Why are some golf courses committing business suicide?

A few days ago I ranted a bit about the insanity of golf and my fears for its future.  Think of this as part two of that post, because now I am going rave about golf course dinosaurs and why their lack of business model innovation is going to put many of them into bankruptcy.

Last year in British Columbia at least half a dozen golf courses either rolled up their fairways for good or went into receivership.

It was a year plague by bad weather and short-sighted managers who stood their ground on green fee pricing resulting the in the playgrounds around their clubhouse staying empty.

Why can't they see that the old ways of doing business aren't working and will never work again.   it's time to wake up to the new world of daily discounts.

In November 2008, Groupon pioneered its unique geo-targeted daily deal service and things have never been the same.  Just 3 years later the company went public with a market value of whopping $12.7 billion!

Since then hundreds of deal sites have been launched trying to copy Groupon's formula, including those focusing on discount tee times/packages like GroupGolfer.

I haven't used GroupGolfer yet as it is still US only, but I'm very familiar with Groupon and I think it's great for both consumer and vendor.  Consumers get a good deal and vendors get a great opportunity to up-sell the customer and increase the chances of repeat business down the road. I could probably be the poster child for them.. 

Last summer I bought $60 worth of bedding plants for less than half price with Groupon.  But when I left the store, I discovered I had spent three times that much because I liked what I saw and kept buying.  I've been back many times since.  It was win-win for both me and the seller and I believe the same can happen with golfers and golf courses.

I wish a daily deal green fee program would come to BC because I would sign up immediately.  Last year one company tried, but they couldn't get the golf courses to discount their green fees for a group buy.  In fact, when they tried to market the program to a bunch of golf bloggers and golf courses through an email campaign, one golf course representative replied with this:

"I am not interested in signing up for your service.  The last thing I am looking to do is tell thousands of golfers that I value my services at half of what I try to sell it for on a day to day basis.  Unless you are a start up business wiling to pay a severe premium to get people to your location, I believe sites like yours, Groupon, etc. are the worst thing a business owner could do."

What I find really sad is that I know for a fact that his golf club is in receivership. Why he would rather have empty fairways than fill them with golfers who will likely use their savings to pay for range tokens, golf balls, gloves and tees, beers from the cart gal or dinner and drinks after the round, I'll never understand.

And this attitude isn't reserved for North America.  With a reduction in 46,000 registered golfers in 2011 (the first time that's ever happened), over 30% of Europe's operators and club managers actually increased prices in 2011 rather than offering youth and family programs or promotional packages.

According the Andrea Sartori, head of KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice, “More than half of golf clubs have not invested in enhanced marketing – and many have not yet capitalized on the opportunities provided by online marketing and social media.”

Thankfully not all golf courses are living in the dark ages.  Ka'anapali Golf on Maui figured out how to fill 2 hours of unused time at the end of the day and introduced a great Club Fit program to locals and tourists.  For just $50/month you can walk and play 6 holes of golf after 4 pm.  Brilliant!

And yesterday I heard about one club that offered "gimmes" to players - free golf for the last 1.5 hours in the day during the summer.  It was a huge success.  They could never sell green fees at that time of the day, so why not bring in golfers for free and enjoy the extra revenue that comes from post-round hospitality sales.

Golf has benefited from amazing innovations in equipment, apparel and course design over the past few years.  It time for golf course owners to get with the program and adopt innovative marketing programs and business models to resurrect their dying businesses.

Golfgal

Tweet

Insanity - Thy name is golf.

It is said that Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".

I've always loved that definition because it reminds me to think outside the box when I see myself repeating the same mistakes.

I am by nature a stubborn person, but I don't consider myself insane. If something 'ain't broke' in my life, I won't try and fix it. But if things aren't quite right, I'm not afraid to shake them up. 

Which is why I was lying awake last night worrying about the epidemic plaguing the golf industry - the steady decline in people participating in golf.

I think my insomnia was triggered by the latest study in Europe that reported an astounding 46,000 drop in registered golfers in 2011.  According to Andrea Sartori, head of KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice, the growth of golf started to slow down after 2005, but last year was the first time there was actually a decrease in registered golfers.


Certainly the economy isn't helping matters, but I believe it's more than that.  Golf hasn't kept up with the times and time is passing it by.

Look at the youth of today and what interests them:

• On-demand entertainment from YouTube, smartphone apps and social media 
• Anywhere/anytime access to friends (real and virtual)

For them, instant gratification isn't a "nice surprise" as it was for us Baby Boomers when we were their age, it's an expectation, almost an entitlement, because virtually everything they want today is just a click away.

And then there's golf....where nothing happens instantly.  You can't just pick up your clubs and hit the links whenever you want with whomever you want, at least not in my town. 

No, you have to book a tee time days in advance, dress in clothes you wouldn't normally be caught dead in, arrive at least 20 minutes prior to your tee time or lose it, discover your 3-some of golf buddies will be forced to play with an old geezer who showed up as a single.  Oh... and then fork out mega cash for 5 hours of "hurry up and wait".  Fun eh?

No wonder our kids won't play with us any more.  Oh ours did when they were 9 or 10, but once they hit puberty, no amount of begging or bribing was going to get them on the golf course.  As far as they are concerned, golf:

• Takes too long.
• Is boring (probably because it takes too long).
• Is slow (making it take too long)
• Is uncool.
• Is a game for old men (AKA it's uncool).
• Costs too much.
• Has too many dumb rules.

I decided to venture online to find out more about kids' real feelings on golf and came across this question on Yahoo from a young lady begging for help: "I hate golf and my dad is forcing me to play it. What do I do?"

Here were some of the very telling answers:

"If after the first few holes you still decide you hate it, just play as ABSOLUTELY SLOW as possible. that will drive your dad crazy enough to never make you play again."

"Pretend to be REALLY bad, my grandpa forced me to play, and all i did was pretend to be really bad, and he saw how bad i sucked, and i got out of it."

"Hit all the balls in the water, make it too costly to play the game."

But the one I loved the most was...

"HOW can you hate golf?   It is a fabulous game. People are really impressed by women who can play.  Besides, it is a wonderful way to meet men with money."

I wasn't sure if I should laugh about that one or cry.


Now it's not all doom and gloom...there are a few initiatives out there trying to create new variants of golf that appeal to the younger generation, such as the Jack Nicklaus-endorsed Golf 2.0 and every traditionalists' unfavorite,  NotGolf (AKA Flogton) and Off Course Golf.

I, myself, applaud any organization who is experimenting with new forms of white ball entertainment to try and keep the game alive for future generations.

Here's one idea from Kwik Golf which not only makes the game more kid-friendly, it solves the pace of play problem that plagues so many courses.

Kwik Golf recently together with the First Tee of Palm Beach and provided a fun and energetic game of Kwik Golf for the kids in that program.  Cool!

For many of us on the slippery side of "over the hill", the traditional game of golf will always be on our hit parade.  But there is a growing list of young people who see the game we love as going the way of the LP/Beta/VHS/CD...

I don't think we're insane for trying to protect the sanctity of the game for the few who take it seriously and want to compete.  But the iTunes and Netflix generation want something else.

Bowling alleys use laser lights and music now to attract more youth.  And one cannot ignore the growth of snowboarding.  It wasn't that long ago when "the bane of skiing purists" weren't allowed on many hills in Canada.  Today they are everywhere and are predicted to overtake the number skiers on our hills by 2015. 

I'm afraid to think about the state of golf in 2015.  It's time to stop the insanity.  It's time to give our future what they want - Golf Their Way.

Golfgal

Tweet

Get on with golf or get off!

Last week you probably heard about a golfer being stabbed by another with a broken golf club at Eagle Mountain Lake golf course.   It all started when a marshal tried to "move things along" by asking a group of tortoises to let a 3-some play through.  Things got very ugly - someone almost died.

The story was shocking, but after watching the pros play for a few years, I actually wasn't all that surprised.  A golfer's right to "play his own game" regardless of its impact on others has created a sense of entitlement, whose roots took hold in the PGA Tour and were feed and nurtured by the man at the top.


Back in May 2010, John Feinstein shared in his column that it had been 18 years since a PGA Tour player received a penalty for slow play. And there is one reason why...Commissioner Tim  Finchem.

When confronted by the media, Finchem made it clear he wasn't interested in solving this on-going problem, "Slow play is a legitimate issue, but not to the point where I think we need to do something like that."

I wonder how Mr. Finchem feels after the incident at Eagle Mountain Lake.

Perhaps it's just a lack of patience on my part, but last week I stopped watching the Waste Management Open because the poster boy for slow play, Ben Crane, was in contention.   I was fast forwarding every time he was on camera and finally gave up watching.

The same was true for  at the Qatar Masters - Jason Day was so slow he could have been charged with loitering in the middle of the fairway.  

This week at Pebble Beach, Charlie "wakey wakey" Wi is in the lead.  I guess I'll take a pass on watching the PGA Tour on TV again this week.

But in the midst of this frustratingly sloooow start to the season, there are some encouraging stories that give me hope. 

I read an article last fall in Golf Business Magazine about a club in Minnesota that isn't afraid to dish out slow play penalties.  In fact, they'll politely kick your butt off the course if you haven't played your first 9 holes in under 1 hr and 55 minutes.

They post rangers at every 3rd hole to keep the pace.  And if by the 8th hole, a group isn't going to make the turn in time, they have the option of skipping 9 and heading straight to 10. 


Hip hip hurray for Fast Play Friday at Deer Run Golf Club!

Photo credit: Deer Run Golf Club

Now one might think this "no tolerance" policy would raise a stink among the players, but it's actually made owner and manager Tom Abts somewhat of a hero.  It wasn't easy in the beginning when lots of players were asked to leave, but Abts didn't back down.  If you couldn't keep up, he'd refund you some cash and send you on your way.

And guess what happened...golfers started flocking to play the course.  Even on busy Saturdays, players are making it around now in 3.5 hours.

Tom Abts...keep up the great work!  I wish you managed the courses I play here in British Columbia. 

BTW, have you ever thought of running for Commissioner of the PGA Tour?  The Tour (and golf) could sure use you. 

Although after seeing Mr. Finchem just accept another 4 year extension to his term, it looks like he's taking his slow sweet time leaving.

Golfgal

Tweet