In January 2022—close to the peak of the NFT frenzy—LinksDAO sold $10.4 million worth of digital tokens with the stated mission of purchasing a golf course. Just over a year later, amid a very different crypto climate, the project is closing in on that promise.
But the milestone isn’t exactly a validation of blockchain’s unique power. The story is more complicated.
Last week, Links Golf Club (we’ll get to the reason behind the naming distinction shortly) announced that it had entered into an exclusivity agreement to purchase Spey Bay Golf Club along Scotland’s northern coast for roughly $1 million.
The club isn’t done shopping. Executives are evaluating more than two dozen U.S. courses as they eye future buys, hoping to scoop up 10 tracks by 2030.
Links is also planning to expand its membership for the first time since launching, notably doing so without NFTs this time around—hence the new Links Golf Club brand.
“Not everyone is into Web3,” Links CEO Jim Daily said in an interview. “To really have our vision of being extremely inclusive seen through to the end, we need to make it available to folks that aren’t into crypto too.”
In April the group will begin selling familiar annual memberships—possibly up to 100,000 of them—that come with access to private clubs, plus merchandise discounts and community connection. Pricing has not yet been announced. That makes Links GC the latest endeavor to emerge bestride new technology before looking to reach a wider audience without losing its initial ethos.
“If you say, only if you own cryptocurrency, only if you know how to have a custody wallet, only if you know where to go to buy NFTs, then you can be part of this club for everybody,” Daily said, “frankly that’s just not a club for everybody.”
Of course, Links Golf Club won’t be the first golf membership program. In addition to old Country Club models, companies like Apollo-owned Invited (which, previously known as ClubCorp, also recently underwent a name change) offer access to a network of locations. Links plans to distinguish its offering by focusing on experiences, social events, online content, and so on. “What we’re building is the next generation golfing community,” Daily said, “Not a local membership at a club.”
NFT holders will continue to receive additional benefits, while they don’t officially hold equity in the Links Golf Club endeavor. Those committed supporters were critical to the Spey Bay purchase process. First, the site was sourced from the community, after it was quietly listed for sale earlier this year. When group leaders decided to move forward, the possibility of bidding was opened up to the community’s online chat platform for 48 hours of debate, followed by a vote. Close to 90% voted ‘Yes,’ with over 4,300 votes representing the community of roughly 9,000 NFTs.
“There’s this level of inclusivity that naturally happens in Scottish golf that we bled into our project in a really conscious way,” Daily said. “For us to have our first golf course in the birthplace of golf that really holds pure and perfect alignment with our own beliefs and philosophies is perfect. So … I voted yes with my one NFT vote.”
Daily visited Spey Bay for the first time on March 18. Links GC hopes to maintain the course’s local player base while updating the grounds over the next year. NFT holders will vote on some of those changes, with possibilities including adding cameras on every hole so members can watch each other and hosting fantasy-style tournaments at the course.
The physical course will be just one manifestation of the digital golf community Links has built. Current membership comes with the ability to play nearly 500 private clubs across the U.S. A recently launched program also lets members host their peers as guests at other locations. Additionally LinksDAO has facilitated various events, groups, and competitions while offering discounted gear from partners of the project.
Having started with a tweet in December 2021, the company now has 18 full-time employees, plus 30 part-time contributors. It has a relationship with WME, counts Callaway as an equity investor following an undisclosed funding round, and is working with KemperSports to manage Spey Bay as well as future courses.
It is one of a number of NFT projects moving beyond that framework, with varying degrees of success. Last week, Jordan Castro, one of the founders behind the blockchain-born brand Doodles, which started as 10,000 unique NFT images, summed up that company’s pivot most succinctly, drawing diehards’ ire when he claimed, “We are no longer an ‘NFT project.’” The goal now, according to Castro (a.k.a. “Poopie”) is to become “a leading media franchise.”
Others have been forced to grapple with what their community looks like without the NFTs that once brought people together. Is there more to the group bond than the shared prospect of being early to a valuable technology?
On the flip side, teams and leagues are now wondering how blockchain technology could bolster existing efforts in spaces ranging from ticketing to video games, potentially without advertising any of the NFT elements therein.
For them, Links GC’s ongoing rebrand could offer a model to follow. The group has evolved from a so-called Web3 project to more fully embrace an ethos that predates the Bitcoin boom.
Today’s fans—and tomorrow’s consumers—want to feel like part of something, they want a say in the decisions made on their behalf, and they want places to gather together, both online and in the physical world. You don’t need to speak Ethereum to offer any of that.
(This story has been updated in the sixth-to-last paragraph to clarify KemperSports’ role.)
