How Golf Courses Make Money

It is unknown when the game of golf originated, but it is believed that people began playing in Europe during the middle ages. In the United States, golf was a sport primarily played by the wealthy individuals until tournaments began being televised. Since then, golf has grown to be a very lucrative industry with over 27 million golfers nationwide by the end of the 1990’s. “Competition in the Golf Equipment Industry,” a case study written by John E. Gamble of the University of South Alabama, is an overview of the problems currently facing major companies in the golf equipment industry: technological limitations (due to golf’s governing organizations), a decline in the number of golfers,

Regardless of what other pro athletes view on the game are, golf is a very competitive and highly paid sport. Tournaments are held at different times of the year in different parts of the world by hundreds of pro golfers. These tournaments can have prize money of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Their target market is an average golfer, but they should also target good and experienced players, who are the

This new game that people were beginning to play in Scotland, seemed to take a hold of the people. At the time, the sport was open to all people- no fees to pay, no starting times- just a short game of golf that would always be followed by a trip to the local mead hall. Most golf played was on bets and times have not changed on that fact. Men would go and bet that they could beat the man next to them on the links, which at the time were only sandy, hilly pastures. It was because this game was at such a simple stage in its history; it required skill and finesse that almost all people could do. So, to meet the demand of the people, many courses were built along high bluffs on the eastern coastline in Scotland. It is here that nature developed dunes, ridges, gullies and hollows that would challenge the best of golfers.

The overall commercial market is much smaller than the consumer market. Golf courses account for $950 million, and commercial housing $118 million for a total of $1.068 billion. Golf courses will have to be sold on the idea that a new product from a new company will be able to save the course money in irrigation and fertilizing fees, and that it performs as advertised. It can be costly to persuade golf course keepers to switch from conventional

The partners must do additional analysis prior to determining if they should invest in a new miniature golf venture in Golden City. Before establishing marketing objectives, advertising and promotional programs, plans for addressing demand fluctuations and considering alternate locations, they must determine if they can generate sufficient sales to fund operations. They have done market research which provides a good baseline for establishing the demand, course capacity and anticipated costs. Once they have analysed this data and established that the business is financially viable, they can address advertising, demand and location questions by developing a marketing strategy.

The Country Club would have a unique staff to ensure that these amenities have a professionally treated and cared for golf course. The person that is in charge of this area is called a Golf Course Superintendent. The Golf Course Superintendent is responsible for “turf grass/plant material maintenance programs, property/asset management, personnel management, budget/forecasting, financial management, member relations, scheduling/maintenance or irrigation systems, pesticide applications, related recordings, and compliance of regulatory issues. “ (Rutgers, 2016) Additionally, there are trainers that the Country Club may hire called Golf Pro or Tennis Pro. These positions are intended to assist them in developing the member’s skill set and technique so they become more proficient at practicing and playing the game. Tennis Pros can make a salary as low as $24,000 and up to more than $74,000, according to salarylist.com. (Salarylist.com, 2016) Golf Pros can make up to $76,000 a year for their salary. (Payscale.com,

Our town is notable for having several interesting golf courses. For those residents whose interests lie in other pursuits, those courses are a waste of large quantities of otherwise useful space that could be better used to construct another mall or store. For the golf enthusiasts among us, however, the preponderance of courses is a delightful benefit of living in this otherwise uninteresting locale, where the only saving grace is the plentiful supply of interesting people.

New golfers increased from 1.5 million to 3 million between 1988 and 1998, but most of them quit due to increased cost of playing which went up by nearly 50%, unavailability of courses and time involved in playing. The global premium equipment market declined post 1998 due to various reasons like decreased demand, Asian economic turmoil and saturation of product in the market place. To CGC’s benefit the competition on golf equipment

Behind any great company usually sits a great leader and entrepreneur. For Callaway Golf, this was no exception. Ely Callaway was known for his business philosophy: “Demonstrably Superior, Pleasingly Different”- he believed that “in business, in leisure and in life, you need to differentiate yourself, stand out, be exceptional, fill a niche, over deliver and always, always stand for your principles and deliver what you promise (Callaway Golf Company).” Throughout his career, Ely Callaway found business success- as president of Burlington Industries, and successful creation of both Callaway Vineyard and Winery and then Callaway Golf Company- utilizing focused differentiation strategy and blue ocean strategy successfully (Gamble, 2000).

With the product differentiation being one key to Callaway’s success, the next focused on the consumer knowledge of the piece of equipment. New technology is good for the golfing community, but if no golfer is aware of the product or how to use it to its fullest potential, the customer will quickly become dissatisfied. The CGC used television, golf magazines, trade publications, and word of mouth as its primary forms of advertising. The company also endorsed professional golfers on all five major tours (PGA, LPGA, Senior PGA, European PGA, and NIKE) as a vehicle to promote its products. CGC used these professional endorsements more as a validation of the effectiveness of the product in its marketing campaign.

Unfortunately, the golf industry is out of balance with the number of courses (supply) outweighing the number of golfers looking to play a round of golf (demand). Course owners struggle to attract rounds. In order to stay competitive in today’s market, you need to have differentiators that set you apart from your competitors. This module enhances the golfer’s experience at those courses that have it and they have a decided advantage over the competition with all other things being equal. If you are looking to attract more rounds, use the Golfer Experience Module to make the round more enjoyable resulting in more rounds and revenue.

One of the weaknesses of the golf course in my opinion are the trees. It quickly became evident that too many trees have been planted across the golf course. As already mentioned in this report, the trees are impacting growing conditions, encroaching into shot corridors, and obscuring vistas. Unfortunately, many of the trees are also poor species for use on a golf course. A longer range tree management program should be initiated to evaluate the existing trees and provide a pathway to selectively removing those that are of poor quality or that have unwanted impacts and improving the quality of the beneficial trees.

The mindset of building golf courses has changed due to the fact of the rapidly evolving education system. If one wants to become a golf course architect before the 1970’s he/she didn’t have receive any college course work to be an architect. Many older golf course architects are former PGA professionals, retired professional’s golfers, or greenkeepers. Between the 1970’s and 2000, most golf course architects went to school for four years to get their bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture. Also most retired PGA golfers have started to create their own masterpieces.

CO 5124 Data Analysis & Decision Modeling Tutorial : B By Madhumita Srinivasan (12772343) Submitted to Dr.Eddie Chng