Keep Your Insurance Risk Under Check

About this time every year, as golf courses gear up for hurricane season, golf course owners and managers get their annual warning about checking their insurance policies and discussing coverage needs with agents. The warnings have been heightened since the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 disasterous multi-billion dollar hit on Southern golf courses.

If it has been a few years since you reviewed your coverage, many of your assets could be undervalued, leaving a possibility of unbelievable out-of-pocket replacement and recovery costs. However, it is not too late to review your policy.

Clubsurance, a division of The Commonwealth Insurance Group in Charleston, South Carolina, developed an effective risk plan including the following four steps to help owners plan and keep their risk in check:

Identifying exposures and reviewing your claim history -
How many golfers are coming to your property? A course doing 40,000 rounds per year is far more exposed to claims resulting from slips and falls, for example, than one doing 15,000 annual rounds. Now take a look at historical data to see where you need to bolster your safety precautions. If two members of your wait staff suffered injuries last year while exiting the kitchen, it’s probably time to replace the non-slip floor mats.

Developing a strategy that reduces or removes liability -
You could choose to stop selling alcohol, for example, if your assessment showed a high rate of alcohol-related accidents. You can reduce the risk of fire by installing or upgrading your sprinkler system and by ensuring your fire extinguishers are in good working order. If you feel secure in your situation (read: lots of cash in the bank and feeling lucky) and your claims history shows minimal exposure, you may decide to retain your risk yourself by self-insuring. Finally, you can do what most do – transfer your risk to an insurance provider. A combination of all these strategies typically produces the best results.

Implementing programs -
Establish a safety committee that meets regularly and reviews health and safety precautions. Consider financial incentives for employees based on an extended period of safe operations. Make sure you’re in full compliance with OSHA guidelines. Develop a disaster plan, communicate it to employees and practice it.

Monitoring the overall risk management plan -
This should be continually reviewed and revised in consultation with your insurance agent as your business plan and claims history change. While a detailed and well-executed risk management plan certainly does not guarantee a claims-free golf facility or ensure lower premiums.

All these factors are important to consider when evaluting your plan. After all, this could be the calm before the storm.

Are Your Bunkers Measuring Up?

If you own or manage a golf course, you will generally have to deal with the building or rebuilding of a quality bunker. While it might seem exciting to “be on the beach” the challenges of the sand are not the only challenges associated with the infamous hazard. There is a lot to be aware of when you select the sand for your course. Otherwise, you might be hearing complaints from your golfers about how hard, how soft or how unplayable the sand is. So what does make a bunker great in quality and playability?

The majority of bunker sand comes from beaches, river beds, and igneous and sedimentary rock deposits. But experts say there are few places in the United States that have natural sand deposits that meet specifications for great bunker sand and that finding it is very difficult.

However, the U.S. Golf Association lists the following main factors to carefully consider when selecting bunker sand:

Particle Size – The playability of sand is significantly determined by its particle size. Determining the particle size distribution of a sand sample is fairly precise and is the primary means for evaluating the potential impact of the bunker sand on the agronomics of the green. As a general guideline, the majority of sand used in bunkers, about 75% or more, should fall in a medium-coarse range (0.25 mm – 1.00 mm). The remainder (0.05 mm – 0.25) should remain in the medium-fine to very fine range. Silt and clay (particles below 0.05 mm) should be kept to a minimum.

Particle Shape & Penetrometer Value – Playing quality and maintenance is under a strong influence of the shape of the sand particles. Particle shape might be the most important factor of all. The shape is classified by examining both the relative sharpness of the particle’s edges and the overall shape of the particle itself. Angular sands, rather than round sands, are preferred for bunkers. The shape will have great affect on the potential for a ball to bury. The penetrometer reading (the potential for a fried egg lies) has been the test of choice.

Crusting Potential – Crusting is the formation of a thin (typically 1/4 to 1/8) inch layer of dried, stiff sand on the surface of the bunker. Crusting is directly related to the percentage of silt and clay in the sand and can severely decrease the playing quality of the bunker.

Chemical Reaction & Hardness – This determines the makeup and stability of sand as particles can change in shape and size due to wear.

Infiltration Rate – Infiltration rate refers to the sand’s ability to drain after rain or irrigation. Bunker sand should have a minimum infiltration rate of 20 to 30 inches per hour.

Color – Bunker sands are generally chosen for their color. Although subjective, most golfers like the look of soft white sand contrasting with lush green grass. However, on a brighter day, white sand can cause significant glares. But, while color is aesthetically important, performance criteria should be a greater factor.

Playability – Also extremely subjective, the playability of a bunker will differ from player to player. Most tour professionals and low handicappers prefer firmer sand because it allows the players who have developed a clubhead speed to put a spin on the ball. Higher handicappers tend to prefer softer sand.

While unfortunately not all golfers like the same sand, a good rule of thumb for whatever type of sand you use on the course is to keep play in a consistent manner. When adding sand to an existing bunker, perform the same work on all the bunkers.

Overall, experts say the most important part of selecting sand is to have a complete bunker sand analysis performed by an accredited laboratory on all the characteristics. The laboratory will need a one-gallon sample of dry sand to perform a test, which ranges from $100 to $200 per sample.

Finally, other factors that have nothing to do with the make-up of the sand but need to be considered for playing quality include: length of time the sand has been in the bunker, depth of the sand, design, maintenance and raking.

Set Your Course Apart From The Competition: Enhance The Golfing Experience

In today’s competitive market, golfing experts would say that the way to differentiate a golf course is to differentiate the golf course experience. Although imperative, a pristine fairway is not always enough anymore to set a course apart from its competition.

That is why Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is so important. What will distinguish a golf course is proactively recognizing the golfer’s needs and interests, and having the ability to build on an existing customer relationship with effective CRM capabilities.

Cypress, for example, has been innovative in marketing solutions that have been helping golf courses increase revenue through CRM since 2001. But some relationship marketing can be done without technology. Course managers can start with some simple tactics to keep its members and players loyal, coming back, and spending more time and money on the green. The following are some best practice ideas implemented by other course owners:

• Hand written thank you notes to renewed members
• Comment cards with incentives for filling out (free bucket of balls?)
• Special rates for women on opening day of fishing season and Mother’s Day
• Cold towels on a hot day
• Basket of apples on designated holes
• Cheerful music, fresh-cookies and flowers on the pro shop counter to engage all the senses
• Kids play free offers
• Fashion violations doled out by the beverage cart girls to violating customers who could claim a free shirt from the sale rack or half off other apparel
• “Shot of the Day” coupons, redeemable for refreshments, merchandise, rounds of golf or lessons, handed out by course marshals to golfers with the best and worst shots

According to the National Golf Course Owners Association’s Director of Conference and Trade Show, research shows that the “most effective way to motivate golfers to choose one course over another in a competitive market is through an engaging, well-trained staff.”

Perhaps:

• Free five-minute lessons from the head pro as he walks the driving range and introduces himself
• General Manager staged at the first tee to greet and thank customers
• Free drinks off the beverage cart, driven by the owner

The idea is to sell more tee times, so time should be taken to enhance the value of those tee times. Wouldn’t a consumer more likely return to a golf course attached to an unforgettable golfing experience?