_Jan/blueskiesahead.jpg "Blue Skies Ahead")
By Steve Eubanks
Breaking free from the traditions that have defined the business, M.G. Orender is creating a model for the future
It’s a radical departure, a mold-breaking stiff-arm to convention that is especially surprising given that the man behind it is just a decade removed from leading one of the most traditional institutions in the game. M.G. Orender, former president of the PGA of America and founder and CEO of Hampton Golf, is one of the smartest and boldest operators in the business. That combination has led to an innovation that could, conceivably, set a new baseline for what it means to be in the golf business.
The club Orender now operates in Jacksonville, Florida (one of 20 courses under the Hampton Golf umbrella) is called Blue Sky, a name suggested by his wife Donna, a former vice president of communications for the PGA Tour who spent years consulting for the PGA of America on how to get more women in the game. “It’s nothing but blue sky when you get there,” Orender quips.
By that he means that everything you traditionally thought about a golf club has been thrown out the window at this daily-fee club. “For starters, as long as your clothes are clean and there’s nothing offensive on them, I don’t care what you wear,” Orender says. “Jeans are fine. T-shirts are fine. If your hair is messed up and you want to wear a hat in the bar, that’s OK, too.”
But that’s just the start of the Blue Sky experience. There is no golf shop. The bag-drop attendants, like everyone else on staff, have iPads and the ability to check you in on the spot. Once your credit card is swiped, you can either go straight to the first tee or to the bar area, where you can pick up a six-pack of beer, some golf balls, lip balm, a hot dog and a glove.
“We moved the check-in area into the bar, which really isn’t a bar in the traditional golf sense,” Orender explains. “It’s more of a martini bar, very slick and clean with a lot of televisions. I wasn’t going to invest in a pro shop and duplicate all the staff.”
So, what once served as the pro shop has been transformed into a game room with pool tables, video games, foosball and other recreational amenities. “We just started marketing for birthday parties for next summer and we think the game room will become a profit center without inventory or a dedicated staff,” Orender notes.
That might seem almost treasonous coming from a man who was wearing the blue PGA blazer and handing Vijay Singh the Wanamaker Trophy at Whistling Straits 10 years ago. But Orender hasn’t eliminated PGA professionals at Blue Sky—he’s liberated him.
“If you turn the pro shop into any other kind of financially viable space, it’s a winner,” Orender says. “Beyond things like gloves, balls and hats, unless you’re at a private club, people aren’t going to buy from you. They’ll hit your demos or rentals, and then go online and buy them for $5 over cost.”
Orender hasn’t done away with merchandise sales, mind you; he’s simply redefined what “standard” offerings are at Blue Sky. The biggest seller is a large tumbler with the course logo on it. “If you buy it for $29.95, we’ll give you your first draft free and fill it up for you with draft beer for a couple of dollars as long as you own it,” he says. The club also sells Bluetooth speakers for $20. “They fit perfectly in the front of the golf cart, so you can hit balls and listen to our tunes or crank up your own music and have fun out there,” Orender adds.
By Orender’s calculations, eliminating the golf shop translates into cost savings of approximately $100,000. Better yet, it allows him to leverage the talents of his staff and drive customers to areas that generate more revenue.
“Then you take those qualified PGA professionals, send them out to the first tee or lesson tee, and have them outside greeting people,” Orender says. “You utilize them for outing sales and have them out in the community being your ambassador. You have them at hotels and other places generating business. They’re great at that.”
In another tradition-bending move, Orender lit Blue Sky’s driving range and piped in music so you can listen to Jimi Hendrix while hitting balls before or after your round. Or you can hit balls and have a drink in the bar without playing at all. He rerouted the course so that Nos. 10, 11 and 12 are a returning thee-hole loop, and holes 13 through 18 can be played as a six-hole course, giving customers the option of playing three, six, nine or 18 holes.
Since opening Blue Sky in October 2014, Orender has been generating buzz and eliciting exactly the type of responses he’d hoped for. “Guys over 50 walk in and say, ‘Where’s the pro shop?’ and when we say, ‘You check in at the bar.’ They say, ‘Wow, that’s odd.’ [Meanwhile], the guys under 50 say, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’
“Our mix of play is much different now, with about 70 percent of our play being under age 40,” Orender adds. “Almost 50 percent [comes from golfers] under age 35. That’s what we were after.”
The way Orender sees it, Blue Sky is a model for the future. Given the success of businesses like TopGolf—a combination driving range/nightclub that’s experiencing exponential growth and averaging $150,000 a day in gross revenue per facility—it’s hard to argue with the logic.
“The challenge we have as an industry comes when we go into a facility with 200 members that’s 150 members short of where it needs to be,” Orender opines. “They’re so afraid of upsetting the 200 that they won’t do the radical things needed to attract that next 150. You don’t want to upset the group you have when, in truth, if you keep modeling everything to please them you’re never going to attract anyone new.”
That’s still the case with a large population of clubs, but pain has a way of opening the mind to new ideas. Orender is already showcasing Blue Sky as a model for other course owners in the North Florida area.
“I have some owners who have come out and want us to do the same thing for them,” he says. “We’ve got a couple of facilities we’re in the process of leasing where we’re using this as a model. For public golf, this is beyond perfect.”
Steve Eubanks is an Atlanta-based freelance writer.