Cover Stories and Features
Combating Compounding Damage
You aren’t well suited to run a golf operation if you can’t handle what Mother Nature dishes out. This is all the more true as climate change produces increasingly extreme conditions. Hurricanes in the Southeast, wildfires in the West and rising sea levels have been in the news extensively, leaving a tally of damage in their wake. Last spring’s Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii wasn’t related to global warming, nor was Alaska’s recent major earthquake — they’re just further cases of the disruption and damage our environment serves up.
Boca Raton Revival
In the heyday of the bourgeois Boca Raton private club era, Boca Lago Country Club was considered by some as one of the top clubs in this swanky South Florida market. In the last decade, however, Boca Lago struggled to retain and attract new members — like many aging clubs across the country — and closed one of its 9-hole layouts.
Don’t Call it a Fad
Year after year, significant time and money gets invested in golf’s grow-the-game effort. Meanwhile, along come new twists on the sport and new waves of people interested in paying for access to the links. The “traditional” golf sector can’t claim it invented FootGolf, FlingGolf or even speedgolf, but so be it. What matters is the revenue and new customers these variations increasingly offer.
Creating a Customer Culture
The difference is summed up in five profound words, a phrase that has taken Billy Sitton, founder and CEO of Triumph Golf, from aspiring player to one of the most respected multi-course owners and operators in the golf industry.
Case Studies
Great Service Eclipses Amenities
Have you ever been to a restaurant, hotel or golf course that had great food, accommodations or golf facilities, but poor service? Did you go back? How about one with “ok” food or facilities, but great service? Makes a difference, doesn’t it? In your business, you are responsible for making excellent service happen — not your employees.
Think Golf Course Safety to Reduce Your Liability
Think Golf Course Safety to Reduce Your Liability
One-on-One Coaching
The Most Effective Way to Develop Your People
Do Your Customers Need Some Privacy?
ne thing I hear very often when talking about best practices for working with third parties involves making sure you collect customer data of your golfers, regardless of the channel through which they booked the reservation. I get it. It makes sense.
ClubCorp Takes Shot at Big Shots Investment
ClubCorp, the world’s largest owner of private clubs, just took a big bite into the technology-driven alternative golf business when it recently acquired a controlling interest in BigShots Golf.
Connecting with Golfers in Off Season a Must
If there’s ever a time and place to stay away from your golf course, it’s Chicago in the winter. What are you going to do, build snowmen on the greens? Skip balls across frozen ponds?
Surviving the Offseason
What is your most successful and popular winter program?
Up Close and Personal
Final Thoughts with Ayeesha McKeany
Does 2019 hold any special plans for your course?
Industry News and Trends
Ohio Investments are a Positive Sign
In the grand scheme of things, it’s not much. Troy, Ohio, a town of 25,000 people located 19 miles north of Dayton and an hour west of Columbus, is investing just over $1.2 million in its municipally-owned and operated Miami Shores Golf Course. The 6,700-square-foot clubhouse, which includes a restaurant, golf shop and restrooms, is undergoing a complete overhaul, while the driving range is also receiving a substantial upgrade.
Bunker Innovations Benefit Course Owners
The battle of the bunkers has one clear winner: golf course owners.
NGCOA News
Judge Orders Course to Remain Open Regardless of Economics
A Florida judge has decided to get into the golf business. Not actively, but through judicial fiat.
In December 2018, Nassau County (Florida) circuit court judge Steven Fahlgren ruled against Omni Amelia Island LLC (part of Omni Hotels and Resorts) ordering the resort to reconstruct and reopen Amelia Island’s Ocean Links golf course.
Cultural Series Holds Golfers’ Interests Away from Course
Georgia isn’t all dogwoods and peach blossoms. Ask anyone who moved to the Peach State from a northern territory and you’ll learn that it gets just as cold in Atlanta and Augusta as it does in New York and Philly. It just doesn’t stay cold as long. Two or three weeks of hard winter a year is about average for Georgia. And by early April, people are breaking out the shorts and sundresses, at least on occasion.