Our History

Today TeeTime Golf Pass includes five regional passbooks covering the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Midwest, Lower Midwest and Upper Midwest. The program is one of the largest and most successful passbook programs in the country, encompassing nearly 1,000 golf courses in 14 states. And to think it all began over three decades ago with just a few dozen courses in south central Pennsylvania.

In 1992, Jim and Sue Curtis moved from Florida to rural Pennsylvania. At the time, Jim worked as editor of the News-Chronicle in Shippensburg, PA, while Sue was looking for a part-time job. The couple began toying with the idea of starting a golf publication, but were not convinced it would be profitable. That’s when Jim got the idea of adding a discount golf card to the mix to make the project more sustainable. Together they visited courses in the five surrounding counties and signed up 22 courses for what was then known as the Southern Pennsylvania Golf Card.

Five years later, with Sue doing most of the legwork, the program had grown to 100 courses. It became obvious the name of the product needed to be changed when golf pros in the Philadelphia area asked, “Where’s southern Pennsylvania?” TeeTime Golf Pass was born that year.

On a leap of faith, Jim quit his newspaper job and began working full-time for the company. Much of the passbook’s growth and success was predicated on the philosophy of incentivizing golfers to try new courses, allowing TeeTime Golf Pass members the opportunity to save on greens fees at both local and regional courses.

In 2001 TeeTime added a valuable player with the hiring of Bud Key. He had also worked in the newspaper business for more than a decade as a writer and editor with Chesapeake Publishing Corp. Bud had also started a golf publication, Chesapeake GOLFER, which included a golf discount program. A chance meeting at a golf show in Maryland brought the two together, and soon Bud brought in over 150 courses from Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia into the TeeTime program. He now serves as Mid-Atlantic Director while handling many of the company’s publishing duties.

By 2005 Sue had scaled back her duties and Jim was beginning to think about retirement. One day he picked up the phone and called his son, Jesse, a structural engineer in Tampa, FL. Wanting to spend more time with his young family, Jesse joined the business and after a few years took the helm as president of TeeTime Golf Pass, Inc. Under Jesse's leadership and with a vision towards expansion, Craig Immel was brought on as the Midwest Director and he built up that region launching the Midwest passbook in 2008, then the Northeast passbook in 2011.

TeeTime Golf Pass could see that everything was moving to the internet and tech enabled devices, so they partnered with Digital Golf Pass in 2015, rolling out their digital version of the legacy passbook.