Pricing Structures for Rounds of Golf

[Justin_Zook]

Good evening Gentlemen and Gentlewomen,

Saw another thread up there about the city of San Francisco charging parking fees for golf and how that might effect speed of play.  That got me thinking about the idea of totally eliminating a flat green fee and just charging an hourly rate of say $10 or $15 per hour, or whatever per hour market value a round of golf is given the course.  Then I thought about the potential of making it a sliding scale that would encourage faster play and discourage slower play.  This isn't my gospel by any means, but it is a thought worth discussing.

What if we assume that in today's public society it should take about 4 hours to play around of golf.  Most public courses cost about $30-40/round.  What if we created a new price structure that would not so much charge a flat green fee, but would be a metered sliding scale of charge based upon time spent playing a round of golf?

What if we charged $10/hr to play a round of golf with a $20 minimum charge?  Rounds played under 3 hours would be charged a rate of $8/hr.  Rounds played under 4 hours would be charged a rate of $9/hr and rounds played in excess of 4.5 hours would be charged a rate of $11/hr.

There are problems with this scenario as bad golfer not only effect themselves but the players behind them, etc.  What are the issues with this pricing structure?  Besides the potential customer service issues, what are the flaws?  How could they be remedied?  What are the benefits?  Would a golf course considering changing it's architecture to encourage faster play if it meant increasing the bottom line?

[Bill_McBride]

Justin, when you say a round on a public course "should take 4 hours," that is unfortunately wishful thinking,  At Rustic Canyon during Kings Putter, a bunch of allegedly savvy GCAers took 5 - 5.5 hours to play 18.  I suspect this was due to earlier players and 8 minute intervals (it couldn't have been the fault of our guys!  ). 

So I'm not sure financial incentives are going to do the trick.  I think it needs 10 minute intervals and a lot of careful observation of what's going on our there.

Maybe some future cash incentives, but the problem many times is you are a victim of the slow play ahead of you and there's simply no where to go.

[C. Squier]

That would be a great way to incite a brawl on the course.  No way that golfers who are ready/willing/able to play in 4 hours be happy to be penalized just because they're stuck behind a slow group.  The only way is to remove slow groups.....good luck w/ that.

[Mike Sweeney]

Richard Thaler at the University of Chicago is one of the leaders in Behavioral Economics:

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/thaler.html

In the early 90's he worked with Greek Peek Ski Area to implement a variety of pricing models. I have no idea where it stands today, but Greek Peek does have a bunch of variables today such as "1 hour tickets" and "Chair 3 only".

http://www.greekpeak.net/rates/lift-tickets.aspx

In a nutshell, it is probably very difficult to implement on a broad scale. What happens when your first group decides they will take the 5 hour pricing because they are having a great match?

What  works at Pebble Beach (destination round/resort) will not work at Disney World (squeeze a round in before you hit the parks with the kids) and vice versa, but it is an interesting concept. You would need to get a bunch of data from your core group before you try to implement it, because you don't want a mutiny of your core golfers.

There are a bunch of internet systems out there that have follow airplane pricing models where courses sell "cheap seats" reservations rather than hope for full price walk-ups:

http://www.teetimeking.com/

[Jim_Kennedy]

Justin,
Pace of play remedies have been bandied about on numerous threads before this one, and none of them have offered anything that works (in the practical world) better than what this man has put forth:
http://golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/interviewyates
Management must be proactive and be willing to adopt a POP plan that is tailored to their needs, there is no one-size-fits-all.

The type of site that Mike references can draw some play away from the busiest hours by making it more economical to tee it up at
off-peak times.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

www.golfnow.com is now advertising on Golf Channel.  I've used them with success in AZ in peak season.

[Adam Clayman]

Justin,
Pace of play remedies have been bandied about on numerous threads before this one, and none of them have offered anything that works (in the practical world) better than what this man has put forth:
http://golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/interviewyates
Management must be proactive and be willing to adopt a POP plan that is tailored to their needs, there is no one-size-fits-all.

The type of site that Mike references can draw some play away from the busiest hours by making it more economical to tee it up at
off-peak times.

Jim,

This is just not true.

If I'm not mistaken Fast play Wednesdays are still being played at Pajaro. Aren't they Pete?

Then there's the old Flag system.

Who here has ever teed off at Pebble Beach after 9 am and played in under 4 hours? Bandon? Cog Hill?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Adam,
If you read what I said you'd see the part about a club needing to find a POP plan that suits them. 

I've never seen an idea on here that is 'better' than anything found in that article, and a fast play Wednesday follows the principles set out in the article:   
 
   1. Management Practices and Policies
   2. Player Behaviour
   3. Player Ability
   4. Course Maintenance and Set-up
   5. Course Design

[John Moore II]

No, charging hourly won't work. Some people simply won't play faster. Some people would play slower if only to spite the people behind them (might sound harsh, but someone comes out pissed off from a bad day or week at work and might just feel like making everyone's life suck, at least for a few hours).

I've said it before, there are two kinds of golfers, in general. Those who play as fast as they can and those who play as fast as they want. If a group of golfers playing as fast as they can (assuming this is in the 3 hour range) gets behind a group who is playing as fast as they want (assuming 4 or 4:15 in this case) then the group in back will be miserable, even moreso if there are 4 or 5 groups in front and they can't play through.

Club management in general just needs a better grasp on how pace of play must work. You can't go off the pace rating for the first group of the day, if you do, every subsequent group will play slower than pace and by the end of the day you're looking at a 5+ hour pace. I faught daily to get our pace of play on a better target at my last club, no one listened to me. But charging an hourly rate won't work. Like someone else said, if a group is capable of playing in 3.5 hours and come in in 5.5 because the group in front of them is terribly slow, they will blow a gasket back in the clubhouse when I (or the pro) tell them they have to pay more money because they played slower. Not a very good idea.