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Welcome to Fairway: your source for the latest information on golf course management software and golf course marketing to help your golf course book more tee times, increase revenue, reach new golfers, and operate more efficiently. You will find updated articles and resources on everything related to golf software and golf course marketing. Be sure to check back often as we post new articles that can benefit your course.
The last 10 years of the 20th century saw an amazing boom in technology. The first five of the 21st have seen an amazing acceptance of those advances. “Internet use has grown dramatically over recent years with 65 percent of the population that now has access at home or at work,” says Ged Stonehouse, owner of Stonehouse Marketing & Golf Group, a golf business and golf course marketing consultant in Atlantic Canada. For the core golfer market, that figure is 89 percent—about 11 million of the most frequent, highest spending golfers, according to a recent consumer survey by the National Golf Foundation. [ Continue reading... ]
To use golf software in its most effective manner, golf course operators should take an integrated approach to technology. “You really need to have a plan,” Koppenhaver says. “Many facility operators go out and say ‘I think I need an electronic POS system.’ They don’t really know what they are going to do with it, they just think they need it because everybody else has one.” Koppenhaver recommends that you decide what you want the technology to do, and then obtain a platform that is compatible. “Once you come up with a plan and purchase the components, the rest is simply executing that plan,” he says. [ Continue reading... ]
A golf course's Web site is perhaps its most valuable tool for customer service and marketing. Consumers use the Internet for different purposes, so a good Web site can fulfill their needs with both information and interaction. “Over the past few years, the traveling public in general has used the Internet significantly for gathering information,” says Ged Stonehouse, owner of Stonehouse Marketing and Golf Group. “It helps them decide where to go and what there is to see and do once they get there. But it has just been in the last 12 to 18 months that consumers have really endorsed the Internet as a tool for doing business—actually making the purchase, signing up or making a booking.” [ Continue reading... ]
U.S. course operators have much to learn from their European counterparts when it comes to using golf technology at the course. You might think the game of golf is the same wherever you travel—and you are probably right. It’s the business of golf and the experience that changes, particularly in European countries. The European market in large part can be viewed as a “lifestyle experience”–spending leisure time in a healthy, stress-free way. To keep attracting their customers during all seasons, European leisure centers are increasingly combining indoor facilities, spa and fitness, with the traditional outdoor facilities of golf and tennis. [ Continue reading... ]
Golfers are increasingly using the Internet to find and book rounds. Use online golf technology to keep your customers and gain new ones. Ged Stonehouse, owner of Stonehouse Marketing & Golf Group, recently booked some friends for a golf outing. “I had friends coming from Ontario, and they wanted to play a couple of courses in the area and asked if I would recommend courses as well as book them,” he says. “I chose a couple of courses and went to their golf Web site as it was late in the evening.” The first club had a link to their online booking system. “I was able to easily look at the dates my friends wanted, the times around what they wanted and booked them along with a power cart. Within minutes I printed off a written confirmation.” [ Continue reading... ]
Golf is changing. The tradition of golf lent a certain mystique to the game, and the industry itself did not typically embrace golf technology. But times are changing. People’s lives are busier, and the growth of the game has leveled off. It’s time to start thinking more like a business. “We know how to go out and play golf and keep score,” says Ray Mundy, a golf course consultant. “But we don’t know how to keep score in running our business.” Technology can help golf course operations “keep score,” but owners and operators have to know how to understand and utilize the data. [ Continue reading... ]