Drawing more
players to your
facility can lead to
increased food and
beverage revenue.
heaven. They’ll be playing your golf course for the
rest of their lives and it’s great publicity for your
facility.”
Pricing and discounting are two challenging
issues as PGA Professionals struggle to grow revenues in a turbulent economy. Koppenhaver notes
that hotels and golf-management companies that
operate multiple facilities may utilize complicated
yield-management models to determine pricing at
certain times of the day or certain days of the week,
and certain weeks of the year. However, Koppenhaver cautions against pricing a round of golf below cost just to fill
slow times.
“At the end of the day, you can
either get a higher price for the rounds
you are generating, or you can do
something to generate more rounds
played,” says Koppenhaver. “But that
isn’t really happening. There aren’t a
lot of facilities generating more rounds
in this economy. Basically, you need to
carefully study what times of which
days are really generating consistent
rounds. Then, you must determine
your cost of providing a round of golf,
which you can calculate by dividing
every tee time that goes off your
course by the maintenance budget.
Every round of golf has a cost associated with it.
“If you’re selling that round below cost, you’re
not growing revenue. You’re losing revenue. You
must be very careful about what signal you send to
the consumer. If you start discounting rounds in an
attempt to generate more play, the message you
send is that you’re willing to sell below cost and the
customer will stop playing in those non-discounted
windows and start waiting for the discount times.
Customers will always find the loophole in your
pricing structure, if there is one.”
Private Facility Challenge (continued)
“In this economy, where outings are not revenues at their facilities.
rebooking, this is an effective way to fill PGA Head Professional Mark Jorgensen
those Mondays,” says Belden. “The at Yahnundasis Golf Club in New Hartford,
Corporate Day generates $15,000 N. Y., petitioned New York State
to $20,000 with food and for a different liquor license that
beverage income. It is also a way allowed the club to serve alcohol
to introduce prospective new on a limited basis to outside
members to the club.” patrons. That opened the door to
At Evansville Country Club in the club hosting weddings,
Evansville, Ind., PGA Director of receptions, bridal shows and
Golf Mike Reynolds identified the business meetings that previously
slowest day for member play and could only be conducted if
introduced a “Guest Day” on sponsored by a club member.
Ron Dunham, PGA
Thursday afternoons. The increase in revenue has
“We’re an old, private club with a great allowed the club to postpone any increase
golf course and we decided to fill our vacant in dues.
tee sheet on Thursday afternoons by At Round Hill Country Club in Alamo,
allowing guests to pay about half the Calif., PGA Head Professional David Plotnik
normal guest fee,” says Reynolds. “We conducted a concert on the driving range
make sure we capture information about that brought club members together and
the guests and build a database to stay in created considerable food and beverage
contact with that guest. It’s really a form of income. Plotnik is planning other creative
conducting a membership drive while special events that draw families to the
bringing in some revenue in a slow period. facility and encourage them to spend their
We have already had several guests who entertainment dollars at Round Hill.
said they felt very comfortable at the club At The Legend at Brandybrook in Wales,
and have become members, or are Wis., PGA Head Professional David Bobber
considering becoming members. The jump-starts lesson revenue by charging
exposure has been very beneficial.” each club member for a $50 lesson at the
start of each year. The up-front revenue is
nearly $20,000, and members who don’t
use the lesson can apply the $50 toward
golf car fees.
“The overwhelming response was
positive,” reports Bobber. “Most members
took more lessons after being introduced
to the lesson program because they were
automatically billed for a lesson.”
Mark Hofstetter, PGA Head Professional
at Pine Island Country Club in Charlotte,
N.C., has introduced an incentive program
to members to motivate the recruitment of
new members. If members introduce one
new member to the club, they are exempt
from paying dues for three months. If they
sign up three new members, the current
member pays no dues for an entire year.
Ron Dunham, PGA Head Professional at
Teton Pines Country Club in Jackson, Wyo.,
has a solid membership base but also
offers outside play as a destination resort
facility. He hopes to attract more play in
2009 by offering a nine-hole rate and a
twilight rate, which will encourage traveling
golfers to visit the course without
interfering with members. He is also
teaming with Teton Springs Golf Club on
the Idaho side of the Teton Mountains to
offer an added-value package where
golfers can play both courses for one price.
Fully Utilize Facilities
PGA Professionals and general managers
are looking beyond the golf course to raise
Bonus Pool for Staff
At Congressional Country Club in
Bethesda, Md., PGA Director of Golf John
Lyberger has designed a “bonus-sharing
pool” that represents 10 percent of his
