Course Terms of Service

A course, tournament company, pro or other business ("you") accepts these at signup.

1. The agreement

These terms are between you and GEM Peak Ventures LLC, doing business as The Middle Pin ("tMP", "we", "us"). They cover your use of themiddlepin.com, the tMP console, the register, the tMP apps, the tMP Core and tMP Site plugins, and our AI agents (together, "the Service"). Our Privacy Policy is part of these terms. By checking the box at signup, or by using the Service, you accept these terms.

2. Your account and authority

The person who signs up confirms they are at least 18 and authorised to bind the business they name. You are responsible for everyone you give access to, including staff, agents and devices such as a self-serve register. Keep sign-in details and PINs private. Tell us promptly at kevin@themiddlepin.com if you think your account has been misused. We may check that the person connecting a payment account actually runs the business, and may flag an account for review while money continues to move.

3. What the Service is, and what is free

Signing up and using the platform is free. There is no monthly fee and no trial clock. Every feature is on from the start. We make money from the platform fee on payments (section 4), from optional paid services you choose (AI usage above your allowance, and website build and hosting), and from nothing else. We may add, change or retire features. We will give you reasonable notice before removing something you rely on.

4. Payments, fees, refunds and disputes

1. Stripe. Card and bank payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. To take payments you must open a Stripe connected account and accept the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Services Agreement. You are the business of record for your own sales. Your name appears on your customers' statements, and payments settle to your own Stripe balance and bank account.
2. Platform fee. tMP's fee is 5% + 30¢ on every card or bank payment that runs through the Service, taken automatically as a Stripe application fee when the payment is made. This fee includes Stripe's processing cost. It is taken from your share. We do not add it to your customer's total.
3. Cash and checks. Sales you record as cash or check carry no fee.
4. Refunds. A refund comes out of your Stripe balance. When you refund a sale, we return our platform fee on the refunded amount. Stripe does not return its own processing cost.
5. Disputes and chargebacks. A disputed payment comes out of your Stripe balance, together with Stripe's dispute fee (currently about $15). You respond to disputes and bear their outcome.
6. Negative balances. If your Stripe balance cannot cover a refund or dispute, Stripe may take the shortfall from your bank account. This is Stripe's behaviour, not ours, and we want you to know it before it happens.
7. Taxes. You decide what taxes apply to your sales and you collect and pay them. Tax settings in the Service calculate what you configure; they are not tax advice. Stripe issues any required tax forms (such as 1099-K) for your connected account.
8. Fee changes. We will give you at least 30 days' notice by email before changing the platform fee.

5. Money held before you connect Stripe

If you sell before your Stripe account can take payments (pay-as-you-go), tMP is the merchant for those sales and holds your share until you connect. We will show you the amount waiting and remind you at 30 and 60 days. If you have not connected after 90 days, we will contact you to arrange payment by another method or to refund your customers. We do not pay interest on held amounts.

6. Your data and content

1. Your data is yours. Your customer lists, members, orders, tournament history and business records ("Your Data") belong to you. You can export them at any time and take them with you if you leave.
2. Our role. For personal information in Your Data, you decide why it is collected and we process it on your behalf to run the Service. You are responsible for having the right to give it to us. For example, when you import a member roster, you confirm those members expect to hear from you.
3. Licence to us. You give us permission to host, copy, display and process Your Data and your content (logos, photos, descriptions, prices) only to run, secure and improve the Service. This includes drafting your products and pages from your own public website, and showing your shop on the tMP marketplace, map and directory once you can take payments.
4. Accuracy. Drafts made by us or our AI (products, prices, pages, course details) are suggestions. Check them before you publish. You are responsible for what you publish.
5. Aggregate data. We may use de-identified, aggregated data (for example, total volume across courses) to run and improve the Service. It will never identify you or your customers.

7. Your customers

You are responsible for your own products, prices, memberships, refund policy, and dealings with your golfers and members. That includes granting charge accounts, setting their limits, and collecting what is owed. Golfer email and receipts are sent in your name, "in partnership with The Middle Pin". You must not use the Service to send marketing to people who have not agreed to receive it.

8. Tournaments, leagues and events

You run your own events and are responsible for their rules, entry fees, prizes and purses, and for following any laws that apply to them. Skins, side games and prize pools must be awarded for golf performance. If another business shares in an event's revenue, the split you both accept in the Service is settled automatically as payments arrive.

9. AI agents and connected channels

1. What they are. Our AI agents (including The Staff, Mac, Caddie and Arnie) use large language models from third parties, currently Anthropic. They can be wrong. Treat what they write as a draft.
2. You stay in control. An agent can only see what the person using it can see. Anything that changes your records needs a person to confirm it. Posts to your social channels need approval unless you switch a channel to automatic.
3. Social channels. When you connect Facebook, Instagram or Google Business Profile, you let Mac read and publish on those accounts for you, within those platforms' own terms. You can disconnect at any time.
4. Community matching. Mac may suggest that a person commenting on your social pages is one of your members. These are suggestions, not facts. Every look Mac takes at a named person is written to your activity log.
5. Usage and billing. Each month you get a small AI allowance at no charge. Above it, usage is billed at the rates shown in your console, up to a monthly ceiling you set. At the ceiling, agents stop until you raise it or pay the balance. Every proposed action shows its estimated cost first.

10. Software, websites and apps

1. Hosted service. Most courses use the Service on themiddlepin.com. Nothing to install.
2. Licensed plugins. If we provide tMP Core or tMP Site to run on your own website, we grant you a non-transferable licence to use it for your business while your licence is active. The plugin checks its licence with us daily and keeps your course record in sync both ways. You may not resell it, remove the licence check, or share your key.
3. Website build and hosting. This optional service costs $100 a month, billed to your card. Cancel any time; it stops at the end of the paid month. You own your domain and your content.
4. App stores. The tMP app on Apple and Google stores is ours. Your branding inside it remains yours.

11. Acceptable use

Do not use the Service to break any law, sell anything illegal, deceive customers, send spam, collect data you have no right to, interfere with the Service or other users, or reverse-engineer it. Do not use it for gambling beyond prizes awarded for golf performance.

12. Suspension, leaving and idle accounts

1. You may leave at any time. Export Your Data first. Money owed to you is paid out; fees and AI usage already owed remain due.
2. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, risks harm to customers or to us, or is required to by Stripe or the law. Where we can, we will warn you first and give you a chance to fix it.
3. Idle accounts. An account with no sale and no sign-in for 90 days is put away: closed, off the marketplace, and brought back when you sign in. One that stays put away for another 90 days, has never had a sale, and owes and is owed nothing may be deleted. We will email you before each step.
4. After you leave, we keep what the law requires (such as order and tax records) and delete or anonymise the rest within 90 days.

13. Disclaimers

We work hard to keep the Service running and correct. Still, it is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we make no warranties beyond those in these terms, including any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We do not guarantee uninterrupted service, and we are not responsible for Stripe, Meta, Google, Anthropic or other third-party services.

14. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential losses, such as lost profits or lost data. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or $100. These limits do not apply to fraud, wilful misconduct, or amounts you owe us.

15. Indemnity

You will defend and cover us against claims arising from your products, events, prices, refunds, dealings with your customers, content you publish, or your breach of these terms or the law.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes we will email you at least 30 days before they take effect. If you keep using the Service after that, you accept the new terms. If you don't agree, you may leave under section 12.

17. Law and disputes

The laws of Colorado govern these terms. Before filing anything, email us and give us 30 days to try to resolve it. Any dispute goes to the state or federal courts located in Colorado.

18. General

These terms, the Privacy Policy and anything you accept in the console make up the whole agreement. If one part is unenforceable, the rest stands. You may not transfer this agreement without our consent. We may transfer it if tMP is sold or reorganised. Notices go to the email on your account, and to us at kevin@themiddlepin.com.