What Greenlight Advisors does

Greenlight Advisors is a U.S.-based financial technology firm that operates GolfClubBenchmarks.com, a cloud-based SaaS benchmarking platform for the golf industry. The company aggregates anonymized financial and operational data from golf courses and delivers comparative analytics against regional and national averages through its proprietary Best-in-Class Report Card system, which scores 40 financial metrics and 20 operational metrics using a traffic-light quartile classification (Red/Yellow/Green). Greenlight's primary customers are municipal and public-sector golf course operators — including city parks departments and multi-course municipal systems such as Alamo City Golf Trail, Palm Beach County Golf, City of Louisville Golf, Salt Lake City Golf, and Montgomery County Revenue Authority — with a secondary expansion into public daily-fee, resort, and private club segments via the 2026 U.S. Golf Study.

The company's revenue model combines recurring subscription access to the GolfClubBenchmarks.com portal with optional professional consulting services sold as an add-on. Pricing is quote-based with annual billing cadence and is not publicly disclosed. Distribution relies on direct enterprise sales targeting financial leaders at golf facilities, supplemented by a Certified Partner Program that embeds Greenlight into the advisory workflows of major golf management companies (Troon, Landscapes Golf Management, American Golf, Spirit Golf Management, NGF) and industry associations (NGCOA, PGA of America, IAGA). The leadership team is founder-led by Michael A. Suglich, CPA, with a CTO (Ryan Sheehan) and Principal Solution Architect (Woody Torrez) providing SaaS platform expertise; the company operates with 1-10 employees and is privately held without disclosed institutional funding.

Name

Greenlight Advisors

Legal name

Greenlight Advisors Inc.

Website

https://greenlightadvisors.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1989

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Greenlight Advisors operates GolfClubBenchmarks.com, a SaaS benchmarking platform that aggregates financial and operational data from U.S. golf courses, enabling municipal, public, resort, and private operators to compare performance against regional and national averages through its Best-in-Class Report Card system.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Subscription-based Benchmarking Platform: Recurring subscription revenue from golf courses accessing the GolfClubBenchmarks.com platform for benchmark reports and data analytics. Courses pay for ongoing access to comparative performance data, quarterly benchmark reports (40-metric benchmarks), and the Best-in-Class Report Card system.
2. Consulting Services: Professional consulting services provided alongside the benchmarking tools to help golf course operators interpret data and implement improvements. Offered as an add-on to the subscription platform.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Greenlight Advisors sells subscription-based access to its GolfClubBenchmarks.com cloud benchmarking portal and annual Municipal/U.S. Golf Study reports that compare golf course financial and operational performance against regional and national averages. The firm also delivers financial and operational consulting services built on those benchmarks to help operators justify budgets, identify inefficiencies, and improve profitability. Customers are predominantly municipal, public, resort and private golf facilities plus the management companies that operate them.

Product overview

Greenlight Advisors operates as a golf industry analytics and benchmarking firm offering a unified platform centered on GolfClubBenchmarks.com, a cloud-based benchmarking portal. The core product suite includes the GolfClubBenchmarks.com platform for ongoing performance tracking, annual Municipal Golf Study / U.S. Golf Study programs that aggregate anonymized data from hundreds of courses, and the proprietary Best-in-Class Report Card grading system. The company also offers a Certified Partner Program through which golf management companies provide advisory services to member courses, along with direct consulting services. The 2026 U.S. Golf Study expanded to four integrated performance pillars: Financial Performance, Operational Performance, Capital Asset Stewardship, and Player Experience.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GolfClubBenchmarks.com: A cloud-based benchmarking platform that provides golf clubs with online access to view their courses' financial and operational benchmark reports against regional and national averages.

Products and services

• GolfClubBenchmarks.com Cloud-based SaaS data capture and reporting portal that enables golf course operators to benchmark their financial and operational performance against regional and national averages; uses traffic-light reporting (green/yellow/red) to help course managers identify underperforming areas and opportunities for improvement. Sold via subscription to municipal, public daily fee, private and resort golf facilities.
• Municipal Golf Study / U.S. Golf Study (annual benchmarking study program) Annual benchmarking study program that aggregates anonymized financial and operational data from hundreds of U.S. golf courses and delivers Best-in-Class Report Cards plus comprehensive benchmark reports comparing 20–40 financial metrics and 20 operational/KPI metrics against regional and national averages. Delivered as a subscription engagement to municipal, public daily fee, private and resort facilities; sold via the NGCOA Member Golf Study edition and other partner editions.
• Consulting Services Financial and operational advisory services delivered by Greenlight Advisors to help golf course operators interpret benchmark data, justify budgets to stakeholders, identify efficiencies, and improve financial performance; offered alongside the GolfClubBenchmarks.com subscription and delivered directly or via Certified Partners such as Troon.

Quantifiable outcome

• Top quartile courses generate average net income margins exceeding 35%, more than double the median course
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• American GolfcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 April 2026American Golf, one of the largest golf course management companies in the United States, joined the Certified Partner Program and will serve as an Advisory Partner to the U.S. Golf Study. Paul Ballam (Senior VP) was appointed to the Greenlight Advisors Advisory Board. American Golf will integrate its facilities into the GolfClubBenchmarks.com platform for strategic planning.
• PGA of AmericacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026PGA of America is a strategic partner for the 2026 U.S. Golf Study, supporting industry-wide awareness and participation in the benchmarking initiative.
• International Association of Golf Administrators (IAGA)supportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026IAGA is supporting the 2026 U.S. Golf Study as part of the coalition of leading golf industry organizations helping expand industry awareness and participation.
• Reserve AdvisorssupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Reserve Advisors is listed among the strategic partners supporting the GolfClubBenchmarks.com platform and U.S. Golf Study.
• National Golf Foundation (NGF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 November 2025NGF joined the Certified Partner Program to provide advisory support for the 2025 U.S. Municipal Golf Study. The partnership combines Greenlight's benchmarking methodology with NGF's municipal consulting expertise to help public and municipal courses measure performance and strengthen long-term financial sustainability.
• Spirit Golf ManagementsupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 September 2025Spirit Golf Management, a full-service golf management company based in New Jersey, joined the Certified Partner Program to provide advisory services to municipal golf courses in the Northeast. The company will review Golf Club Benchmark reports and deliver complimentary assessments of golf courses in the eastern region.
• TrooncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 May 2025Troon, the world's largest golf management company, joined the Certified Partner Program to offer advisory services to member golf courses. Troon provides complimentary assessment reports on the performance of golf courses' benchmark reports. The partnership combines Greenlight's benchmarking tools with Troon's professional advisory team to help operators improve profitability.
• Landscapes Golf ManagementcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 March 2025Landscapes Golf Management pioneered the Certified Partner Program, being the first golf course management company to participate. The partnership empowers Landscapes to analyze areas of its courses' businesses and identify opportunities for strategy adjustments. The company operates 60+ properties across 25 states.
• National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 November 2024NGCOA partnered with Greenlight Advisors to invite municipal golf courses to participate in the annual Municipal Golf Study. The association promotes the study to its members, offers a special Municipal Membership to both organizations, and hosts dedicated Municipal sessions at the NGCOA Golf Business Conference. The partnership provides NGCOA members with access to benchmarking resources and the Muni Community platform.
• Golf Inc. MagazinesupportingGTM or Marketing Partner · 30 June 2023Golf Inc. Magazine partnered with Greenlight Advisors to conduct the first municipal golf course financial benchmark study since COVID-19. Golf Inc. published findings in its November/December issue and hosted a session at the Golf Inc. Strategies Summit. The partnership provided exposure and credibility for the benchmarking initiative.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Golf Datatech: Golf Datatech is a golf industry market intelligence firm that tracks rounds played, retail sales, and consumer demand metrics across the U.S. golf ecosystem. While its primary focus is rounds/retail data rather than course-level financial benchmarking, it is one of the few analytics-first companies serving the same operator and manufacturer customer base as Greenlight Advisors.
• National Golf Foundation: The National Golf Foundation is the most established golf industry research and data organization in the U.S., producing industry-wide participation, facility, and economic studies used by golf operators, associations, and investors. While currently a Greenlight partner, NGF overlaps directly on golf industry benchmarking, research, and consulting and represents the closest direct peer in scope and customer base.
• Pellucid Corp: Pellucid is a strategic research and analytics firm focused exclusively on the golf industry, offering benchmarking, feasibility studies, and operational analytics to course operators, developers, and investors. It is the most direct competitor to Greenlight Advisors' benchmarking and consulting model within the U.S. golf vertical.

Emerging players

• STR (a CoStar Group company): STR is the dominant benchmarking SaaS for the global hotel industry, aggregating performance data from tens of thousands of properties and selling comparative reports and dashboards to operators. The subscription-benchmarking-plus-advisory model maps closely to Greenlight's GolfClubBenchmarks.com model, just in a different vertical — making STR the canonical business-model comparable.
• HotStats: HotStats provides monthly financial benchmarking, profit-and-loss analytics, and operational KPIs for hotels, similar in spirit to the 40 financial + 20 operational metric framework Greenlight applies to golf courses. It is a useful cross-vertical analogue for how Greenlight could evolve its subscription benchmarking offering over time.
• Lightspeed Golf: Lightspeed Golf is a cloud-based point-of-sale, tee sheet, and operations platform serving golf courses of all sizes. It is an adjacent SaaS peer rather than a benchmarking competitor, but it shares the same core operator customer base and increasingly overlaps with Greenlight on operational data capture and performance reporting.
• Jonas Club Software: Jonas Club Software provides club management software — including accounting, POS, and member management — to private and semi-private golf and country clubs. It is a partial-overlap peer: same customer base, different product focus (operational/ERP rather than external benchmarking), but it competes for the same IT budget line within each club.

Others

• Troon: Troon is the world's largest golf and club management company, operating hundreds of courses across the U.S. and internationally. It is both a Certified Partner of Greenlight Advisors and a major customer channel; it is listed here as an ecosystem participant because its strategic decisions directly shape Greenlight's distribution and product roadmap.
• American Golf: American Golf is one of the largest golf course management companies in the U.S. and a Greenlight Certified Partner / Advisory Partner. It is an adjacent ecosystem participant rather than a direct competitor, but its scale makes it both a key channel and a potential threat if it chooses to internalize benchmarking.

Broad incumbents

• KPMG Golf Industry Practice: KPMG's Sports and Golf practice provides financial advisory, transaction services, and operational consulting to golf course owners, investors, and operators globally. As a Big Four consultancy, KPMG is a broad incumbent offering overlapping advisory services to the same golf operator customer base, with deeper resources but less specialization in ongoing subscription benchmarking.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Greenlight Advisors