Adrian,
Cart golf is here to stay for many facilities. I recognize that. But to extrapolate that to all situations and hold it up as the way to go is flat out INNACURATE! Again, you base that on YOUR environment and put your arm around Gary's take. Wonderful.
My assertions on profitability are very sound regarding the caddie golf facilities listed. You caught KB on a slow day. That facility, on average, has CRUSHED the other offerings in that area revenue-wise (except for the Old) since it's inception. Remember, those other courses are on mainly PUBLIC ground. The St. Andrew's tracks have hordes of locals paying DIRT for the year to play them. Numbers playing on a course doesn't always tell the complete story. In the main, they didn't have land or heavy infrastructure costs either. Fairmont...please. That place can't touch KB. If you'll note, I'm talking MODERN facilities, not those coasting along in the slip-stream of the days when carts were non-existent.
You know little about caddie golf as you have admitted. How many caddie rounds have you embraced in your life. Note the word EMBRACED. If one has no real context on which to draw conclusions, how can what you(or anyone else) state be reflective of the ENTIRE arena?
My intent is not to argue. It is to provide another window that many miss or choose to ignore. For a variety of reasons.
Cheers,
Kris
[/quote]Kris -I am not really saying carts belong everywhere, certainly in the UK they are a small part. Equally in some parts of the world they are a big part. I play at one facility that has 3 courses and with buggies and on a good day they take $60,000, they are probably getting 300 buggie outings at $30 thats EXTREMELY profitable, WHICH is what the thread is about really. Caddies v Carts is a whole series of plusses and minusses but for different reasons, if we are talking cash and profits then Carts win. Gary eluded to a number of reasons which seem fair to me. I dont know much about Caddie programs but the problems as I see are; A caddie is quite expensive at say $50- $60 per round and the club makes nothing, so against Carts a golfer will plump often for the cheaper route, the cart. The cart yields money to the club so caddies are no financial benifit to the club. In the UK clubs with caddies are virtually over, a few cater for the American market but in the 40 years I have been playing caddies have faded. The discussion really is only about £$£$£$£ and the values of the income versus associated problems and costs. IMO Carts are hard to dismiss from the business plan. Hearsay, I was told KB has lost a lot of business to the Castle Course beca use it is significantly cheaper, I dont really know the absolute truth, but in the past year I have been there twice and its been very quiet. Fairmont has been busy, they market themselves well, they have the hotel, right location, its not all about the quality of the golf course itself, but remember we are talking about financials.