This past Monday there was an article in the Dallas Morning news, conveniently written the day after the golf tournament, about Northern Trust, the sponsor of the Northern Trust Open PGA Tournament, taking bailout money. Though the report was that none of the bailout funds they took from the government were used for any of the golf event it leads people to think otherwise.
I am sure that this incident will not be the last since in this economy it is going to be hard to not find any business who sponsors a PGA event who is not being hit by the economy with either layoffs or misappropriations of their funds. I’ll leave my opinion of AT&T now being on Tiger’s bag to another time when my fingers are well healed to write that lengthy blog.
This kind of news and observations being brought out for the world to read just points to one issue that is Hurting Golf. Yes, there are several issues GOLF needs to address and solve in order to survive. Some of the issues have solutions and some really do not have a clear cut answer because it is caused by something outside of golf.
So you ask…
What are the issues Hurting Golf?
No Golfers = No Golf
Right now there are several issues.
- Pace of Play
- Cost to Play
- Difficulty of learning to play
- Reason to Play
These are the top issues affecting golfer’s and non-golfer’s attitude towards golf. As you noticed, all of these issues address Playing Golf. Since playing golf is what you do as a golfer it seems natural what is keeping people from playing golf need to be resolved if the golf industry is to survive because it is the everyday GOLFER who drives the golf economy.
Business Golfers Drive the Cart
Of all of the different categories of golfers, the Business Golfers make the biggest contribution. Out of the estimated 61 million golfers in the world, (28 million of which are in the USA), over 40% are Business Golfers…meaning they play golf regularly as part of or related to their business’ function…taking a client out, attending a industry conference, business meetings..etc.
With this large part of the golf economy at risk of leaving GOLF because of the issues Golf has, something needs to be done…and done now. This segment of the middle of the golf economy represents largest voice in Golf. But are they be listened to? Answer: Not Really.
On the most part the attention the golf industry has given to business golfers has been at the HIGH end…the ‘C Suite’ executives who carry the Corporate Checkbook on the corporate jets. These elite Business Golfers were easy targets back in ‘The Day’. However over the past five years they all seemed to have charted a flight plan to the Wall the economy hit this past October. Now these leaders of business are running from golf since they don’t want to be seen as ‘Frilling’ away stockholders money.
Business Golfers have been dealing with the issues of Golf before the recent recession and were leaving golf by the droves because of it. Unfortunately, the golf industry was seeing the fall out, but were lost to feeling needed to make the changes needed back then due to their sites staying on the easy money people…the elite financially independent, recession proof, business golfers. Now, the severity of the issues pledging golf have left business golfers in the same shape as the people in the last episode of ‘Lost’…hungry, ready to give it up and see no hope in any change coming.
Affects All Golfers
Still, the issues listed above are effecting the appeal of Golf for all categories of golfers. From the guy who plays once a year to the Tour Pro’s, these core issues keeps each of them from enjoying the sport or from playing the game as it is intended to be played. Since the Business Golfers are paying the bills of the Golf Industry lets take a Glimpse of what the basics of these issues are from a business golfer’s view point..shall we?
Pace of Play
Nothing kills a round of golf with a client, employee or a vendor faster than a six hour round of golf. The cause of the slow pace being experience are many. They range from natural occurrences like lost balls by all the players in a group to plain out lack of caring of the pace of play by one of more players in a group. Other contributors to causing the slow pace lean towards greed and bad management of a golf course operations. Things like booking too many tee times and pacing the times between tee times too close. These are economy driven reasons on the most part.
Other factors like Cart Path Only golf course compounded with them requiring every player to ride in a cart are also economic and lack of effective management skills. One of the growing factors related to the slow pace of play is allowing unskilled golfers to play from the back tees..
All of these and many others effect pace of play and all have solutions. And all are causing business golfers to give up the game due to not being tolerant of the lack of management of the problem or the time to deal with it. Either way, golf is losing a lot of revenue due to them leaving.
Cost to Play
Over the past ten years the cost of golf has climbed to unreal levels. Everything thing from equipment to green fees have been raised in the name of ‘Supply and Demand”, which should be changed to the “Hey, let’s see How Much these Fools Will Pay to Play” economic factor of golf. When asked (by someone like me) why these costs has to be so high the reasons range from the lame…”these prices cover the manufacturer prices with only an 18% profit margin… to the absurd….”our operations costs are higher since we maintain our golf course a higher standard of quality than others”.
I get the impression some of these golf manufacturers and golf facility management groups play business golfers as fools and are hiring the same marketing groups Facebook uses to highlight things that make the golf equipment and facilities look better or grander than they can be verified as being. If the truth would be told the high costs they allude to wanting the business golfer to pay either go to paying the high salaries of executives that contribute nothing to the bottomline or for long term investment pay backs, over priced research and development and loans to cover for inflated prices of renovation of the facility to “Tigerize” it.
Difficulty of Learning to Play
The resurgence in the interest of golf that coincided with the excitement Tiger Woods brought to the game caught Golf unprepared to teach the game effectively. Again, greed in capturing a part of the market could be blamed as a caused, but on the most the real reason people feel golf is difficult to learn is partly due to the training, or lack of, of people who teach’s the game are falling short of the demand. So, not only are there not enough good golf trainers of the game, but those who are good at training golfers find the monetary gain lacking to what they could make if they were in another profession. So the good teachers leave the profession and hand the reins of teaching golf to the ‘Players’ of the game. These are men and women who play golf well but have no ability to teaching what they are good at demonstrating.
So many people wanting to learn the game for business purposes are left at the driving range by either someone who is very good teaching golf but not motivated beyond the half hour they charge to finish their efforts or left to fend for themselves by learning to play golf from seeing someone hitting a golf ball further than they ever could dream hitting a golf ball in their lifetime. The result is those people leave golf out of disgust of what they see golf as…something that is too difficult to learn and too time consuming to learn…
It is a fact..golf is not a easy endeavor to accomplish immediately which is what today’s video driven desk-top athletes demand of anything they try to do. “If golf is not as easy as Wii then I am not interested”…this seems to be the motto of the younger generation. So how does the golf industry react…develop $50k golf simulators…so people can play golf in a virtual world…is that golf? Still, even in a virtual or simulation of the golf the fundamentals of swinging a golf club to hit a golf ball are deemed too difficult by many which is causing golf to miss out on capturing the next generation of golfers. Fi this keeps up there will be a lot of empty golf simulators, driving ranges and golf courses.
Reason to Play
Having a purpose to play golf has always been an issue in golf. When a person is introduced to Golf the first reaction entering their thoughts is…Why? It is a natural reaction and one that cannot be done away with. However, if more was offered newbies to explain what is down the road from their introduction to golf more golfers would see a reason to put up with the other issues they will face and deal with past their initial introduction to golf.
Of course, how someone is introduced to golf has a huge factor on their acceptance of golf. If someone is introduced to the golf and experiences any of the above issues of golf then that will be their impression of golf for EVER. Again, having a reason for learning or playing golf will result in tolerating the issues of golf better.
However, most people are not given a reason to play golf during their introduction to golf which triggers the question of why they should learn to play, pay for learning to play and tolerating the related issues of golf like pace of play, high costs and long learning curve.
Obviously one of the reason to play golf is for the business development benefits. That is why large companies like Northern Trust and AT&T are sponsoring professional golf events. But, again, the person not familiar with those benefits see another story and that is the one that is Hurting Golf.
Things have to change in Golf. The issues golf has will have to be addressed and the golfers who are effective the most need to be heard so solutions can be offered.
I purposefully have not offered my solutions to these issues, which I have many to offer, since I would like to allow you the opportunity to voice your opinions. The Golf industry is watching…here is your chance to be heard.
Let me know how I an help.
Financial institutions taking TARP funds must still market their services. The public should certainly be careful in criticizing brand-building efforts of these companies if they want them to be around for the long term. But, having taken taxpayer money, institutions that sponsor tournaments, buy stadium naming rights and the like, ought to proactively include in their press releases statements on the proven efficacy of sponsorship.
I’m interested to hear more about the statistic that of all golfers “over 40% are Business Golfers”. I don’t belong to a private club and seldom play upscale daily fee courses so that may be why my own experience doesn’t mirror that statistic. Or perhaps lots of people play the game once every six months when attending a company meeting or a conference. If it’s mainly the latter, it wouldn’t comprise a large number of total rounds played each year. If it’s mainly private club play, it’s not so much the golf industry that’s being hurt as it is the private clubs which are a business unto themselves and golf is often only a part of the services they offer members.
Please identify the source of the statistic (with a link if possible). It would be helpful to my own interest in the industry. For example I might define myself as a business golfer as I often have discussed and promoted my businesses to other golfers while on the course. But business is a tertiary reason why I play, the primary reason being recreation and secondary being exercise. It was only the primary reason approximately 2 of the 50+ rounds last year. I would be interested to delve into what sort of questions were asked to result in the 40% figure. Also, it would be interesting to know what the other “categories” of golfers are. If 40% are Business Golfers, doesn’t it stand to reason that 60% are Non-Business Golfers and therefore 1.5 times as important to the industry as the former? A category statistic under 50% is only useful if it can be compared to the rest of the categories that comprise the total market.
I’m not sure how the rise in prices can at all be rationalized by “Supply and Demand” since demand for golf has been falling – this has been discussed a bit on the great golf community you host on Ning.com. Seems to me that courses in my area have been raising prices to make up for lost revenue as golfers leave the game (for whatever reason). For example, as we’ve discussed, many courses are now forcing golfers who walk to pay cart rental fees; per a manager of 6 local courses “because we need the revenue.” This is a short term fix implemented for lack of creative marketing ideas focused at the specific market segments each individual course serves (or could serve).
Poor management is the biggest issue facing golf courses. Not a single golfer I’ve played with gives a hoot about the fancy new clubhouses built to replace the completely serviceable structures they replaced on 3 local courses over the last year. But they decry the greens fee increases that followed the grand openings. It is clear to me that course management is putting little or no effort into understanding what golfers want…and what they will put up with.
I’m surprised you can discuss pace of play without mentioning longer courses and slow, deliberate pre-shot routines.
Given the invitation, here are a few solutions and a few rebuttals to the discussion of what ails the game of golf. Business golfers, yes, “drive the cart” for the industry. Always have; always will. The industry over-invested in “the ‘C Suite’ executives who carry the Corporate Checkbook on the corporate jet,” creating too many ultra-luxurious golf getaways for only those that can pay top dollar. Corporate retreats and outings to golf courses fall under this category as well. What affects those executives right now is not what generally affects the everyday golfer, but a fear of being labeled frivolous. This is only a cyclical issue; as soon as the economy rights itself and TARPees repay the Government, no one will even notice such trips. As for these same corporations, like Northern Trust, getting smashed for sponsoring a golf tournament, once again, corporate image is the culprit. The media is quick to jump to conclusions without understanding the need for such a company to generate exposure and quality advertising outlets through the PGA tour and its attendees. These things, like the others, will pass as the country rights itself. As for the issues affecting the non-Business Golfers, the industry needs to adjust.
Too slow, too costly, too hard, and not worth it; these are the arguments, right? In response to the pace of play issue, especially concerning the assertion that “greed and bad management of golf course operations” contributing to the problem, two opposing issues emerge. First, if the course plays slowly because the management stacks fivesomes every eight minutes apart, does that mean bad things for the game? It sounds like too many people want to be out on those courses. Economically, the management could earn the same amount per group by limiting to foursomes only, spacing them out every twelve minutes and charging 20-25% more per round. The courses that have “bad management” are clearly the ones that employ the low-cost, high volume approach to profit. Here is the conflict: does golf want more people on the course and slower rounds for low prices, or fewer people on the course and faster rounds for higher prices? The everyday golfer needs to understand this trade-off between courses, as they are clearly diversified to target each golfer’s needs. Either pay more, or stop complaining about the 6 hour round. Until golfers are attracted to Executive courses, where one can play shorter, but sometimes challenging holes and half the price for half as long, they will still face this dilemma.
Thank you for the post, but I really would like to hear your solutions.
i think the cost of the play is one of the problem, especially that there is a financial problem.
i think the cost of the play is one of the problem, especially that there is a financial problem.
I think that one of the reasons many golfers lose intrest in the game is because everyone that starts this game thinks that golf courses are suppose to be a little slice of heaven. The problem is that if you want to play at a golf course of high quality you need to pay way to much, and that ruins the experience because instead playing a great course and taking in all the little things that make it so nice, you start to think is is this worth the $100+ green fee i just payed for?? Plus at these courses the level of difficulty is overwhelming. Nobody wants to play something that is so long, and so unforgiving it makes them not want to come back. I think golf needs to invest more of its time, energy, and money into making player friendly courses more avaliable at a decent cost while upgrading the quality of these courses. I have a course in town that is a par 63, so its not the longest course obviously but it is a lot of fun to go out and play with your buddies because the cost is only $10 to play which allows you to buy a cart and beer and not feel like you are just throwing away your money. I think though, that the course could draw in 2x more people if they used the money they make and put it back into the course becuase the grass isn’t the best, and the hazards don’t look good. To the starter and average player this course is a catch 22 but it is overlooked by more advanced players because it is looked down apon as being the shitty course. This wouldnt be a problem to make this course more loveable because I know for a fact that they make thousands of dollars a day. (Sorry for all the grammer errors, and run on sentences)
Thanks Joe..awesome comment. Totally agree.
One of the reasons to go golfing is to “escape” for 4 or 5 hours, and share the experience with others who have a passion for playing. Part of the “escape” is the routine of being in the moment when making shots, enjoying good outcomes and learning to handle one’s emotions. when things go awry.
The above reasons play poorly into a world currently dominated by social media. Those with their noses stuck in smartphones, constantly connected to the “real world’, do not seem to value “escape”, and they are not desirable playing partners for those who do.