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DAOs take on golf! Will it be an Ace?
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Let’s talk a lil more about LinksDAO - global membership for the modern golfer?
Also known famously as Links Golf Club, this DAO comprises 5400+ members that pride themselves on being an online-based golf collective. Interestingly, like most Gen-Z things now, LinksDAO was simply an idea floated on Twitter by Mike Dudas which soon gained enough traction to fruition. Established in 2021 by the Links Golf Club CEO Jim Daily, Mike Dudas, and the Head of Strategy, Adam Besvinick, the DAO primarily comprises young, millennial, and Gen Z golfers from across the world. How did these 3 modern golfers attract other modern golfers to join their club?
Just like what most other DAOs opt for, LinksDAO also opted for an NFT drive in order to attract its initial group of members. Holding the DAO’s NFT enabled NFT holders to apply for membership in the Links Golf Club. NFT holders also received voting rights and the voting mechanism employed by LinksDAO was that of a simple majority vote! The membership of the DAO came with a diverse variety of perks and benefits while also providing access to a wide community of fellow golfers.
The idea is to create unique golf experiences that step far away from the traditional and rigid golfing experiences that presently exist. With the conventional structure presently in place, people have to pay a hefty amount to join one single golf club and also only play that golf course all year. The foundational experience that Links Golf Club is aiming to create is more universal and more accessible. With coverage from key players like Business Insider, Forbes, Golf Magazine, etc., LinksDAO seems to be on its way through the path it has carved in 15 months!
The primary goal that the DAO has prioritized is to own golf property in the real world, by way of acquisitions.
Source: LinksDAO’s Website
The milestone successes that LinksDAO has already achieved are definitely worth mentioning. The NFT drive that drove membership for LinksDAO, took place on January 2nd, 2022 (the DAO is just over a year old, yes!) and they not only sold out 9090 memberships but also raised over $10 million in JUST 24 hours! Unbelievable. No wonder they’re already buying a golf course! This decentralized community has also managed to send shockwaves across the golfing communities throughout the world as it has managed to secure a few of the best IRL benefits and partnerships. LinksDAO is partnered with top golf brands like 5iron, ShipSticks, IMG Prestige Golf Clubs & Resorts, World Vantage, Bridgestone Golf, etc. (trust us, we could go on and on).
It is pertinent to note that LinksDAO has varying membership levels, i.e., gold members and leisure members who each receive different levels of access, perks, and benefits. For instance, the gold members get complete access to the Member Reciprocity Program that LinksDAO prides itself on. But wait, what is the program? Through this program, global members can opt-in to a peer-to-peer (P2P) reciprocity program wherein they can organize outings at fellow gold members’ clubs!
Did a DAO just buy a whole golf course? What a shot!
On March 16th, 2023, LinksDAO announced that it has entered into an exclusivity agreement to purchase the well-renowned Spey Bay Golf Course located on the Moray coast of northern Scotland. Spey Bay Golf Club is a historical piece designed all the way back in 1907 by the well-renowned golf course architect Ben Sayers. While the sale price for this particular golf course listed online is approximately $905,000, the actual sale is expected to value at a higher amount. With a simple majority vote being the voting mechanism employed in this decentralized governance establishment, the buying of this golf course was obviously put to a vote as well. More than 4300 votes were cast and approximately 88 percent were in favor of placing a bid on the golf course!
While the initial aim was to locate and purchase a golf course in the United States, as most of its members live there, the deal in the United Kingdom was too good to pass up! In an astonishing span of just 15 months since its establishment, the DAO has been able to raise enough capital to fund the acquisition of the Spey Bay Golf Course in northern Scotland. It may also just be enough to fund other acquisitions but anyway, it is a great first step!
As a DAO however, you cannot buy land yet because you do not get the legal rights associated with a company and therefore are not a ‘person’ as per law. This is precisely why LinksDAO will always just remain the community that drives these global golf enthusiasts and becomes the governance body for decision-making purposes. Links Golf Club is the company on paper that does in fact, and in law, enjoy the legal rights to own land.
Since everyone thought that the DAO model may not be able to provide tangible results due to the online nature of the DAO, what’s commendable is that LinksDAO achieved it in such a short time! They were successfully able to acquire a real-world asset by way of raising money through an entirely online community and that definitely adds to the possible use cases of a DAO model as well.
While the deal will officially close in early April, Links Golf Club’s aggressive approach toward locating favorable golf properties in the United States of America continues to go on. With the success of this particular acquisition, the DAO also aims to increase its membership by adding another 100,000 members through the registration and sign-up process. LinksDAO has also already grown membership to 48 out of the 50 American states and 40 countries around the world! The online nature of a DAO lets it be as international as it gets.
The decentralized community takes over golfing experiences
LinksDAO has truly reimagined unique golfing experiences. By breaking out of the traditional structured and rigid golfing experience that presently exists and has been existing for years, the Links Golf Club decided to break the rigidness to make it universal. With so many partnerships, and benefits and perks stemming from each partnership, the modern golfer is certainly going to experience more than any other golfer to date! The surprising part is that golfers at LinksDAO have been able to raise enough money to acquire a beautiful golf course already. Golf memberships themselves are so expensive, imagine how expensive it is to buy a golf course!
With golfing as a whole being such an expensive and inaccessible affair to most people (except the elite ofc!), LinksDAO has also worked toward providing its DAO members access to world-renowned golf courses that most general golf enthusiasts can only dream of setting foot in! One of the most pertinent golfing experiences that LinksDAO has already curated is ‘once-in-a-lifetime golf outings’ in these renowned golf courses!
LinksDAO also claims to be in conversation with most of the top architects that are known to design the most renowned golf courses in the world. Additionally, LinksDAO has successfully developed notable relationships with prime players in the universal golfing ecosystem including golf’s governing bodies such as USGA, R&A, and PGA Tour. They hope to create a unique experience by combining the knowledge of all of these architects in addition to what they’ve imagined. Let’s democratize golf!
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