Golf Inc - August 2008 - (Page 38)

The Last Word Jim Dunlap Shared numbers beneﬁt everyone Ignorance may be bliss, but it doesn’t provide a lot of helpful insights into running your business, or gauging your performance against your local competitors. For years, many of the golf industry’s more progressive businessmen — and some publications including Golf Inc. — have bemoaned the lack of one comprehensive and transparent golf facility data compilation that could guide owners and operators at both the national and local levels. The most commonly cited example of an industry doing it right is the so-called Smith Report produced by Smith Travel Research, which provides comprehensive data on the hotel and hospitality industry at both the macro and micro levels. The National Golf Foundation has been the closest that golf has come to an overarching golf data survey, but NGF doesn’t receive comprehensive performance data from anything close to all U.S. golf courses, and doesn’t extend its reach much outside North America. The PGA of America, the National Golf Course Owners Association, Club Managers Association of America, the independent Pellucid Corp. and Golf Datatech all produce their own performance data. All promote their research as an added value to membership or subscription, and heretofore have guarded that data like Tiger Woods protecting a Sunday lead. The recent announcement that NGF and Golf Datatech have joined forces for rounds is an interesting development. In addition to compiling rounds reports and other data, Golf Datatech is reporting the industry’s leading source of information on equipment sales, which it zealously protects for subscribers. In conversations with executives of the PGA and NGCOA, all have consistently touted their data as uniquely accurate and forthcoming, due in part to the faith their members have that their financial and operational performance data will not be shared outside the organization’s membership. All of those contentions have flaws, first and foremost being that in no cases do those organizations get response from anywhere near all their members or facilities, nor do all facilities belong to those organizations. As a result, none of the currently available industry performance data compilations tell the whole story. One problem is that in today’s age of technological snooping and identity theft, people are increasingly wary of putting sensitive personal or financial information into e-mail or any other form of potentially non-secure transmission. Others just plain don’t want to share it with competitors, no matter how much they would love to see how the neighbor across town is doing. As one owner told me a while back, “The first time my head pro releases my financial information is the last day he works for me.” Another problem is multiple memberships — many owners are PGA, NGCOA, CMAA and NGF members, if not Pellucid Corp. and Golf Datatech subscribers as well. Owners have told me they’re not willing to respond to that many surveys. We can hope that the NGF-Golf Datatech alliance is one positive step toward a true industrywide sharing of data. It may also be that in the current tough times, owners and operators are beginning to realize that accurate and shared information — particularly if it drills down into their local market — can only help everyone. 38 Golf Inc. August 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Golf Inc - August 2008

Golf Inc - August 2008 Contents Editors Column Around the Industry: Big Green in Arizona Data Collectors Combine Forces GPSI Hires Chessler, Files Suit Americas Europe/Africa Asia/Australia Machrihanish Dunes Draws on the Past to Make History Again in Scotland Innovative Superintendent Finds Way to Keep the Nation's First Totally Organic Course Green Latest Clubhouse Designs Reflect Changing Lifestyles: It's All About Casual Camelback Conference Brochure More Operators Embracing Initiatives Aimed at Bringing Families Together on the Golf Course State of the Industry 2008 Muni Maddness? The Last Word

Golf Inc - August 2008

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