Putting Together the Pieces
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.
The vast majority of consumers have accepted that technology is making their lives easier and are using that technology to its maximum benefit. It’s time for the golf course industry to keep up.
“We lag behind in technology,” says Jim Koppenhaver,owner of Pellucid Corp., an information and insight provider to the golf industry. “In most other industries, there have been people taking reservations and doing business over the Internet for a decade now. The consumer has been there, the golf courses have been the hindrance.”
Many golf courses are not even using electronic golf accounting systems. “There are still a great number of golf courses using the standard cash registers that were utilized in the 60s, 70s and 80s,” says Dave Cowan, a golf industry consultant and marketing manager for the National Golf Course Owners Association Canada. “And I think they are at a disadvantage.”
Others have been using automated tee-time booking and computerized golf point of sale systems for 15 to 20 years. “We use it extensively to run our business,” says Walt Lankau, owner of Stow Acres Country Club in Stow, Mass, and past president of the NGCOA. “I couldn’t do without it. Technology has been invaluable.”
An Investment in Your Business
As a golf course owner or operator, you may view golf software systems and automation as too much of an expense. Or you may not want to take the time to learn a new system. It is time to change that point of view, according to experts.
“I view technology as an investment, and there is a return on that investment,” says Cowan, the former general manager of Mill Run Golf and Country Club. “Because the better you can manage your company and manage your systems, truly there will be a return in the long run.”
However, purchasing technology does not have to be done in one fell swoop, according to Koppenhaver. “What intimidates people is they think they have to come in and get the whole solution on day one. You don’t.”
Golf course operators can prioritize which pieces to start with, and they don’t have to choose the most expensive thing first. “There are very basic pieces of golf software that are inexpensive— less than $5,000—that you can get into and will do a great job,” Koppenhaver says. “For the average operator, the less expensive piece is a better buy than the $40,000 piece of software because with the more expensive piece, you would be buying functionality that you will never use.”
Starting with something as simple as an electronic tee sheet can help your business. Golf courses are using the latest technology to improve their attraction and retention rates, segment their customers for marketing purposes, benefit loyal customers and keep a closer eye on their day-to-day trends. Improving their business means improving service and marketing, which generally means increased rounds— always good for the bottom line.
“When I arrived at Mill Run in 2003, they were doing 56,000 rounds a year,” Cowan says. “In 2004, we went from 56,000 to 76,000 rounds, and we put in the full Jencess software suite along with GPS in the carts. Basically we utilized every piece of technology out there. This was not the only thing that was responsible for the increase, but it was part of the package that allowed us to market and grow that company by 20,000 rounds in one year.”