Golf-specific cash app LoopGolf is going to change the way you settle your side bets

The golf course is its own micro economy. It might as well have its own GDP. You pay for your round, you pay for your cart, you grab an extra sleeve of balls from the pro shop, you buy beers, someone buys you beers, you throw down a couple of bucks on a couple of putts, and on the way home, you split gas with Jeff, who lives a couple streets over and hitched a ride. In the past, you settled all of this on a traditional cash app (or actual cash, in the way, way past). But one person has PayPal, the other Venmo, and some weirdo uses Zelle. Before you know it you’re juggling multiple payment apps for a single round of golf, and you forgot one of the passwords so now you’re trying to reset that with an SMS code in the parking lot with the sun beating down. It’s not a pretty scene.

That’s where LoopGolf comes in [ed. note: The Loop is unaffiliated with LoopGolf] . LoopGolf is a new golf-specific cash app from co-founders Matt Rum and Thomas Reinholm, who both spent the last five years at Block before stumbling on their lightbulb idea. One afternoon, after a particularly epic four-ball chock full of side bets and presses, they spent nearly a half hour calculating and scribbling, trying to figure out who had won and who owed who how much. Once they finally arrived at the bottom line, they realized they were all using different payment methods. Thus LoopGolf was born.

LoopGolf, which is set to launch in over 30 states by August 1st, brings those two elements—both the wagers and the payment of said wagers—under one umbrella, offering users the ability to place and manage ongoing bets throughout a round, as well as settle up when it’s over. Best of all, the functionality is very similar to what you’re used to with a traditional cash app. Once you download the app and login, you simply sync your debit card to your account. From there, you’re ready to throw some money around, but first you might want to set up a game. Within the app, you can enter the critical details of your upcoming match, send out invites, keep track of ongoing side bets, and even collect the money from your playing partners in advance to make sure that Everybody Pays (this is one of LoopGolf’s most important mottos). The app will also auto-post players’ USGA handicap indexes, making it practically sandbagger proof.

For Rum, whose first job was as a bag boy at his local club growing up in the Baltimore area, and Reinholm, who began with playing with his pops at the age of six, LoopGolf is the culmination of a lifelong relationship with golf. But it doesn’t stop here. Rum and Reinholm say the goal is to have LoopGolf up and running in 42 states by the end of August. An international launch is a future goal, as is a rewards program that will offer users exclusive access to preferred times on featured courses, apparel drops, and membership only tournaments & events. Those are just waypoints on the horizon for now, but to learn more and join the community waitlist, check out joinloopgolf.co and get ready to, in their words, “play for something.”