Drive Revenue To Your Course By Event Hosting

In the latest edition of GolfBusiness magazine, author Rob Carey wrote a piece entitled “Making a Bigger Pie.” Carey talks about the many approaches golf course managers can make to drive more revenue through their facility by hosting business-golf events – ones that have no need for tee times, or even daylight.

He points out that the interesting twist is when it comes to ways organizations used golf for their business purposes, it often doesn’t require that any of the players even know how to play the game.

Carey writes: Truth is, business-event planners are always looking for creative networking, teambuilding and entertainment opportunities. Here are just a few examples of how facilities around the country use the golf in a broader fashion to achieve such goals for these groups:

• Putting contests on the practice green are perfect for promoting social interaction among participants, and they require no prior playing experience. For instance, as Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the pro shop staff uses string and tees to create a six-hole track on the practice green. To spruce things up, they also customize a scorecard for the event and award prizes to winners (often non-golfers, by the way). Meanwhile, bar and buffet stations are set between the practice green and the clubhouse, and a bagpiper or jazz quartet is often hired to provide ambiance.

• At the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Golf Academy Director Brad Brewer utilizes two practice greens just outside the conference wing to conduct putting and chipping contests that serve as 30-minute meeting breaks. For facilities where the practice green isn’t near the meeting space, or if there’s rain, a large meeting room or a pre-function area can easily be transformed into a putting course. And consider bringing in mats and hitting nets so folks can have their swings analyzed, too.

• Jillmann, Director of Golf Sales for the phoenician resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, notes that one teambuilding activity that’s gotten popular is the “build a putter” competition. In this activity, teams must construct, from a mixed bag of parts and materials, a putter that can effectively strike a golf ball into the hole. Judges determine the winner based on how well a putter works, plus its aesthetic qualities. “It’s just a different way a get people to collaborate and to bond,” she adds.

• Even the practice range can be used for activities that entertain golfers and non-golfers alike. At Pines Needles Resort in Mid Pines, North Carolina, a “Carnival of Golf” reception is centered around the range. While they enjoy themed food and beverage offerings, non-golfers can participate in skill-buildings games and also as target hitting and long-drive competitions that are stages on the other half of the range.

• Some facilities have found ways to use the golf course itself for activities non-golfers can participate in comfortably. Tom Enders, director of golf marketing for Orlando-based Marriott Golf, which manages 36 Marriott courses in North America, says that night golf makes for a memorable event.

“We’ll use the first and last holes on the course and have players hit glow-in-the-dark balls into the fairway, which is illuminated runaway-style,” he explains. “We can send out groups of eight people rather than the typical foursome, and we’ll have food and beverage situations around each green. It’s clear to everyone that this event is not serious golf, but simply a fun and unique experience, so non-golfers can relax and enjoy it, too. We always hear a lot of laughter coming from the darkness.”

The untapped potential in this area of business-golf entertainment is significant. According to a recent survey of meeting and convention planners by trade publication MeetingNews, nearly half of the 342 respondents said that golf at least once each year do nothing more than arrange a block of tee times for whichever attendees want to play.

So if you can position your product not as a golf course but as a place that hosts fun, relationship-building experiences, you’ve found a way to interest these groups in trying something new and different.