Hi...
Well... I just joined the Golf Course Business Consultants (GCBC) a group of highly specialized experts in the golf industry. I am in the company of well established gurus like Jack Brennan. Paladin Golf Marketing, Ron Garl, leading golf course architect, and John Johnson of J2 Marketing. Check out the GCBC site at: http://gcbcinc.com/.
Man! We're watching so many sinking ships out there. In desperation I see what were once high end private country clubs with tee times on all the re-seller sites. Some have hired management companies to market tee times competing with traditional daily fee golf courses. I'm seeing $100.00 rounds going for $39.00 in the Sarasota - Bradenton (Florida) market. One course is advertising $19.00 rounds that were $65.000 ten years ago.
Where are we going from here? I mean, expenses have not really gone down - except cutting corners.
More later.
Hello from Mike Kahn: I'm all about the golf business and the game. As my distance off the tee shrinks, apparently participation in golf is also shrinking. I've seen it all and done it all in the golf business, yet I've been a recreational player 99% of the time. The 1% was when I was a Canadian PGA member in the early 60's. As I blog along, probably mostly talking to myself, my comments might be picked up by a blind squirrel - and maybe even post a reply.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Friday, December 7, 2012
NEW PRODUCT - SHOWS YOUR LOYAL PLAYERS YOU CARE
Golfers everywhere,
Next time you step up to the first tee look for the Tee-Stretch and take a very quick and simple stretch warmup. You'll take a relaxing 'hang' that will prepare you for that first drive down the fairway.
Designed by people who have been creating this type of apparatus for many years, Tee-Stretch will become a must for every golfer before teeing off.
Have a look at it here: http://www.tee-stretch.com.
Tell your club you want one at the first tee at your course. And, by the way: They can actually make a few bucks a year by agreeing to the classy advertisments you see on the web site.
If you are a board member, golf course owner, municipally owned golf course, write me at: mike@golfmak.com. I will see that aTee-Stretch is installed at your club.
Play better golf by being prepared for your first drive.
Mike
Next time you step up to the first tee look for the Tee-Stretch and take a very quick and simple stretch warmup. You'll take a relaxing 'hang' that will prepare you for that first drive down the fairway.
Designed by people who have been creating this type of apparatus for many years, Tee-Stretch will become a must for every golfer before teeing off.
Have a look at it here: http://www.tee-stretch.com.
Tell your club you want one at the first tee at your course. And, by the way: They can actually make a few bucks a year by agreeing to the classy advertisments you see on the web site.
If you are a board member, golf course owner, municipally owned golf course, write me at: mike@golfmak.com. I will see that aTee-Stretch is installed at your club.
Play better golf by being prepared for your first drive.
Mike
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
AGILITY. DOES YOUR GOLF CLUB HAVE IT?
Hi everyone.
Sorry that I've been lax in this department. I have so much to say I don't know where to start. However, I have a question for golf course owners, board members and management companies: Are you agile enough to adjust to your environment? Can you shift gears quickly?
I believe the golf world is moving at light speed. The Internet, direct communication with customers via cel phones along with the current highly competitive business environment, I believe, requires up-to-the-minute decisions.
We all know (now) that there is a finite number of golf players out there and they cannot be two places at once. As a business person you want the customer in your store - not the competitor's store. You need to do what you have to do to win that customer, which means continued communication with the customer base with reminders, enticements, and loyalty rewards.
I've been at it for over 50-years. I never sat back and watched the customers roll in. I never let up. My marketing budget was always up to ten times what golf courses normally spend to keep the name out there. That's why I was able to boost revenues at the Ravines in Jacksonville in my short stint there (the folks that followed reversed all I had accomplished). I was able to manage Oak Ford Golf Club in Sarasota from less than 50,000 rounds to over 80,000 in a couple of seasons - successful in rescuing the business from bankruptcy.
As an associate with the Brookwoods Country Club, Ontario, New York, under management by PGA Professional, Bill McIntosh, the 2012 season was the best in almost a generation. Rounds up, golf revenues up, clubhouse activities up. McIntosh is a promoter like me. And, man! The Rochester area of upper New York is a very competitive golf neighborhood.
I'm always available for a complimentary consultation for any course owner, general manager, board member, even bankers to discuss a golf club;s current situation.
Remember my web site: www.golfmak.com.
I would enjoy your comments.
Mike
Sorry that I've been lax in this department. I have so much to say I don't know where to start. However, I have a question for golf course owners, board members and management companies: Are you agile enough to adjust to your environment? Can you shift gears quickly?
I believe the golf world is moving at light speed. The Internet, direct communication with customers via cel phones along with the current highly competitive business environment, I believe, requires up-to-the-minute decisions.
We all know (now) that there is a finite number of golf players out there and they cannot be two places at once. As a business person you want the customer in your store - not the competitor's store. You need to do what you have to do to win that customer, which means continued communication with the customer base with reminders, enticements, and loyalty rewards.
I've been at it for over 50-years. I never sat back and watched the customers roll in. I never let up. My marketing budget was always up to ten times what golf courses normally spend to keep the name out there. That's why I was able to boost revenues at the Ravines in Jacksonville in my short stint there (the folks that followed reversed all I had accomplished). I was able to manage Oak Ford Golf Club in Sarasota from less than 50,000 rounds to over 80,000 in a couple of seasons - successful in rescuing the business from bankruptcy.
As an associate with the Brookwoods Country Club, Ontario, New York, under management by PGA Professional, Bill McIntosh, the 2012 season was the best in almost a generation. Rounds up, golf revenues up, clubhouse activities up. McIntosh is a promoter like me. And, man! The Rochester area of upper New York is a very competitive golf neighborhood.
I'm always available for a complimentary consultation for any course owner, general manager, board member, even bankers to discuss a golf club;s current situation.
Remember my web site: www.golfmak.com.
I would enjoy your comments.
Mike
Monday, April 23, 2012
GOLF COURSE BUSINESS - SERIOUS!
It's 2012 and the golf course industry is in a serious correction (that's a kind term, it's really in a decline) due to an oversupply of golf courses and at flat or declining participation rate of golf players.
We're seeing private clubs going public because their membership is down 50%. Their beautiful palace (clubhouse) can no longer sustain itself because they're collecting half the annual dues they were collecting ten years ago.
Many troubled golf courses are part of residential developments - especially the southeast USA. In Florida several courses have closed - Ravines in Middleburg, Forest Lakes in Sarasota, Turkey Creek in Alachua, and several others. There are several on the brink at the moment this article is being written.
What is the solution?
I'm a 'Back-in-the-Box' thinker. There are times when we have to look at what worked when golf was a growing (virtually exploding) industry. I mean, what was it that took golf from 90% private to 90% public between 1955 and 2005?
I was there all the way. I watched golf grow. I was part of it. For at least my first 30-years in golf we were constantly building the game. I mean encouraging people to play. All kinds of people: kids, men, women, seniors. We made it easy to get started. Easy lessons, starter sets of golf clubs, beginner or starter leagues. All that stopped sometime around 1985. I know the National Golf Foundation indicated growth in participation had been flat since the late 1990s, but I believe golf stopped its strong growth pattern at least 10 and probably 15 years earlier.
When I say, "Golf needs to get itself back in the box." I'm trying to regenerate the enthusiasm for growing golf from the grass roots. I want to see the National Golf Foundation getting back to the business they were founded on - growing the game of golf.
They don't want to hear this, but the PGA and the USGA have, been patting themselves on the back for the last 30-years, when they should have been watching the game - taking a few minutes a day to come down to street level. They needed then, and more importantly now, to look at the foundation of golf, the 90-shooters, the hackers, the dreamers who buy those $600.00 drivers.
Truth is, the powers in golf have become too snobbish, too removed from golf's grass roots. Where are all the drive-by driving ranges? What happened to the par-3 and executive golf courses? Who conducts learn-to-play-golf classes for beginners?
Do you own a golf course? When was the last time you actually started a brand new golfer?
Show me one management company who sincerely runs golf growth programs.
I believe there are as many people out there who do not play golf who would play if the route to play was more inviting. We're talking up to 30 million North Americans who don't play golf who would at least give the game a try. But the 'powers' in golf have to use their heads.
If I'm going to market to find new golfers the last place I will advertise is on the golf channel, or, for instance, in Golf Digest. I hate to use the word 'stupid' but think of it: The only people who watch the golf channel, or subscribe to Golf Digest are already golfers! When you're aiming at the 90% of population who do not play golf you have to go to the widest audience possible. That sure ain't the golf channel!
I learned the largest reading audience in a small town newspaper was the obituary page - really! Women generally turned to that page first. So, that's where I ran my ads for my learn to play golf classes. I set up the ad so a woman would be attracted to it - not that they were to be my intended new golf prospect, but they would show it to their spouse and family members. I used the same strategy every year for over 20-years and sold out every class every spring in Peterborough, Ontario (1965 through 1985). I'm not talking a class of ten people. We started between 230 and 250 new golfers every year for over 20-years. That's the box we need to jump back into!
Any comments so far? Dig in. Say something!
We're seeing private clubs going public because their membership is down 50%. Their beautiful palace (clubhouse) can no longer sustain itself because they're collecting half the annual dues they were collecting ten years ago.
Many troubled golf courses are part of residential developments - especially the southeast USA. In Florida several courses have closed - Ravines in Middleburg, Forest Lakes in Sarasota, Turkey Creek in Alachua, and several others. There are several on the brink at the moment this article is being written.
What is the solution?
I'm a 'Back-in-the-Box' thinker. There are times when we have to look at what worked when golf was a growing (virtually exploding) industry. I mean, what was it that took golf from 90% private to 90% public between 1955 and 2005?
I was there all the way. I watched golf grow. I was part of it. For at least my first 30-years in golf we were constantly building the game. I mean encouraging people to play. All kinds of people: kids, men, women, seniors. We made it easy to get started. Easy lessons, starter sets of golf clubs, beginner or starter leagues. All that stopped sometime around 1985. I know the National Golf Foundation indicated growth in participation had been flat since the late 1990s, but I believe golf stopped its strong growth pattern at least 10 and probably 15 years earlier.
When I say, "Golf needs to get itself back in the box." I'm trying to regenerate the enthusiasm for growing golf from the grass roots. I want to see the National Golf Foundation getting back to the business they were founded on - growing the game of golf.
They don't want to hear this, but the PGA and the USGA have, been patting themselves on the back for the last 30-years, when they should have been watching the game - taking a few minutes a day to come down to street level. They needed then, and more importantly now, to look at the foundation of golf, the 90-shooters, the hackers, the dreamers who buy those $600.00 drivers.
Truth is, the powers in golf have become too snobbish, too removed from golf's grass roots. Where are all the drive-by driving ranges? What happened to the par-3 and executive golf courses? Who conducts learn-to-play-golf classes for beginners?
Do you own a golf course? When was the last time you actually started a brand new golfer?
Show me one management company who sincerely runs golf growth programs.
I believe there are as many people out there who do not play golf who would play if the route to play was more inviting. We're talking up to 30 million North Americans who don't play golf who would at least give the game a try. But the 'powers' in golf have to use their heads.
If I'm going to market to find new golfers the last place I will advertise is on the golf channel, or, for instance, in Golf Digest. I hate to use the word 'stupid' but think of it: The only people who watch the golf channel, or subscribe to Golf Digest are already golfers! When you're aiming at the 90% of population who do not play golf you have to go to the widest audience possible. That sure ain't the golf channel!
I learned the largest reading audience in a small town newspaper was the obituary page - really! Women generally turned to that page first. So, that's where I ran my ads for my learn to play golf classes. I set up the ad so a woman would be attracted to it - not that they were to be my intended new golf prospect, but they would show it to their spouse and family members. I used the same strategy every year for over 20-years and sold out every class every spring in Peterborough, Ontario (1965 through 1985). I'm not talking a class of ten people. We started between 230 and 250 new golfers every year for over 20-years. That's the box we need to jump back into!
Any comments so far? Dig in. Say something!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
SHANKS AND HOW NOT TO CARE
I often play our executive golf course with a friend I call a true recreational golfer. He enjoys playing and even seems to enjoy his frustrations as he plans a shot to the right and it goes left. However, he has a very neat way of getting over bad shots, not by blaming his golf clubs, but praising them.
OK. there's a catch.
His complete bag of golf clubs, I mean putter, bag, cart, woods and irons cost him only $99.00 - brand new! He is more proud of what he paid for his clubs than what they are, something like: Bizmo-Zanger X-1000s, I believe one of Wally World's premiere models. So he hits it left when he's looking right, yet justifies the error by pointing out that he shouldn't expect anything else from a $99.00 set of golf clubs - that included a bag and cart - even wood covers!
Here I'm playing the best Callaways, a Nike driver, Ping putter, Taylor hybrids, and have no excuses. While he smiles at a shank, I frown when my drive is ten feet right of the sprinkler head (I'm really not that good).
Maybe my friend (I call him the Big 'K') has found how to enjoy golf to the fullest. He hits a shots to places on the golf course I didn't know were there. He shows only brief disappointment, then happily waves over his $99.00 set of golf clubs (like Vanna White over a letter) - a set that even included a club cleaner-scraper tool. "What the heck!", he says, "If I'd spent $2,200.00 on these clubs I'd be throwing them (like my partner with the Callaways) after that shot. But with these $99.00 beauties, that even included a cart handle score card holder, are doing exactly what I expected!"
We need to remember that golf is supposed to be enjoyed. The big K improved his enjoyment by acquiring the most golf equipment for the money he could find and avoided the illusion that you can buy a good golf game if you're willing to spend the money. The only problem is that I won't let him put his clubs in my trunk beside my Callaways. I don't want any shanks spreading to my stuff.
Mike
OK. there's a catch.
His complete bag of golf clubs, I mean putter, bag, cart, woods and irons cost him only $99.00 - brand new! He is more proud of what he paid for his clubs than what they are, something like: Bizmo-Zanger X-1000s, I believe one of Wally World's premiere models. So he hits it left when he's looking right, yet justifies the error by pointing out that he shouldn't expect anything else from a $99.00 set of golf clubs - that included a bag and cart - even wood covers!
Here I'm playing the best Callaways, a Nike driver, Ping putter, Taylor hybrids, and have no excuses. While he smiles at a shank, I frown when my drive is ten feet right of the sprinkler head (I'm really not that good).
Maybe my friend (I call him the Big 'K') has found how to enjoy golf to the fullest. He hits a shots to places on the golf course I didn't know were there. He shows only brief disappointment, then happily waves over his $99.00 set of golf clubs (like Vanna White over a letter) - a set that even included a club cleaner-scraper tool. "What the heck!", he says, "If I'd spent $2,200.00 on these clubs I'd be throwing them (like my partner with the Callaways) after that shot. But with these $99.00 beauties, that even included a cart handle score card holder, are doing exactly what I expected!"
We need to remember that golf is supposed to be enjoyed. The big K improved his enjoyment by acquiring the most golf equipment for the money he could find and avoided the illusion that you can buy a good golf game if you're willing to spend the money. The only problem is that I won't let him put his clubs in my trunk beside my Callaways. I don't want any shanks spreading to my stuff.
Mike
Monday, November 22, 2010
I'm 70-years old, losing distance, and need OPPs to break 80!
I can't get home on 400+-yard par-4s.
I have very mixed enthusiasm about playing golf as a 70-year old, because I'm losing distance every year. It was only 5-years ago I could reach a 225-yard green with a 5-wood, even a 3-iron if I had a tail wind. Now I tee it up with the driver and reach that green only if I really catch it on the sweet spot.
I'm working out at the gym and I'll bet I'm stronger than when I was 65.
Anyway, my enthusiasm to play is low because I have real trouble reaching par-4s over 400-yards. Then I see the tour on TV playing 500+-yard par-4s. That kinda make one fell like a pip-squeak, doesn't it?
Back when I was still playing hockey (until 1992), I realized I had trouble finishing a shift without worrying I'd collapse on the ice (shifts were between 30-seconds and one minute). Having moved to Florida, I was able to give up hockey gracefully (at age 52). I can't escape golf that easily with golf courses all around me, and many courses I can always play for free (as their consultant).
So, as a 70-year old, at least I get to move up to the white tees, but the courses are still 6500-yards with two or three par-4s I can only reach with a really great drive and a 3-wood. However, my problem is intensified, because I was never really a par golfer. I was once down to a 2 handicap and stayed around 5 for several years, but now I have real trouble breaking 80. In fact 83 is looking like a good score for me today.
But I would like to score in the 70's once in a while, and not just because I sunk a bunch of 30-footers. It's tough when to par the 400-yard holes I can only do it with an OPP (one putt par).
Now I'm trying to improve my flexibility, because I know (and used to teach) senior golfers that they lose distance and flight height because their back-swings generally get flatter and shorter with age - due to lack of flexibility. In fact, I went to this great You Tube site ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaDXNjFjjnU ) showing the six best stretch exercises. I'm working on those stretches with the hope of increasing my distance by adding to my flexibility. My goal is to reach that 225-yard green with a 3-wood.
It's November 22, 2010. I'll note here the day I reach the 225-yard green after doing all these stretches. If I score in the seventies on at least 26 putts, I'll bragg about that too.
Keep in mind in may never happen.
Mike
I have very mixed enthusiasm about playing golf as a 70-year old, because I'm losing distance every year. It was only 5-years ago I could reach a 225-yard green with a 5-wood, even a 3-iron if I had a tail wind. Now I tee it up with the driver and reach that green only if I really catch it on the sweet spot.
I'm working out at the gym and I'll bet I'm stronger than when I was 65.
Anyway, my enthusiasm to play is low because I have real trouble reaching par-4s over 400-yards. Then I see the tour on TV playing 500+-yard par-4s. That kinda make one fell like a pip-squeak, doesn't it?
Back when I was still playing hockey (until 1992), I realized I had trouble finishing a shift without worrying I'd collapse on the ice (shifts were between 30-seconds and one minute). Having moved to Florida, I was able to give up hockey gracefully (at age 52). I can't escape golf that easily with golf courses all around me, and many courses I can always play for free (as their consultant).
So, as a 70-year old, at least I get to move up to the white tees, but the courses are still 6500-yards with two or three par-4s I can only reach with a really great drive and a 3-wood. However, my problem is intensified, because I was never really a par golfer. I was once down to a 2 handicap and stayed around 5 for several years, but now I have real trouble breaking 80. In fact 83 is looking like a good score for me today.
But I would like to score in the 70's once in a while, and not just because I sunk a bunch of 30-footers. It's tough when to par the 400-yard holes I can only do it with an OPP (one putt par).
Now I'm trying to improve my flexibility, because I know (and used to teach) senior golfers that they lose distance and flight height because their back-swings generally get flatter and shorter with age - due to lack of flexibility. In fact, I went to this great You Tube site ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaDXNjFjjnU ) showing the six best stretch exercises. I'm working on those stretches with the hope of increasing my distance by adding to my flexibility. My goal is to reach that 225-yard green with a 3-wood.
It's November 22, 2010. I'll note here the day I reach the 225-yard green after doing all these stretches. If I score in the seventies on at least 26 putts, I'll bragg about that too.
Keep in mind in may never happen.
Mike
Saturday, November 20, 2010
The Plight of Hundreds, Maybe Thousands of Golf Courses
Many 'experts' in golf blame the current economy or the 9/11 disaster for the golf industry's chgallenges today. However, I saw the problem developing back in the early 90's. As an associate with Hayward and Associates, golf course mortgage brokerage firm in Tampa, Florida, we were learning as ealy as 1993 that many golf courses were unable to pay their bills. Yet, since 1993 they built at least 300 golf courses a year for ten years!
In the mid 90's I was circulating faxes to management companies with a slogan, "Golf courses don't create new golfers. They have to get theirs from other golf courses." I saw exactly what was happening while managing Oak Ford Golf Club in Sarasota, Florida.
Now I'm not a rocket scientist, but if my 'fair' share of golf players among ten golf courses is 50,000 rounds, or one tenth of the 500,000 neighborhood rounds, and two more golf courses open..... Duh! Didn't my share shrink to one twelfth of 500,000 or 41,666 rounds? My share dropped by 8,334 rounds, or over 16.6% almost immediately. Actually, the effect of two new golf courses in the Sarasota marketplace affected rounds virtually exactly to the math. In fact, between 1990 and 2000 they added at least ten new golf courses to the area. Where the hell did they think these golf players were coming from?
Many feasibility studies were entirely misleading, which lead to the oversupply of golf courses. Many predicted annual growth in rounds and revenues almost to oblivion, which I called the 'Excel Trap'. I even fell for it for a few years.
The Excel Trap was (still is) an easy spreadsheet function where you took a set of assumptions and ran the growth multiples out as many years as you wished. I mean, you could take, say 40,000 rounds and increase them by 5% a year and, just like magic, you forecast over 62,000 rounds in year ten. Keep going and you break 100,000 rounds in year-20.
What's worse, they also added an inflation factor to the price of a round of golf (I admit I did it back then too), so the revenue factor also kept rising. So not only did rounds increase by 5% every year, but so did prices. By running prices up every year (1995 through 2005), by year ten we were forecasting $2,887,943 in fee revenue averaging $46.54 green fees from 62,053 rounds. We know now that those forecats never happened. In fact, it wound up, as golfers call a hook when you played a slice - the old "double-cross" as the ball flies even further into the woods. Not only did the 62,000 rounds never materialize, they're only getting $28,00 a round in 2005, not $46.54.
I didn't mean to talk you ear off with this posting, but my point is not only did none of the forecasts hold true, they never anticipated that there were going to be fewer golf players tomorrow morning than there are today - and that's pretty well a fact!
We need to grow the game or watch it flounder for years to come - maybe even worse.
BTW: Does this scenario sound familiar?: Community Golf Course War
What are your thoughts?
Mike
In the mid 90's I was circulating faxes to management companies with a slogan, "Golf courses don't create new golfers. They have to get theirs from other golf courses." I saw exactly what was happening while managing Oak Ford Golf Club in Sarasota, Florida.
Now I'm not a rocket scientist, but if my 'fair' share of golf players among ten golf courses is 50,000 rounds, or one tenth of the 500,000 neighborhood rounds, and two more golf courses open..... Duh! Didn't my share shrink to one twelfth of 500,000 or 41,666 rounds? My share dropped by 8,334 rounds, or over 16.6% almost immediately. Actually, the effect of two new golf courses in the Sarasota marketplace affected rounds virtually exactly to the math. In fact, between 1990 and 2000 they added at least ten new golf courses to the area. Where the hell did they think these golf players were coming from?
Many feasibility studies were entirely misleading, which lead to the oversupply of golf courses. Many predicted annual growth in rounds and revenues almost to oblivion, which I called the 'Excel Trap'. I even fell for it for a few years.
The Excel Trap was (still is) an easy spreadsheet function where you took a set of assumptions and ran the growth multiples out as many years as you wished. I mean, you could take, say 40,000 rounds and increase them by 5% a year and, just like magic, you forecast over 62,000 rounds in year ten. Keep going and you break 100,000 rounds in year-20.
What's worse, they also added an inflation factor to the price of a round of golf (I admit I did it back then too), so the revenue factor also kept rising. So not only did rounds increase by 5% every year, but so did prices. By running prices up every year (1995 through 2005), by year ten we were forecasting $2,887,943 in fee revenue averaging $46.54 green fees from 62,053 rounds. We know now that those forecats never happened. In fact, it wound up, as golfers call a hook when you played a slice - the old "double-cross" as the ball flies even further into the woods. Not only did the 62,000 rounds never materialize, they're only getting $28,00 a round in 2005, not $46.54.
I didn't mean to talk you ear off with this posting, but my point is not only did none of the forecasts hold true, they never anticipated that there were going to be fewer golf players tomorrow morning than there are today - and that's pretty well a fact!
We need to grow the game or watch it flounder for years to come - maybe even worse.
BTW: Does this scenario sound familiar?: Community Golf Course War
What are your thoughts?
Mike
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