Is your course "Beginner Friendly"?

One way for you to increase play at your course is to apply for beginner-friendly certification. Sponsored by NGCOA through the "Get Linked" member program, the certification comes with a free marketing toolkit to help you reach the newest generation of golfers in your community. Your course will also be listed in a searchable, national database aimed at beginner outreach.

Here's the application from NGCOA's website. Takes about four minutes and twenty-nine seconds to fill out.

Whether the Weather be Cold

Aside from elaborate and historically-dubious efforts at climate engineering, the weather remains out of our control.

How the weather is reported, on the other hand, makes a big difference to the golf community. Five-day forecasts given on Monday can affect the number of players you see at the course later in the week. For example, the difference between "a 30% chance of rain" and "a 70% chance that it won't rain" is a matter of perception and delivery.

So what can you do about that? Make contact with your local weather newscasters. Explain the strong correlation between weather reporting and the supply-and-demand business effect at your golf course.

It's an easy way to turn a small public-relations investment into a bigger return on golf play. Who knows? Your local news director may decide to feature a weekend-special golf forecast. If similar petitioning efforts can improve The Weather Channel's "Golf Index", they can probably improve your local weather reporting, too.

Golf Pro Shop sales from February 2006 to February 2007

Here are the latest year-over-year, on-course, national sales figures. We think it's fair to say prices are up, volume is down. These are all % changes:

Part of this trend probably comes from a net loss in total courses: 146 courses closed nationwide in 2006, while 119.5 opened. (Half a course is a nine-hole.) Read the full article in the First Off, News, Views, Trends & Analysis section of Golf Business magazine's May, 2007, issue.

Consider counteracting these falling trends by beefing up your merchandise bundling. Cypress marketing tools can help your course in that regard. If your numbers are down, as they are across the nation, get more info on our Cypress marketing strategies.

Environmental Principles

In conjunction with the Golf Industry Show in Anaheim, the Golf & the Environment Coalition (G&E) prepared a report on the ten-year progress assessment (1996-2006) of environmental stewardship on the nation's golf courses. Here's a linked transcript from the conference, dated April 2007.

Jon Last has posted an interesting presentation about golfer attitudes concerning the environment from the conference.
Highlights:

• 93% of golfers say golf is an environmentally friendly sport.
• "Awareness" of golf facility efforts to mitigate environmental issues is at an all-time high, however, with 36% of golfers claiming they "are aware."
• 48% would pay a higher green fee to minimize pesticide use.

Generally, environmental concern among golfers seems to have fallen slightly in the past five years, and (of course) are divided among regional tastes:
• Golfers in the South are more likely to believe government regulation isn’t necessary.
• Golfers in the Midwest are more likely to specifically look for products made of recycled materials.
• Golfers in the West are more likely to contribute to environmental organizations and to believe golf is an environmentally friendly sport.
• Golfers in the East are more likely to believe that future courses should be restricted to unclaimed land.

Biggest golf-course management enviro efforts?
• Regulated/recycled water usage
• Restricting environmental areas for plants/wildlife
• Reducing use of pesticides

Take Your Daughter to the Course Week: July 9, 2007

A similar women-in-golf growth initiative:

If your course is willing to let junior girls play for free, then the week of July 9 through the 15 could win you some serious brownie points. "Take Your Daughter to the Course Week" is a player-development initiative coordinated by the National Golf Course Owners Association and sponsored by the LPGA.

Participating courses agree to offer free greens fees and instructional clinics to junior girls who are accompanied by a paying adult. This is a great, longt-term initiative. (After all, you always remember your first round.)

Register as a participating course by June 1, 2007, for free promotional material.

Women's Golf Week: June 2, 2007

The May issue of Golf Business magazine has a short op-ed by CEO Mike Hughes about women golfers, the "here-and-now" of the sport. Women currently represent only 25% of the golfing population. The American Express promotion for "Women's Golf Week" has grown substantially:

10,000 women participated in 2005,
24,500 women in 2006, and
50,000 women are projected to participate in 2007.

Hosting an event at your course is a good growth opportunity!
Read the full article and find out how.

To market a Women's Golf Week event at your course, you would need to send information to the women who currently golf your course. Do you know who they are? Cypress software helps you find out. Read what customers say about Cypress relationship marketing.

First Tee

The First Tee National School Program introduces children to the basics of golf skills, etiquette, values and play as part of elementary school physical-education programs. The First Tee National School Program began in 2003 at 130 elementary schools in eight communities; now, it reaches more than 500,000 students at 1,600 schools in 70 districts across the U.S.

Pebble Beach will host the 4th Annual Wal-Mart First Tee Open. 40 Champions Tour players (Scott Simpson, Craig Stadler, Chip Beck, Peter Jacobsen and Jim Thorpe, to name a few) team with amateur contestants from around the country for this outreach tourney, August 27—September 2, 2007.

Here are the Nine Core Values First Tee uses to introduce newbies to the game.