Ray McDonald, CEO of ClubSoft. "It became obvious to us as a vendor, and a club owner and operator that Back 9 has a product offering unlike any other company in the marketplace. They have harnessed the power of a strong reservation suite and matched that to a private social network that engages club memberships instead of just informing them."

McDonald added that ClubSoft was built on a strategy of allowing clubs the option of dealing with one vendor for the "in box to tee box" solutions for automation. The Back 9 product expands this offering by delivering the most powerful reservation system in the industry today. "The advantage of being able to work together up to this point is that it has given us time to get the products integrated," said McDonald. "No other single vendor can deliver a completely integrated package like the suite we have today. To get this much functionality elsewhere, golf and country clubs will need to have at least two vendors involved and must deal with interfaces between the products."

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