⛳️ Course Acquisition Updates from our CEO

Keeping up with LinksDAO 24/7 so you don't have to

Good morning and welcome back to another edition of The Mulligan, the official publication of the world's greatest community-conceived golf and leisure club!

280 Days Since Mint

Highlights

We Are Going To Buy a Golf Course

It's absolutely amazing what a group of people organized around a common goal can accomplish in just 9 months. Seriously, just a little more than 280 days ago LinksDAO wasn't even an idea. Fast forward to today and we are quickly on our way to completing what we set out to do... buying a golf course.

Since our last edition, Jim and Bez have been hard at work conducting on-site due diligence of potential properties all across the country. In fact, last week they flew down to the North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia area along with our course acquisition guide KemperSports to tour four courses, two 18-hole facilities and two 36-hole facilities.

Jim and Bez hosted a Twitter Spaces on Wednesday discussing the entirety of their thoughts on how the acquisition process is going so far. We strongly encourage you to click here and give it a listen. Additionally, keep your eyes peeled for drone footage of the properties from Jordan Stone, our VP of Marketing!

GGA

Reciprocity Launch is Around the Corner

Yes, you read that right. Our member-to-member reciprocity platform, dubbed the Global Golf Association, will soon be open to the entirety of LinksDAO Global Members. The GGA is undoubtedly the most important benefit we've launched yet, and we're confident that when all is said and done this "community within the community" will have access to quite an incredible collection of golf courses and experiences.

There are more than 20 courses that have already been onboarded, including 2 in Scotland and 3 of the top 20 private courses in Illinois. While we can't go into too much detail about what specific courses make up the list just yet, we can tell you that the first GGA round has already been played at The Olympic Club.

Yes, you also read that right. Last week, core team member Greg Egan joined Global member Frost at The Olympic Club for a round of golf using the GGA platform. In case you don't have the entire Top 100 U.S. Golf Courses 2021-2022 ranking memorized like we do, the host of the 2012 U.S. Open and 2021 U.S. Women's Open ranks at #34 on the list.

Unfortunately, however, this will be the last GGA round played at The Olympic Club for the next 9 to 14 months. Gil Hanse is scheduled to begin his renovation of the property sometime in the coming weeks, but when the course is back online, GGA members will be the first to know.

Turn on your SMS notifications in the clubhouse so you don't miss the GGA launch announcement!

Pro Shop

New Merch is Live!

Just a short month ago Proposal #13 passed with flying colors, allowing the core team to use up to $200,000 as working capital on a go-forward basis to bolster all aspects of our Pro Shop. Up until this point a majority of the vendors we've partnered with have sent the items that you've purchased via drop shipping. In the short term this way of doing things worked, but ultimately this method proved inefficient and unsustainable.

With the additional working capital we were able to move to a centralized supply chain model. We'll spare you the details of how it works and just get right to it... members can now expect to see faster shipping times, lower prices, the ability to process returns, more selection, and expanded international shipping capabilities.

If you haven't already, jump into the Pro Shop and take a peak at the more than 30 new members-only items that we have to offer.

P.S. Our CEO Jim Daily joined Erik Anders Lang for an episode of Adventures in Golf. Skip ahead to the 9-minute mark and check it out.

Partnerships

LinksDAO x Golfbreaks

We're extremely excited to announce that we've partnered with Golfbreaks by the PGA Tour. With prime golfing season starting to dissipate as the U.S. wades into the fall and winter months, if you're anything like us, you've already begun planning your golf trips for 2023.

Let Golfbreaks handle that process for you. Choose from thousands of packages across the U.S. and Europe, and experience hassle-free booking, expert travel advice, and guaranteed best prices... with no extra booking fees. Check out the Benefits page in our token-gated clubhouse for more information.

LinksDAO partners with Bridgestone

In addition to our partnership with Golfbreaks, we've also recently partnered with Bridgestone Golf. Over the past 30 years Bridgestone has quietly become one of the preeminent manufacturers of golf equipment in the world. Their golf balls are trusted by some of the top players on the PGA Tour, including Jason Day, Fred Couples, Matt Kuchar... and Tiger Woods.

Woods is known for being painstakingly meticulous about every aspect of his game, obsessing over tiny details that us weekend hackers don't even take into account when we step up to the tee. After Nike surprisingly announced that they were exiting the golf ball manufacturing market in 2016, the 82-time PGA Tour winner was, of course, approached by all of the top golf brands looking for him to play their balls. After days of testing, diligence, and deliberation, Tiger decided that the Bridgestone B330-S was the best fit for his style of play.

It's no accident that Tiger chose Bridgestone, and if the greatest of all time can trust their technology, you can too. Head over to the announcements section in our clubhouse to learn more. Be sure to listen to the Twitter Spaces we co-hosted with Bridgestone's Director of Marketing and Ball Fitting lead as well.

What's Up in Web3?

Venti Cold Brews with a side of NFTs

• In mid-September, Starbucks announced the launch of its much-anticipated Odyssey NFT-based loyalty program. The program will be built on Polygon and will allow customers to buy and earn digital collectible NFT stamps which can be exchanged for exclusive discounts and experiences.

PGA Tour Enters the NFT Space

• The PGA Tour announced a partnership with Autograph to create an NFT platform. The platform is slated to launch in early 2023 and will contain NFT content created from the PGA's archive of videos, data, imagery, and other components. Collectors will have a chance to earn real-world utility, including access to exclusive digital and in-person experiences. In case you missed it, listen to the Twitter Space we hosted with Autograph here.

Adoption Update

• KKR, one of the largest asset managers in the world, announced that they will be tokenizing their Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II on the Avalanche blockchain using the Securitize protocol.

• On September 20th, NASDAQ announced that they would be launching instutional cryptocurrency custody services for both bitcoin and ethereum.

• SWIFT, the interbank messaging service used for cross-border payments, announced that they will be working with Chainlink, an oracle solution that provides price feeds and other data to blockchains, on a proof-of-concept service that will leverage Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol to enable SWIFT messages to instruct on-chain token transfers across multiple blockchains.

• DBS, Singapore's largest bank, partnered with The Sandbox and purchased a 3x3 land plot in the metaverse to develop "DBS BetterWorld", an immersive metaverse experience to illustrate the significance of building a better and more sustainable world.

Ethereum Merge

• Ethereum's long-awaited update from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus, commonly referred to as "The Merge", finally occurred on September 15th at 6:43am UTC. The update signifies the end of Ethereum's reliance on energy-intensive mining to validate the network... as it is now expected to consume 99.9% less energy.

• Following a significant price increase in anticipation of The Merge, Ethereum's price declined by approximately 13% in September. Bullish investors are hopeful that the network's upgrade may cause the token supply to become deflationary, but that remains to be seen. More information on these dynamics can be found here.

Contributors

Nick B (barbs#7712) - Creator of The Mulligan & Project Lead

Martin C (martinc#0532) - Lead Golf Writer

Chris K (ckelly627#0963) - Lead Web3 Writer

Matt (Tungsten#5400) - GGA Co-Lead

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