How a Golf Business Tees Up Growth with Gemini to Scale Strategically

One of the many reasons I love golf is the fact that it brings together people from very disparate backgrounds and beliefs into one environment to truly form relationships. Now more than ever, this is what our world needs, and I believe golf is a tool that can help achieve that.

CitySwing is structured across three divisions, all working towards this vision. We have two indoor golf studios; a mobile division featuring a 40-foot truck equipped with golf simulators and mobile mini-golf; and our dedicated 501c3 foundation focused on providing golf exposure to kids from low-income families and creating community for underrepresented families with children who play golf. Our goal is to change the way people practice, how they’re invited into the game, how they play, and how they advance to play better on the course.

My journey with AI began when I started hearing people equating it to monumental shifts like the Industrial Revolution and the Internet boom. I knew I needed to lean in and learn more—and ultimately, that our organization needed to embrace it to remain competitive. At the time, we had grown very quickly from one indoor golf studio to two, and our expansion outpaced the policies and standards we had as a company.

Scaling the business was not a simple "rinse and repeat,” so I turned to Gemini, not knowing where to start. For example, we have a very customizable membership program, but we had never developed a cancellation policy.

We’ve also been using Gemini to help us draft internal policies, like vacation or equipment use. Gemini was not only able to provide recommendations for a company like ours but also offered state-specific nuances to consider as we developed our own policies.

For me, what truly sets Gemini apart is its seamless connection to our entire Google Workspace. None of the other AI experiences out there offer this level of integration for my whole company, giving everyone access to different tools within a unified environment so they can see what works best for them. My approach has been trial and error, and I find it's the process that I’m coaching my team on the most. I demonstrate different ways I’m using Gemini in every meeting, which helps people overcome the initial learning curve and see the tangible benefits for themselves. We’re now using Gemini every single day, often for the smallest tasks, and that’s where the efficiencies really add up.

This newfound efficiency allows us to compete more equitably with the larger competitors out there because we now have something that can level the playing field. Not to mention, it’s helping me get more of my life back. Using Google AI is helping me be a better mother to my son while I achieve my dreams of growing this business. We often say at CitySwing that we are ‘building the plane and flying it at the same time.’ Our 2025 goal was to build the plane first with help from Google AI.