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Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
The renovation of renovations
« on: August 02, 2014, 02:34:13 PM »
I often think the entire golf business is set up for suckers more than any other business on the planet.  Where else could one find astute business men who would line up to buy an IPO on a golf club company as they did Callaway years ago?  Where else can one purchase a new driver with promise of more forgiveness and length every 6 months?  And where else would a group of people spend 5-10 million on a golf cpurse just for the hell of it?    The common factor all of the above have is that the people purchasing the services rarely know what they don't know.  It is brought on by an industry that is bent on destroying the goose that laid the golden egg.  Back to the above coments: Good players know that new clubs will not beat them and allow them to improve so much they can dominate other good players.  Good old courses know it does not take 10 million to renovate them. 
So why does this exorbitant renovation phenom continue to happen?  IMHO it begins with membership ego and following the lead of other clubs with which they identify.  They also equate dollars spent to quality.  .   Secondly, is the state of the industry.  The industry has one hell of a sales pitch whether it be the architect, irrigation company, clubhouse archies or the superintendent.   Once the new growth slowed the marketing and sales efforts had to go toward the larger private clubs who had dollars available. 
However, IMHO, there is not a well routed , good, older course that can spend such high sums on a good renovation.   In most cases why would anyone actually need to place a machine much larger than a rubber track excavator on a renovation project.  It usually always boils down to tree encroachment, grass encroachment, bunker drainage and adjustment, (where bunkers have grown in and lost sand lines etc.) , tee leveling and tweaking and possibly lengthening.  The original greens in most cases were screwed up once the triplex came into use and they just need to be brought back out the the original edges. 
None of us have any say over what a club does with their property but most of the guys making such decisions for these clubs today know one thing for sure.  Their fathers would not have done so.  It would have been spoon fed from in house.  I continue to be amazed at what smart people fall for in this business.....
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

jeffwarne

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2014, 02:44:51 PM »
When I worked at Doral, every renovation on the hotel or golf course always was referred to as

"a xxx million $ renovation"
5 years later it was always done again, never better, often worse, just different..

Even easier when spending OPM or at least only paying 1/500th of the cost
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

Bob_Huntley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2014, 02:54:42 PM »
Mike,

Half the time it is because the brass at the clubs, feel that they need to be rated in the top one hundred of whichever magazine suits their fancy.

Bob

Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2014, 03:13:04 PM »
Mike, how many times can you keep saying the same thing?



I don't know Kelly....I guess as long as it keeps popping up here and there...I just get aggravated when I listen to members etc sit around and spout a bunch of BS about how much better we are with new cart paths etc.... :)
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2014, 03:25:58 PM »
Fair enough. I do check in on these posts but it is annoying to read through some and feel like you have posted the same thing a million times; just curious why.
Yep...you're probably right and I didn't notice....I just get aggravated everytime it pops up....I need to quit reading this stuff... :)
« Last Edit: August 02, 2014, 03:27:35 PM by Mike_Young »
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

Bill_McBride

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2014, 03:43:00 PM »
Mike, how many times can you keep saying the same thing?



I don't know Kelly....I guess as long as it keeps popping up here and there...I just get aggravated when I listen to members etc sit around and spout a bunch of BS about how much better we are with new cart paths etc.... :)

Mike, do you ever play that third nine?

Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2014, 03:48:43 PM »
Mike, how many times can you keep saying the same thing?



I don't know Kelly....I guess as long as it keeps popping up here and there...I just get aggravated when I listen to members etc sit around and spout a bunch of BS about how much better we are with new cart paths etc.... :)

Mike, do you ever play that third nine?
i walk my dog on it...membership is down and not many play it at all...but I didn't post this thread about that course...I ws reading the MPCC thread...
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

jeffwarne

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2014, 03:57:00 PM »
Mike, how many times can you keep saying the same thing?



I don't know Kelly....I guess as long as it keeps popping up here and there...I just get aggravated when I listen to members etc sit around and spout a bunch of BS about how much better we are with new cart paths etc.... :)



Mike, do you ever play that third nine?
i walk my dog on it...membership is down and not many play it at all...but I didn't post this thread about that course...I ws reading the MPCC thread...

The first course I ever worked on/at.
(I was the grunt digging drainage and raking the sand into the new bunkers on top of the liners)

Carry on Mike.
A message that needs to be heard and repeated (because there are never any repeat threads here ::) ::))
« Last Edit: August 02, 2014, 06:02:58 PM by jeffwarne »
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

Paul Gray

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2014, 05:55:13 PM »
Mike,

Continue to vent your spleen. You are right to be annoyed but the, as well as doing it here, doing it in the general direction of those that you seek to influence. So much ignorance, so few educators.
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

Nigel Islam

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2014, 08:53:28 PM »
Mike,  you can take that same post, change a few words and it describes our health care industry in the US. Perhaps it's just the American way ???

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +2/-1
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2014, 10:08:39 PM »
Mike,  you can take that same post, change a few words and it describes our health care industry in the US. Perhaps it's just the American way ???

Or, our education system.

Perhaps P.T. Barnum was onto something.

Mike Bowen

Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2014, 12:29:15 AM »
Sometimes I get the feeling that the people who oppose threads like this throw the biggest 4th of July parties.

Paul Gray

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: The renovation of renovations
« Reply #12 on: August 03, 2014, 08:41:09 AM »
I think it's high time a number of you took up permanent residence on this side of the pond.  :)
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

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