Q&A with a Golf Industry Innovator: Making the Rounds – Installment 42

This column features recollections of the author’s 38 years as a golf writer. These installments stem from his many travels and experiences, which led to a gradual understanding that the game has many intriguing components, especially its people.

This story is about Dan Murnan, one of the pioneers who helped take golf courses – and the people who play them – into cyberspace. His company, Cybergolf, created websites and online tools that helped revolutionize the golf industry. [Full disclosure: This author worked there for 15 years.]

I first met Murnan in 1996 during the Fred Couples Invitational at Inglewood Golf Club just north of Freddie’s hometown of Seattle. I will get to our initial meeting soon.

The Monday-Tuesday event featured 20 or so Freddie’s Tour buddies, raising funds for cancer research and treatment at Seattle’s Swedish Hospital; his mother Violet died from the disease. Around $1 million was raised during the low-key tournament’s five-year run. After covering the first event and seeing only a handful of fellow scribes, I asked tournament chairman and Fred’s longtime friend, John Bracken, if he’d like some professional help improving the media’s response. He agreed and I became its media director in the second year.

1995 was when I co-founded the Northwest Golf Media Association, which sought to draw awareness to the sublime but underappreciated golf in the region. With Couples’ stature as one of game’s most popular players and the attention this local tournament would bring, the timing was perfect to quickly grow the nonprofit organization. During these tournaments my wife Anni and 16-year-old daughter Erica diligently handed out NWGMA applications and the membership quickly grew.

Vying for the $700,000 total purse – with over $150,000 going to the winner, not bad for two days’ work at that time – were guys (and a gal) named Palmer, O’Meara, Mickelson, Jacobsen, Daly, Cook, Calcavecchia, Feherty, McCord, Faxon, Els, Elkington, McCarron, Andrade, and LPGA star Laura Davies. Overlake Country Club in Bellevue hosted the first two years; the next two were at Inglewood, and the final year at the Golf Club at Newcastle.

The second event at Overlake was memorable as it was the day after the 1995 PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club. Organizers hired a private jet to fly competitors up to SeaTac Airport. Many were dragging on Monday; champion Steve Elkington admitted he’d over-celebrated on the flight, and a 25-year-old Ernie Els was also suffering, coming into the media tent and immediately removing his massive golf shoes.

For me, the best part was the tournament-launching horse races. With crypto credentials, my wife Anni and daughter Erica had a front-row view walking behind a golf cart in the middle of the fairway outfitted with a huge speaker blaring Gary McCord and David Feherty’s “commentary” via microphones with very long cables. These impromptu performances foreshadowed the duo’s groundbreaking humor that would tickle golfers for decades to come.

My favorite horse-race moment came in the Palmer-Davies pairing after both drove off from the same pro tees. “The King” stopped beside the first and shortest ball, waiting for Laura. The big Brit eyed it and drolly remarked, “That’s yours Arnie.” Thousands of fans roared.

Meeting Dan

Before the 1996 event, I informed Bracken we were getting overwhelmed with credential requests. Apparently, I did too good of a PR job. He said we could only issue 120 media badges as that’s how many we ordered. The interest was astounding; requests came from Japan, Europe and Florida from some outfit called “Golf Channel.” (Palmer was an original backer of this new television network.)

We scoured the list for possible rejects. Spotting Dan Murnan and “Cybergolf,” I asked John, “Do you know anything about this?” He replied, “It’s a new internet company that’s going to cover the tournament live.” Thinking this was another headache to deal with, I wanted them off the list. But Bracken said “No, Dan Murnan is a friend of mine and I want him there.”

It was a madhouse at Inglewood that year, with Arnie and Laura in attendance and well over 15,000 tickets sold. The few hairs on my head were on fire, but it was a blast coordinating everything with my wife and daughter tending the details. I’d grab reporter-requested players to visit the media room, recognizing most of the assembled scribes and TV people. But not the tall guy in the front row with a big computer in his lap sitting beside a smiling and very pregnant woman.

I introduced myself to Dan and Amy Murnan.

Working for Cybergolf

The rest of my 1990s were devoted to completing the 622-page (that’s no typo) third edition of my book, “Golf Courses of the Pacific Northwest,” and the epic, four-pound 437-page “Championships & Friendships: The First 100 Years of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association,” which Anni designed, and I co-authored, edited and helped publish.

Physically, if not mentally, it was time for a change. The birth of golf websites came in the mid-1990s. I was asked around then to write a few articles for a new site called Golfweb.com and began to grasp how this technology might become the next big thing. So, I called Dan and asked if he needed help with writing content for Cybergolf. He said, “Sure,” and thus, in 2000, began a 15-year relationship with a new company that soon after, my wife and I also invested in.

These early days were eye-opening with many personal adjustments. For one, it was a return to the office environment which I loathed and had led me to go out on my own. I hadn’t had a “boss” in years. Also, I had to transition from being a Mac-only guy to a PC user. On the other hand, I was to receive – at least most of the time during the company’s early growing pains – a regular paycheck.

Cybergolf’s first “office” was a spare bedroom in Dan and Amy’s Mukilteo, Wash., house; wires and keyboards were splayed everywhere. In 2001 the business became more official by moving into a small office in Edmonds, Wash. In these start-up days there were seven or eight people crammed into maybe 250 square feet of space. One memorable moment came when the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually Quake shook the greater Seattle area. Ceiling tiles and computer and modem wiring cascaded all over the place. Another was learning about 9/11 just as we arrived that morning for work.

Dan, Travis Cox (mentioned below) and I made a lot of headway, hashing out ideas for how and why golf courses and info-hungry golfers could benefit from a well-conceived website. Thanks to Dan’s support, I was invigorated in helping create the architecture for the home page, which emphasized up-to-the-minute golf news and stories covering many different subjects. We were on the cutting edge of this approach.

Once the company became better established, I didn’t drive into the physical office every day, only coming when necessary. Just like the old days. Dan and I parted ways in 2015 and have remained great friends ever since.

So here we are: 10 years since I left Cybergolf, an appropriate time for a Q&A with the guy who founded the company and helped take the golf industry in a new direction. Dan reveals stuff that I didn’t even know about.

Jeff Shelley: Please explain your experience as a youth: birthplace, growing up in northeast Seattle, etc. Feel free to describe your days as a caddie, athlete at Blanchet High School, family stories (names of parents and sister), and any other background.

Dan Murnan: “My first exposure to golf was as a caddie at Sand Point Country Club. I was 12 years old and looking for a way to make money. I think it was my dad, not a golfer at the time, who suggested that I might check out caddying there. Oneg day me and my best friend Mike walked over to Sand Point and signed up to be caddies.

“We went through about a two-week training period and had to take a written test. After passing it, we were deemed ‘official’ by head pro and caddie master Ron Hagen. We were paid $4 for an 18-hole loop and, hopefully, a hotdog at the turn. It was a great time.  Mike and I would walk over early on the mornings of Saturday and Sundays and hang around the caddie shack until we got a loop.

“The best part of this was Monday Caddy Day, when we could play all the golf we wanted. One day Mike and I played 63 holes. That included playing the par-3 15^th hole over and over 15 times! Incidentally, Sand Point’s Caddy Shack was extremely rich in golf talent. Waiting for loops were future PGA Tour players Mike Gove, Rich Fehr and Bill Sander, who also won the 1976 U.S. Amateur. All three were members of U.S. Walker Cup teams. I learned a lot about golf by caddying and just listening to the banter of the members.”

JS: Describe your time at the University of San Diego, the friendships, degree and any experiences you care to share.        

DM: “I was a pretty good athlete in high school and had D-1 scholarship offers for football and basketball. I went to Blanchet High School and, in the 1970s, they had a storied football program that won city and state championships. My senior year I suffered a significant neck injury and decided I would rather be able to walk than play football. Also, I figured there wasn’t much future for a 6-4 center in college basketball.

“I decided to focus on golf as an after-high school sport. I played a very limited amount of golf in high school, so competitive golf was a new experience for me. For two years I was on the golf team at Shoreline Community College in Seattle. After having enough of playing golf in the rain, I ended up getting a small scholarship and playing on the University of San Diego golf team for two years and was captain my senior year. Playing on the USD team was a tremendous experience and a whole lot of fun. We had a good team and played in tournaments up and down the West Coast. I had the opportunity to play with quite a few future PGA Tour stars.

“Every fall, I would drive from Seattle to San Diego for the school year and was joined on these epic road trips by my good friend and golfing buddy John Roe. He grew up in the Monterey area, so we would always stop there in route to San Diego. John, having played competitive golf at Monterey High School, knew how to sneak on at Pebble Beach Golf Links. This was in the early 1980s when Pebble Beach was much more laidback than now.

“John and I would drive to the tennis club and wait in the parking lot until around 5 p.m., waiting for the last group to tee off. We’d make sure the course was clear behind the last group, and once clear, grab our bags from the trunk and start at the second hole.  Most days we finished the 18^th hole, playing one of the most dramatic finishing stretches in golf in the dark.  We never played the first hole and always joked how expensive that first hole at Pebble Beach was!

“Our ride down the coast was a 1967 Mustang convertible that I drove throughout high school. We felt like we owned the place tooling around Pebble Beach’s famed 17mile Drive in that car, which I still have and drive whenever the weather is sunny.”

JS: Describe your experiences – both in golf and educational choices – and how these led to working in golf sales and, later, formulating the concept for Cybergolf.

DM: “I graduated from USD with a degree in Business Administration and a minor in Computer Science. I always had an interest in computers and enjoyed learning different programming languages. After graduating from college, I worked at a couple of golf courses and stores. Those experiences helped me land a job as an outside sales rep for Datrek Golf Bag company. The owners of Datrek were Debbie and Dennis Ryan. They were both super-smart and just fantastic people and I learned so much from them. These personal mentors really created a caring family atmosphere at Datrek, which I later tried to emulate at Cybergolf.

“The job was full of interesting experiences. I learned so much about business and sales. I covered 10 states in the Northeast and would drive over 60,000 miles a year around the territory in my Chevy Celebrity station wagon. New York City was part of my route. I once carried 10 golf bags down Broadway on the way to Larry’s Golf store.

“One time my car broke down on the George Washington Bridge during rush hour. I didn’t have any emergency gear, so I used all my red-colored golf bag samples as warning ‘flares.’ The New York State policeman who stopped to help laughed his butt off, saying that, in over 20 years on the job, he’d never seen golf bags used as warning signals. I then picked up states in the Pacific Northwest and would fly another 50,000 miles a year. I learned so much from this job and the Ryans. We grew from around $3 million in sales to over $24 million in about a seven-year period.”

Related: This & That: Making the Rounds – Installment 41

JS: What was it like for you and Amy to start Cybergolf? What year did you decide to pursue it, when was the first website launched and what was it like?

DM: “It was exciting. We started Cybergolf in 1995, which was very early in the internet era. I remember walking into sales calls at pro shops with a big computer and talking with the golf staff about the need for a website for their golf course. They would say ‘a web what?’ Very few of them had heard of the internet or really knew what it was.

“We would have to plug into a phone line and dial up via AOL. The pages would take a long time to load, especially if any had an image. We also heard a lot of comments like ‘the internet is just a fad and will never stick around.’ But Amy and I found a few forward-looking managers who saw the advantage of having an online presence and signed up with us. I think our very first client was Willows Run Golf Course in Woodinville, Wash., not far from Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond. Travis Cox was the GM and signed up. As it turned out, Travis would later work at Cybergolf for over 18 years and was instrumental in the success of the company.

“When we started Cybergolf.com in 1995 it was very exciting. We had write-ups in newspapers, some as far away as the Cleveland Plain Dealer. At the time, everything was measured in the number of ‘hits.’ In the first month we had over 100,000 hits. Amy and I were very excited as we had no idea if we’d even get one.  

“We also provided the first internet coverage of a professional golf tournament after signing a deal with the LPGA Safeco Classic at Meridian Valley Country Club in Kent, Wash. We rented a digital camera to take pictures of the action. After shooting photos on the course, I’d run back to the media tent every hour where Amy would upload the photos and a description of the action. Regular media were very perplexed about what this guy and his wife were doing running all over the course and uploading stories and photos every hour!”

JS: What were some of the biggest hurdles you faced while trying to grow Cybergolf? I know it was one of the golf industry’s first websites, please confirm where it ranked in this timeline and the names of other early websites. Also, please describe any memorable moments/anecdotes/experiences/characters met during this time.

DM: “When we launched the Cybergolf.com website in 1996, I think golf.com and maybe pgatour.com were the only other ‘national’ websites. As far as hurdles go, I think anytime simply starting a new business is a hurdle.

“I finally quit my day job at Datrek in the fall of 1999 to focus full time on Cybergolf and began to raise money from investors. My timing was not great as in 2000 many internet companies crashed due to the ‘.com’ bubble bursting and investors shied away from the technology.

“Luckily, we always focused on running Cybergolf as a business and making a profit. It was for this reason that it survived and prospered. I believe at the 2000 PGA Show in Orlando there were something like 92 tee-time and internet-related golf companies. Many of them had lavish parties and massive two-story exhibits. By the next year, there were less than 10 golf internet exhibitors. We always watched our bottom line and were conservative. About a year later, ‘9/11’ happened and that made business very challenging, but we made it through that. There were always fresh hurdles to jump over and find a way around. I can truly say that in over 20 years at Cybergolf there never was a boring day.”

JS: What Cybergolf features made it unique and what was its business model? How did it evolve in the areas of design/hosting websites and golf content/GCN? Please list your first employees and explain why you hired them?

DM: “The concept of Cybergolf from the beginning was to create websites for golf courses and golfers and create a portal site with great local content to help people find area courses. We wanted to focus more on local golf than just tour news, equipment reviews, etc. The focus was much more vertical and local than other major golf sites. 

“One of our first hires was Jeff Shelley. I believe Jeff is one of the most accomplished golf writers in the industry. Few, if any writers, have such breadth and depth of knowledge of golf. Jeff can write about any aspect of golf development and construction as well as write eloquently on the history of golf or preview a major tournament. I have not come across another golf writer that has the talent and wide-ranging skill set he does.

“Jeff was responsible for over 16,000 golf stories during his 15-year tenure as editor at Cybergolf. He also developed an industry-leading product called Golf Construction News (GCN) that researched and covered golf development and construction around the country.  Affiliated businesses would subscribe to our online service and select from eight different regions of the U.S., basing subscriptions on the markets in which they worked. It was a very successful part of the Cybergolf company. When launched I believe it was the only online report of its kind.

“Another early hire was Travis Cox. Before Cybergolf, he was involved in the development of a few golf courses for Vulcan Ventures. He also had extensive golf management and industry knowledge. On top of his experience, Travis is a brilliant, down-to-earth business guy who was instrumental in the success of Cybergolf. Travis ran the day-to-day operations and helped develop many of the products for golf courses.

“Our major technical hire was Dan Porter, who started working for us while a senior at Seattle University working on a computer science degree. Dan is an extremely talented computer engineer who created all the main Cybergolf platforms. He would build applications like online tee-time systems all on his own. Other companies would have teams of programmers to create what Dan was able to develop by himself.”

JS: What was it like in these early days advancing the company and trying to make it succeed? What were the major milestones that helped along the way? Discuss any key meetings and business/personal contacts.

DM: “I think Cybergolf had three key items that made us very successful. First, we were great innovators. Beginning all the way back to the late-‘90’s. We were the first to offer dedicated golf websites with self-administration capability. We were the first company that offered golf-specific email marketing in the early 2000s. From there we just kept innovating and leading the golf industry with new online marketing systems.

“Cybergolf was the first to offer dedicated e-commerce, GolfVite social media, mobile websites, and text messaging for golf courses. Sometimes we were too far ahead. Text messaging is a great example of that. We created a robust text-marketing system with QR codes and geo targeting so the system would know when a golfer would finish the eighth hole and send a text message with a special offer for food at the turn. Or when they finished their round, golfers would receive a special offer for their next round. This was an amazing system. Many courses now use something similar. But we were so far out there in 2014 that golf courses were slow to adopt it.

“Even from a golf-content perspective we were very innovative. Jeff put together a large team of freelance writers from around the world. No other site had fresh and interesting golf and golf industry content like we did. Many of these writers who were first published by Cybergolf and used that exposure to launch careers that are still going.

“Secondly, we had amazing customer service. Our entire company wanted to make sure clients were happy with our products and trained in how to use them. We operated monthly training webinars that continuously helped our clients use new tools, generate profits and run their golf courses more effectively.

“Thirdly, we took great care of our Cybergolf team members, going above and beyond what’s expected of a small company. At its peak we had 16 employees. We provided 401K as well as excellent health and dental care coverage. We ran Cybergolf like a family and I believe everyone enjoyed working there. Most of our employees were with us for 15 years or longer.”

JS: At its peak, how much traffic did Cybergolf generate and how many customers did it have? Please describe any memorable moments from these heydays.

DM: “Over the years we created over 5,000 websites for golf courses around the U.S. We would typically have around 1,500 active hosted clients in 49 states (North Dakota was the lone holdout) and seven countries. Cybergolf.com had over 400,000 monthly visitors and our system accounted for over 2.5 million monthly page views.”

JS: Why did you shutter the company and what year? Include the primary obstacles factoring in this decision and why they were tough to overcome. What’s the status of the current company?

DM: In 2015 the golf industry started to change. The growth of the game slowed down, and fewer people played golf. I had been at the helm of Cybergolf for over 20 years and just felt it was time to transition the company and do something new.”

JS: Please describe how Amy participated in the company over the years. Provide her own business background as well as the names and ages of your children, where they currently live and what they’re doing now. Also briefly outline a timeline of your various moves to Bend, Ore., and back to the Seattle area.

DM: “Amy was amazing and very supportive when I told her that I wanted to create an online golf company. In the beginning years we both were active in starting the company and designing the first Cybergolf website. We learned HTML programming and did much of the coding on the first site ourselves. It was very exciting after we launched our site and started seeing writeups about Cybergolf in papers around the U.S.

“At the time we started Cybergolf, Amy was running her own successful plant-scaping business called ‘Green with Amy.’ We also started a family, with our son Luke coming along in 1996 followed by Lucy in 1999. Luke and Lucy are now 29 and 26 and both live and work in the greater Seattle area. That was a very busy time for us.

“I think about the only time Amy got a little nervous about things was when I quite my ‘day job’ at Datrek Golf. I remember that the owner of the company was in town and, by this time, Cybergolf was taking up more and more of my time and my focus on selling golf bags was waning. My manager and I were having dinner, and I made a spur-of-the-moment decision at dinner and told him that after 14 years with Datrek I was resigning from the company. 

“I went home that night and there was Amy sitting in the family room holding 2-month-old Lucy and she asked how the dinner meeting went. I said, ‘Great, I resigned from Datrek.’ To say the least, she was very surprised.  She said, ‘What about health insurance for the kids?’ I think I replied with something flippant like ‘We’ll figure it out.’ Well, we did, and it all worked out over the next 20-plus years.”

JS: Please describe your pursuits – business-related or otherwise – since the company closed. Include your teaching, writing and coaching experiences and why these are challenging and/or rewarding.

DM: “I am enjoying my time post-Cybergolf. I have coached girls high school golf teams for over 10 years. I first coached at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, Wash. When we lived in Bend, I coached at Summit High School, and we won a state championship in 2023. We moved back to Mukilteo in 2025 and I’m back at Kamiak. The girls’ golf team is one of the favorites to win the state title in 2026. Coaching is the most fun and enjoyable job I’ve ever had. It’s a way to give back and, hopefully, help the next generation of golfers and student athletes excel in their endeavors.

“During COVID, I took a few classes and found I really enjoy creative writing. I have been fortunate to have a story and poem published and am looking forward to continuing.

“I also teach a golf psychology seminar called ‘A Good Walk Enjoyed!’ The seminars are not about how to play golf better, but how to enjoy the game and have more fun on the golf course. The seminars are quite popular, and I really enjoy teaching them. I have also taught Entrepreneurship at various colleges.”

JS: Please talk about your golf game. Include your best rounds and big wins in college and after. Current handicap?

DM: “My golf these days has been sporadic. I have had a couple of injuries that have kept me away from swinging the clubs. Plus, I enjoy coaching golf much more than playing these days. Although I spend a lot of time on golf courses, I’m not packing clubs. My handicap is still around a 5, but I haven’t posted many scores in the last few years.

“I really enjoyed my playing days at USD. My best finish was a top 10 in the Southern Cal Invitational at Torrey Pines. Corey Pavin won the tournament that year. In all my years in golf I’ve never seen someone putt that well. It was no surprise that Pavin became a Major champion and a Ryder Cup captain.”

Jeff Shelley has written and published 12 books as well as numerous articles for print and online media since 1987. Among his titles are three editions of the book, “Golf Courses of the Pacific Northwest.” The Whidbey Island resident was editorial director of Cybergolf.com from 2000-15, co-founder of the Northwest Golf Media Association and president of the nonprofit First Green (https://www.thefirstgreen.org/). To contact Jeff: fairgreens@seanet.com.