Deemples Founder David Wong built an app so golfers never have to join a club again

Words: Raja Izz

At GC, we believe the modern man's pursuits should move at the pace of his ambition, not the pace of outdated systems. Golf, a gentleman's sport that has long carried the weight of heritage luxury: exclusive clubs, rigid membership structures, and gatekeeping that pushed away a new generation of players. It is a game built on patience and precision, yet somehow the business of playing it became the hardest part.

Enter Deemples. Founded by David Wong, the platform set out to modernise golf from the ground up, making it more accessible, more connected, and infinitely easier to book a game without needing a club card or a personal favour. Today, Deemples is the leading golf platform across Malaysia and Singapore, expanding rapidly into Thailand and Vietnam, with its sights set on the rest of Southeast Asia by 2027.

We sat down with David Wong to talk about what it takes to reshape a sport as steeped in tradition as golf, why membership as we know it may be nearing its end, and what the next chapter looks like for golfers across the region.

What inspired Deemples to build a digital platform around golf, and what gap in the market were you looking to address?

Golf is hard enough as a game, and Malaysian golf courses don't make it any easier. Rigid rules, minimum player counts, and booking lines that go silent after hours all add friction to something that should be enjoyable. As a golfer myself, the path of least resistance was to just quit and pick up an easier sport instead. But I loved the game too much to walk away, so instead of giving up, I set out to remove those barriers one by one.

Today, thousands of golfers use Deemples to find golf buddies and book their games with far less hassle than before. Golf courses benefit just as much from this shift, with confirmed bookings secured in advance, unsold slots filled that would otherwise go to waste, and pricing that stays entirely in their own control.

How is Deemples changing the way golfers discover, book and experience the game?

Most golfers don't actually know every course available to them, even in their own city. We make courses far more visible, both on Deemples and across the web, searchable by location, price, features, whatever genuinely helps a golfer decide where to play next. We're constantly adding to that experience too: maps showing every course nearby, complete with the pricing and details needed to compare them properly before booking.

On the booking side, we've made the whole process seamless, with instant payments and loyalty built in right from the start, so golfers naturally keep coming back week after week. That's good for them as players, and it's just as good for every course we partner with along the way.

Deemples brings together golfers to strengthen the Thai golf community.

How are changing lifestyles and digital habits influencing the way people, particularly younger golfers, engage with the sport?

There's simply more content around every sport now, and golf is no exception to that trend. But if I had to guess why golfers actually love golf at its core, it's the pace of it. It gives you room to unwind, to be alone with your thoughts, but also to build real camaraderie with the people you're playing alongside. It won't get you fit on its own, granted, but it quietly trains focus, coordination, patience, and social skill in a way few other sports manage to do.

Digital platforms like Deemples are also opening the game up to a wider audience than before. What used to feel like a stuffy, members-only pursuit is now genuinely accessible to the masses, regardless of background.

Beyond booking golf games, how is Deemples helping to build a stronger and more connected golfing community?

Booking is really just one piece of what we do at Deemples. From day one, this has been a community platform first, where golfers can hop into public games to match with entirely new players, or join larger organised events run by a wide range of event organisers across the region.

We also built a scoring feature that lets golfers log every single round on Deemples, validated by the other players in that same game, building a handicap you can actually trust over time. That's now formally backed by the Malaysian Golf Association, meaning handicaps on Deemples are WHS-certified for subscribers to Deemples Pass, our dedicated membership service.

With the launch of Deemples Pass, what does a fully digital golf membership mean for the modern golfer?

Rather than tying yourself down to a single club membership, Deemples Pass gives you savings and rewards across every partner course on the entire platform. Alongside the WHS-certified handicap service, members also get dining, stay, wellness, luxury, and shopping privileges from a growing roster of well-known partner brands, including Mizuno, EQ Kuala Lumpur, Hard Rock Hotel, and Watatime, just to name a few of them.

It's built specifically for the golfer who doesn't want to be tied down to one single location, who instead wants real variety across courses and benefits. Think Marriott Bonvoy or Amazon Prime, but purpose built for golf.

As Deemples expands across markets, how do you see the platform evolving from a golf-booking app into a broader ecosystem for golfers, clubs and brands?

Our north star has always been simple: help golfers golf more, as often as they possibly can. That could eventually mean expanding into equipment, game improvement tools, or even travel, but we'll only bring those pieces in once we're genuinely confident they add real value, both for the golfers themselves and for the partners who choose to join us on that journey.

What do you believe is Deemples' biggest competitive advantage today, and what will be the key factor in maintaining that advantage as digital golf platforms become more competitive?

The easy way to "win" in this space is simply to race prices to the bottom as fast as possible. It might work in the short term, sure, but it's genuinely bad for the golf industry long term, especially for the courses themselves who depend on sustainable pricing. Our focus has always been on making it as easy as possible to find players and book a game, in a way that keeps the whole ecosystem sustainable for everyone involved, not just the platform itself.

Looking ahead, what is your vision for Deemples over the next three to five years, and what would success look like for the company and the golfing community it serves?

We're already the dominant platform across Malaysia and Singapore today, and we're now actively helping golfers play more across Thailand as well. Vietnam launched just days ago, and we're aiming to be live across the rest of Southeast Asia by the end of 2027, serving local golfers and international visitors alike in every market we enter.

Over the next three to five years, we want Deemples to become the definitive way to golf across Southeast Asia, with real, meaningful connections into the bigger golf markets of Korea, Japan, China, and Australia, all of whom clearly see the value in what's happening here.

For more information, visit https://deemples.com/my