A little less than 2 months ago I was driving down the street when this new web site idea hit me. The thought blew me away so bad I almost drove off the road. The idea: Build a networking site like myspace for golf.

I couldn’t get home fast enough to start researching URLs for the new golf/myspace site. I was fortunate enough to register http://www.thegolfspace.com - The Golf Space. For the next 6-7 weeks I burned the candles at both ends building the site, getting opinions, finding cool modules etc.

What is THE GOLF SPACE?

The Golf Space is a “networking” site geared toward golf. Networking in this sense refers to the connection of friends, businesses and business associates. This is a similar concept to many social networking sites like myspace.com, tagworld.com, friendster.com, orkut.com etc. People or businesses register accounts and fill out profile information. They then become part of a network and can find people or other businesses with similar likes or interests.

Personal profiles

Each Golf Space user has his/her own personal profile. Within the profile is a ton of information about the user such as location, interests, matchmaker info, golf information (handicap, home course, lowest score, equipment list), what they’re there for (networking, friends, business, matchmaker etc), blog entries, forum posts, personal photos, visitors, connections and more.

Business profiles

The profiles at The Golf Space also have custom business fields for businesses in the golf industry and for golf courses. Businesses and golf courses can have their own home page where users or other businesses may read about them, see photos, establish connections etc.

Sample golf course profile:

Detailed profile information

Profile

The main profile section contains the user’s location, handicap, web site, bio, interests and what they are looking for at The Golf Space.

Connections

When a user finds another user or business they wish to associate with they can request a connection with them. A connection tells them you are interested in being their friend or associate. If the connection is accepted, both users’ connections tab within their main profile shows a thumbnail image of the corresponding connection. This is just like the friends section on myspace and many other networking sites.

Photos

Each user at The Golf Space has a personal profile photo which appears in their profile and in other locations on the site (posts, forums, featured profiles etc).

In addition to the profile photo each user has a personal photo gallery where many more photos may be uploaded and viewed publicly or set to private so only connections may view them.

Thumbnails of the user’s images appear in the photos tab within the user profile:

Blogs

Each user at The Golf Space also has a personal blog. User blogs can be set to public or to private viewing by connections only. The blogging system at TGS isn’t the best currently, but it is fully functional and even has comments. A new blogging system is in development.

The user profile has a blog tab where you can see a listing of all the user’s blog posts.

Equipment

The equipment tab in the user profile is where the user can list his gear. There are several fields from driver to ball:

Business

The business tab has fields where personal users or businesses can input information about their business, their position and other relevant information.

The business fields (empty):

Matchmaker

A great feature at The Golf Space is the matchmaker. If you’d like to find “that special someone” the matchmaker tab in the user profile has information such as gender, sexual preference, body type, smoking and drinking preference, height and more.

The matchmaker section (empty):

Users can search for their ultimate golf date by using the site’s browse function and checking the criteria they’d like to match up with in the matchmaker.

Recent visitors

If users are wondering who is checking out their profile, the recent visitors shows them. The recent visitors tab contains thumbnails of the visitor’s profile image, the visitor’s name, link to their profile, when they last visited and how many times they’ve visited.

–End of profile info-

User URL

Each user at The Golf Space has a custom URL. It consists of the golfspace.com plus the user’s username. Example: The user “tiger” would have the URL www.thegolfspace.com/tiger …cool eh?

Forum

The Golf Space has a user forum board. Yes, there are a million great golf forums already like The Sand Trap, Golf Discussions, My Golf Domain, Web Country Club etc… But since I CAN, I put a forum in.

Chat

The Golf Space has a chat room open 24/7. Users can meet each other there for online discussions.

There’s a weekly chat session scheduled for any who wish to attend on Sunday nights.

Private message system

The Golf Space has an internal private message system so users can send internal emails to each other.

Browse/Search

The Golf Space has an advanced user browsing capability. The browse function allows users to select certain profile information such as gender, location, interests etc. Use the browse to find a golf buddy, a personals match, a golf course or a business.

Links

Users may submit web links. These links can be to their own web sites, or to sites they feel other users of The Golf Space may find interesting. This section has the potential to be huge.

Opening MASTERS WEEK 2006!

The “official” opening of THE GOLF SPACE is Masters week 2006! But it’s open now if you wish to join the fun and get your custom URL locked down before someone else does! Please drop in to http://www.thegolfspace.com, register, check it out and let me know what you think.

Tony Korologos
aka Mediaguru
my profile: thegolfspace.com/tony