Reddish Vale joins Golf Now £8 Green Fees

[Duncan Cheslett]

Reddish Vale now has a website that looks like a top course IMO.

I don't think the website has changed in the last year, and having just had a good look at it for the first time in a while, I think it looks very tired.

I will be pushing for a full re-vamp in the new year. We have a spectacular golf course which deserves to be shown off to much better effect.

[Paul Gray]

Duncan,

It does not look great. Looking at the hole by hole tour I have gained no greater insight into whether I'd like to play the course or not. Fortunately I've seen a number of pictures with excellent descriptions on this very site. I'm guessing no one here would be too precious about copyright. Why not suggest the GCA offerings to the club? You could do a lot worse than have Mark Rowlinson or Sean or Ran explaining why a hole works so well.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Politics, Paul.

The website is the work of the Pro, and is a great improvement over the previous one. He's an excellent guy but he guards his role jealously.

I'm just an ordinary member with some influence but no power and a reputation for sticking my nose into areas where it is not always best appreciated.

Come the revolution...

 

[Paul Gray]

You may have just described me perfectly at Hayling! To be fair to them, they haven't rejected my latest input out of hand so there remains at least some hope. Knowledge is not often appreciated of course and I therefore now just think of my role as self appointed watching eye! They at least now know someone is watching with the fundamental principles of good design in mind. Everyone else just wants to talk about the usual vacuous crap.

Come the revolution indeed!

[Duncan Cheslett]

Tonight I was elected Chairman of the Wednesday Section; generally acknowledged to be the first handhold on the greasy pole.

The revolution may just be one step closer...

 

[Paul Gray]

Comrade Duncan,

On the day that I discovered that my last lengthy letter to the committee didn't even get minuted (maybe they ran out of paper and there were more important things to comment on such as whether the fishing club would need to pay for tea and coffee when hiring a room and whether a bench should be moved back to its old position), this is tremendous news! You'll have to let me know what your secret is.  

PS: I've asked for an explanation.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Our new website has just gone live. I'd be interested in your views.

http://www.rvgc.co.uk/

Needless to say, Reddish Vale no longer participates in the Golf Now scheme, or any of the other discounted green fee sites. As a result, our total green fee income was up over 20% last year!

[Brent Hutto]

Looks very inviting, Duncan. Nice straightforward to navigate web site with plenty of details available.

[Jim Nugent]

Duncan, a few quick thoughts on your website:

Featuring Mackenzie on your Home Page is good.  But many (most?) golfers may not know who he is.  So I suggest you identify him right up front as the world's top golf course architect, who designed Augusta National (home of the Masters), plus two other courses usually ranked among the world's top ten.  I would do this in a subhead below "An Alister Mackenzie Masterpiece".  You have the equivalent of a symphony written by Beethoven: make sure the readers know that.   

I would not brag about green fees going up 21%.  Instead I would talk about what an incredible bargain Reddish Vale is. 

The pictures that scroll across the Home Page are mostly pretty good.  I thought Ran's were better.  If you can't use Ran's (perhaps in addition to the ones already there) maybe you can take some similar ones your pro approves of? 

The pictures in the gallery are terrible.  They show everything except what interests golfers: intriguing shots of the course. 

I see you have a link to Ran's great review.  But that link is both buried and hidden.  I suggest you put the link on the Home Page, highlight it, and tag it with copy that says something along the lines of "As featured in the world's leading golf architecture website"

I would put testimonials on the Home Page, or at least a link to them from there.  They should come from golfers and golfing authorities, telling how great the course is... how much they love to play it... and the fantastic value. 

[Ryan Coles]

Duncan

Congratulations on the site. It looks like a lot of work has gone into it and I think the copy is very good.

If I was being picky I'd say the photography doesn't do the course justice and I always think it should be the other way round. To give you an example from another Mackenzie course, http://www.westonsupermaregolfclub.com/the_course no way is Weston as good as it looks online.

[Adam Lawrence]

Duncan, a few quick thoughts on your website:

Featuring Mackenzie on your Home Page is good.  But many (most?) golfers may not know who he is.  So I suggest you identify him right up front as the world's top golf course architect, who designed Augusta National (home of the Masters), plus two other courses usually ranked among the world's top ten.  I would do this in a subhead below "An Alister Mackenzie Masterpiece".  You have the equivalent of a symphony written by Beethoven: make sure the readers know that.   

I would not brag about green fees going up 21%.  Instead I would talk about what an incredible bargain Reddish Vale is. 

I think they mean green fee revenue, rather than the actual price. But I take your point.

[Jim Nugent]

Adam, you are right.  Careless reading on my part.  But I doubt I'm the only one who makes that mistake.  And even so, that's not the spot to put that info. 

Just looked again at Ran's profile.  Here's an example of a great quote, that I think they should put on the Home Page:

"Reddish Vale is an unheralded design gem, especially for a course built by Alister MacKenzie and that features some of the most memorable holes in the game."

[Jud_T]

One thing I can never figure out- why don't more clubs have a tasteful merch section online?  I've wanted to replace a well worn sweater or get a new shirt on occasion from a club I've visited in the past only to find that I have to call the shop and go blind.  It may seem like crass commercialism but these days when everyone wants the convenience of pointing and clicking, it only makes good business sense.  Even a place like Reddish Vale might stand to make a few extra quid from guys like Duncan implulse buying shirts and hats for random GCAers...

[Niall C]

Interesting thread, a few comments;

MacKenzie - I don't agree that your average UK punter knows nothing about MacKenzie. You might say I'm biased but I think most are at least vaguely aware. I suspect fewer know Colt but if I had a course designed by one of the greats I'd be shouting it from the rooftops. Even if they don't know the architect when they click on the website, there interest will still be piqued especially if the website then rhymes off half a dozen well known courses elsewhere that he designed. The more clubs do that the more the awareness and the greater the value of having had an ODG design your course.

Websites - I didn't see Reddish Vales original website but I would say that most website are rubbish. Often clubs seem to sign up to some generic website that looks like all the rest. Often there's no differentiation and the info is poor. I've seen sites that don't even tell you the greenfee. Absolutely rubbish. And I've also never gone to a club because of their clubhouse so why have that on the cover page of the site ?

Photo's on websites - IMHO a complete photo tour of the course can be counterproductive. Best to stick to the very best shots to give a flavour of the course and best impression, and for goodness sake get a professional to do the photography.

Greenfees - I suppose I'm one of the hawks that Ryan refers to and I'd suggest that most visitors to these sorts of courses are as well. In my experience most UK golfers playing as visitors don't pay full tariff when they visit another UK club. Given for most clubs, UK golfers will represent the majority of visitors then it stands to reason that there is an awful lot of "cut price" golf being played. It seems to me the best way for clubs to get out of the cycle of the race to the bottom would be to concentrate on giving their members better value. By that I mean cutting right down on visitors and corporate memberships to give the members more opportunity to play their course. It might help to attract new members or at least retain existing members. Making the club more exclusive might also encourage visitors to pay full whack. I've got to think 1,000 visitors at full price is better than 1,500-2,000 at half price.

Just a thought.

Niall