Site helps golfers plan a round with friends

It can be a challenge to coordinate any kind of get-together, but planning a round of golf among friends may just be the most difficult of all thanks to the complexity involved in comparing schedules, gathering preferences, communicating with the course starter and making tee assignments. Help is now at hand, however, in the form of Teeboxer, a site that aims to make the whole process easier by handling the bulk of the coordination and tapping the social networks players are already using. Users of Colorado-based Teeboxer can begin either with a list of players or with a set of already-reserved tee times. Either way, the site will gather everyone’s availability and preferences and then choose the times and tee assignments best for each person. Golfers can connect with the site through existing social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo and even Salesforce — and they can receive updates via email, text messages or voice calls. Once a round has been scheduled, Teeboxer compiles all the critical information for each golfer, including when they’re teeing off and with whom, weather information, and course information and directions. Also available on Teeboxer are course communities that can help golfers find new partners. It’s free to participate in round planning and Teeboxer’s course communities, as well as to create up to three plans per year. Otherwise, Teeboxer costs USD 49 per year for unlimited planning, with special discounts for golf professionals and charity employees. The ubiquity of social networks today offers a world of new opportunity to ease coordination, communication and planning in countless areas of life. How about picking a niche of your own and making logistical nightmares a thing of the past?