By Blaise Ziemian

If you visit most golf sites, you’ll see lots of equipment reviews and product ads. Atlanta, Georgia-based GolfBuzz.com, on the other hand, is all about people and playing the game. As the site’s front page announces, “GolfBuzz is an online community created to allow golf enthusiasts to connect with each other and the game they love.”

First-time visitors are encouraged to take a tour of the site, where they learn how to connect with old golf friends and make new ones (over 16,000 members have registered in less than 18 months), how to find new places to play, and how to improve their game.

Patrick Coulson, 36, GolfBuzz’s founder, President, and CEO, learned to play at six. As a kid, he ruined his Dad’s clubs by driving rocks in the family’s Ventura, California, backyard. He had a blast doing it, but these days he makes a more positive contribution to the game.

“It sounds ridiculously obvious, but I want GolfBuzz to be about one thing: golf. I’m a golfer myself; I know lots of people who play, and they have one thing in common: they are crazy about the game. I want GolfBuzz to reflect that passion. We do everything possible to connect golfers to each other and to the game they love.”

That passion shows in the site. Serene and green, with a pleasantly abstracted design that suggests a peaceful fairway; GolfBuzz delivers on Coulson’s promise. Ready to hook up with other golfers? Join the GolfBuzz community. You’ll create a profile with personal and golf-related information (you decide how much detail and with whom you’ll share it). From there, you invite friends to join or contact other members to get together–either online, or on the course (the dashboard’s calendar will help you keep it all straight). Golfers can even link to courses and create sub-communities based on shared interests such as a playing style or type of course.

For those who are still learning (and who among us isn’t?), GolfBuzz has sections with playing tips, course etiquette, and the rules of golf. And while the site isn’t primarily about the pro game, there’s a nice, succinct area with PGA news and performance abstracts for the top players.

Coulson says he also has some unusual content coming up, including insider reminisces by an older, top-flight Atlanta-area amateur who twice played in the Masters Tournament at the same time as household names like Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer.

GolfBuzz keeps its marketing low-key, but there’s plenty here for businesses, too. Course managers get online access to their course’s profile so they can supply timely updates. “Neighborhoods”–portals for golf-related businesses and groups–get up-to-date information out to the community.

“The Neighborhood is a great concept,” says Coulson. “We work at whatever level they need. We’ve got top-notch people here at the Buzz who can design content for private organizations or small businesses if need be. That lets groups like alumni associations or private clubs focus on staying connected, not on building web content. Larger businesses can load their existing stuff. The companies get exposure, and our members have access to information, prizes, and giveaways. But we work hard to strike a balance–providing visibility for our sponsors, but keeping the focus on the game. It’s all about golf and the people who love to play it. That’s why I started the site, and that’s what I want us to keep.”