How important is the golf course?

[Mark_Fine]

I wrote this article for a local golf magazine years ago.  I think it is still relevant to today (despite Covid).  Maybe some others here can offer additional ideas that can help "ordinary" golf courses 


How important is "the golf course"?
Most golfers don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to golf course design.  Ask the average golfer why he or she likes a certain golf course and they’ll tell you a whole host of different reasons.  What’s surprising is that most of those reasons don’t pertain to the “golf course” itself!  So how important is it?
Surveys find that golfers tend to gravitate to their favorite golf courses for reasons such as the cost to play, the location, the burgers at the half way house, or the fancy GPS system on the electric golf carts.  Some systems tell you everything from what club to hit to how your favorite sports team is doing at half time!  And let’s not forget, the wide selection of snacks and drinks offered by the roaming beverage cart, the discounted golf balls in the pro shop, and the half price beers after the round.  Every golf course is working on ways to attract more business to fill their tee sheets.

But in addition to these reasons, more and more courses across the country are finding out that golfers also appreciate the golf course itself, especially a well-designed one.  Even some lower priced “affordable” golf courses are learning that cheap golf doesn’t necessarily have to mean dull and boring golf.  They are finding if they enhance the quality of their design, it’s helping increase their number of rounds.  They are beginning to recognize that the golfers they thought only played for the fresh air and exercise, also enjoy interesting and thought provoking golf holes.  In this competitive market place, any advantage you can get is worth considering. 

So what’s a course charging $25 a round on weekends supposed to do to enhance the quality of their “golf course”?  Their course improvement budget is probably minimal at best and their Superintendent usually is doing all he or she can just to keep their equipment running and the grass alive and cut on a regular basis. Well, despite these challenges, there are many things a lower budget course can do to offer more interesting golf holes to their customers.  Here are just a few examples:

- Take down some trees – Most every course has tree problems.  Trees can be removed to improve aesthetics, open up lines of play and create added strategy to otherwise one-dimensional golf holes.  Every Superintendent knows where there are problem trees and most could find at least some time to take down one or two a week.  Eventually, the benefits will show themselves through improved turf conditions and added strategy and enjoyment for their golfers.

- Edge those bunkers – Cleaning up bunker edges can greatly enhance aesthetics and improve playability.  Yes, it takes some time but edging a few holes a week can pay great dividends to the look and playability of a golf course.

- Adjust the mowing lines – Many courses could increase interest in their golf course by simply adjusting their mowing patterns.  Clearly, the course irrigation system will have an impact on fairway lines and widths, but this is an area worth investigating.  It’s amazing what some simple mowing pattern adjustments can do to spice up a golf hole.

- Evaluate the green surrounds – Quite often, adjusting the height of rough around greens, adding chipping areas, and expanding approaches can add all kinds of strategic options to a golf hole.

There are a whole host of relatively inexpensive things that can be done to improve the interest and strategic aspects of even the most basic design.  It’s well worth the time to study some of these and other options and maybe the next time someone asks one of your golfers why they prefer your course over some of the others, they’ll say it’s because, “the golf course is fun and interesting to play”.

[Lou_Duran]

Mark,


Some 15+ years ago Ron Whitten wrote an article for Golf Digest analogizing golf to the pizza business.  As I recall, his main point was that most golfers didn't differentiate that much beyond price, i.e courses had become commoditized like pizza.  A much inferior course nearby charging $5 less would take a lot of business away from its superior neighbor.


He was using Tierra Verde GC in Arlington, TX, a very expensive to build CCFAD municipal, to make his point.  I argued with him that golfers were interested in various aspects of design and maintenance, greens in particular.  He remained unmoved and I think over the years, I have gravitated to his point of view.  Incidentally, I am told that Tierra Verde has yet to achieve the proforma rounds and average green fee used to justify its development some 25 years later (opened in 1998).


I recently wrote to Golf Digest for a link to the article and was told that the magazine does not have online access to the archives back to that time.  Ron is probably on his retirement tour as he didn't respond to my email last month asking him for a copy.  If anyone has it, please post it.


All your recommendations are valid, though unless there is a shortage of golf courses, I don't know that much is possible at the low end where price is going to be the issue.  I'd say work on the greens, tees, and fairways; minimize sand bunkers and rough; concentrate on nurturing a reasonable pace of play; provide clean infrastructure, and simple, inexpensive food service (dogs, burgers, chips, candy bars, beer and soft drinks).

[Tom_Doak]

I'd say work on the greens, tees, and fairways; minimize sand bunkers and rough;

By far the most important part of building a golf course is building a good set of greens, because once the course opens, you can't really afford to take it out of play to fix them.  It's the cheapest thing to get right the first time, and the most expensive thing to fix.

[Mark_Fine]

Lou,
You make good points as did Ron in that article.  For some courses the low cost of a green fee will be their main differential advantage.  However, I still believe enhancing the golf course in a very cost effective way (as with some of the examples we both cited) can only help the cause especially these days when more courses are still closing than opening.  I have worked for example with a half dozen or more daily fee courses within a 20 mile radius and I like to think the changes we made have only helped keep golfers coming.  It will be interesting to see what happens for example at Bethlehem GC which is a city course where we just completed a more extensive renovation.  The course was not doing great before and many golfers were going elsewhere to play.  This year it had record rounds but then again most courses did because of Covid.  But I am told by the GM that all the comments were encouraging with many golfers stating that they would now be returning back to Bethlehem given the improvements.  We heard the same at Allentown GC where some improvements have started (tree work and mowing lines) but these improvements alone are substantial and golfers are taking notice.  We dramatically upgraded the daily fee course Copake CC to the point where it has become a course golfers will drive all the way from New York City to play.  That was not happening before so focusing on the golf course to make it more fun and interesting can work. 


Tom,
Very valid point about the greens.  A poor set of greens is expensive to fix.  At the same time, a good set of greens can make a huge difference especially if they are kept in good condition.  One of the biggest issues I see with many courses is that their greens have shrunk (sometimes it is on purpose to keep maintenance costs down, others it is just because of less than careful mowing practices).  Not only are many of the best hole locations lost (on well designed green sites, some of the best ones are closer to the edges) but more wear and tear is put on the smaller green surface that remains.  Expanding greens that have shrunk can be handled numerous ways and it not that expensive or difficult a process.  The maintenance tradeoff can be worth it. 

[Thomas Dai]

Drainage ...... slow run-off is a pain and walking/playing in muddy conditions ain't nice and keeps some folks away altogether.
As to other aspects, I heard a nice line on a recent podcast along the lines of "80% of inland courses could be significantly improved with just tree work and revised mowing lines".
atb

[Jeff_Brauer]

Drainage ...... slow run-off is a pain and walking/playing in muddy conditions ain't nice and keeps some folks away altogether.
As to other aspects, I heard a nice line on a recent podcast along the lines of "80% of inland courses could be significantly improved with just tree work and revised mowing lines".
atb

I heard yesterday that our local $2.7 Million renovations of a muni, focusing mostly on drainage, some irrigation, and tree clearing to widen corridors, has seen dramatically increased play.   Yes, perhaps COVID related, but for the months after reopening that weren't affected, play increased significantly.  A few years back, we did a similar (although more new greens) budgeted project on a $29 green fee muni (face it, Mark, $29 doesn't sound that different than $25, so why not get the extra $4 per round?) which also increased play over 30%, at least until it flooded again.


Those types of stats aren't that unusual.  In 2015 the NGF did a study of major and minor renovations in DFW (I contributed some of the data).  Of two dozen, only one lost money after renovations.  Of those that were targeted renovations, fixing the worst problems for the lowest cost, the revenue increases were lower, but ROI higher.  Of the total makeovers, the revenue increase was greater, due to "rebranding" but the ROI was less.  Which, goes to prove Mark's main point in the article - In general, spending less is better than spending more, as long as you fix problems perceived by golfers, which in the age of Yelp, aren't hard to determine, LOL.

[Mark_Fine]

Thomas,
You are very much correct; by just doing tree work and adjusting mowing lines you can sometimes make tremendous improvements.  Tree work, however, is probably the most challenging and controversial change especially at private courses as many members hold a strong affection for trees and hate to see something that is alive and healthy cut down. It takes much more time and education to get them to understand why certain ones (or maybe a lot) just don't make any sense on their golf course.  At daily fee or city owned courses, however, there are usually less "decision makers" to educate and trees are easier to address.  As far as mowing lines, most don't object nearly as strongly especially on the daily fee and city owned designs.  As Forrest Richardson once told me a very long time ago, "it's just grass and if you don't like it one way or the other you and just change the cut". 


Jeff,
Good examples.  I know half priced beers and new golf carts are sometimes hard to beat but I haven't given up on helping clubs with limited budgets find ways to also improve the golf course itself. 

[David Wuthrich]

To me, and I know I might be in the 1%, but it IS ALL ABOUT THE GOLF COURSE!


I don't really care about all the fluff.  I will drive way too far to see a great course, but not a good deal($$$) to play.