Lightspeed and Whoosh help Lost Rail save time and deliver premium member experiences.

A member’s club built around golf

Lost Rail enjoyed immediate acclaim when it opened in 2022, with Golf Digest ranking it 2nd on their list of Best New Private Courses in America.

Rather than creating an extensive membership offering, the founders established a small, boutique club for passionate golfers centered around an incredible 18-hole routing and world-class playing conditions. No spas, no racquets, no children’s programming—it’s about golf.

For Head Professional Blake Schroeder, this approach resonates with members as well as staff:

“If you’re joining Lost Rail, you’re here for golf. And that is reflected in the staff. Everybody is here for the same reason, which makes communication easier. That alignment between staff and members makes the operation run exceptionally well.”

From pre-round amenities and post-round dining to a curated events schedule, members and guests get an experience that feels personalized and intentional.

Refining the member experience

Lost Rail is continuously learning what their members want in order to optimize service. A key focus has been the booking flow, which took compromise and the right tech partners to get right.

The club uses a unique call-in only model for tee times in order to maintain control over the tee sheet, reduce last-minute cancellations and build a rapport between members and staff. But with members calling for a visible tee sheet, adjustments needed to be made.

With Whoosh’s highly customizable tee sheet, member visibility doesn’t have to come at the expense of the call-in model. While members still book times via the golf shop, a mobile interface helps them view the tee sheet to make informed booking decisions. This visibility saves the golf shop staff time, cutting 60 seconds off every phone call on average.

“We developed a process where members could access the tee sheet, see what’s going on, see who else is playing and if there are groups to join. They’ve loved that, so it’s been a win on all fronts.”

Driving fast, seamless back-end operations

Lost Rail makes their unique booking process work with committed staff and a joint software solution that simplifies workflows. From a cloud-based tee sheet they can adjust remotely to fast daily closeouts, Lightspeed and Whoosh help the club run things their way, albeit more efficiently.

“The mobile interface is very simple and is easy to navigate for entering tee times on the go. If we’re on a trip or off property, we can do that instantly and easily for members.”

“At the end of the day, our staff benefits from a very simple checkout process. We hit the closeout button and it’s done in less than two minutes. All charges are sent to Lightspeed, time-stamped exactly to when the tee time occurred, not to the end of the day at 7PM.”

This extends to members as well, who can now track their bookings, identify open slots and coordinate account billing, all on their own.

And for a club that prioritizes communication with members, Lightspeed and Whoosh’s integrated solution helps Lost Rail reach out to the entire database in a few clicks.

“It’s a seamless process to import the contact information we’ve loaded into Lightspeed over to Whoosh, and use it to send out notifications, whether it be a frost delay, lightning or anything else.”

The right data, at the right time

For Schroeder, one of the unexpected benefits of using Lightspeed and Whoosh has been the reporting. From user-friendly data visualization to timely member and guest insights, the breadth and depth of the reports help Lost Rail get the visibility they need into their operations.

“All the data is sorted into beautiful pie charts and bar charts. You can sort by membership type and transportation type, you can search by guest name—which is a big feature that’s helped us massively.”

Given the short season and stringent guest limits, Lost Rail highly values how Whoosh’s software allows them to easily track guest activity to ensure compliance.

The club saves roughly four hours per month on auditing rounds with the new system in place.

“We have a limit of four guest rounds per year. Using the reporting system, we can load a report by specific guest name and easily track who’s close to that limit. Before, in our old system, we had to organize everything alphabetically and manually highlight names, which was a huge pain. The old process would take about two hours and now it takes seconds.”

It also helps the staff dive into on-course activity and spot patterns previously hidden to them.

“We can seamlessly see rounds, divide that up into membership type, as well as go into caddie reporting and separate rounds by caddies and caddies level.”

Simplifying retail operations and transactions

Lost Rail needed a POS platform that was customizable and performed at a high level. With Lightspeed, they found the intuitive system they needed.

“The beautiful thing about it is that it’s a very easy, trainable system with customizable menus and controls. The long-term tracking of transactions across accounts is very easy, seamless and organized.”

In the golf shop, Lightspeed’s inventory tools simplify counts and keep SKUs organized.

“The way Lightspeed operates is very simple. There are four different categories within each inventory count: count, missing, shrinkage and a final tab. It’s a very straightforward, easy path to follow. Each scan or item has its own timestamp, so when you’re tracking whether you counted a specific item, you can go back and see exactly when it was counted.”

“That makes everything much easier when you’re going through what can be a very painstaking inventory process.”

“We have our most common items set up under custom buttons within custom menus. For example, hats have their own menu, which then separates into different brands and styles, whether fitted or non-fitted. We also have an accessories menu for items like ball markers, with each item tied to a custom button that pulls up the SKU instantly. It’s very organized.”

And as a cashless club, Lightspeed Payments has custom charge rules that power fast, seamless transactions:

“Taking credit cards is seamless, and charging to a member account is even easier. Once it’s set up, it’s the easiest system to train staff on that I’ve been around.”

Support that raises the standard

Schroeder says the most rewarding aspect of working with the team at Lost Rail is how committed they are to the club’s standard of service and delivering member experiences rooted in care.

“Lost Rail has been lucky enough to foster an environment where everybody loves to be here because we truly, genuinely care about the people.”

That’s why getting that same level of support and care from the teams at Lightspeed and Whoosh has made all the difference.

“We have a personal contact on the support team, which has been invaluable as we went through the first two months of the system. Lightspeed support responds instantly. The interface is built right into the platform—you tap in, ask a question, and they respond very quickly, usually within ten minutes.”