Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2012 - 10

(member links
What is MGA
membership
)
?
It's access to some of the fi nest
golf courses around through participation
in the MGA Members'
Days or the MGA Senior Tour.
It's your USGA Handicap Index,
revised year-round. It's your subscription
to Minnesota Golfer magazine. And it's
your support of amateur golf that makes
the game better in Minnesota.
Best Practices Lead
to Female Loyalty
What best practices
increase yield per round,
greater loyalty among
female patrons and higher
merchandise and food-and-beverage
sales? According to " The Right Invitation:
2011 Women's Golf Longitudinal
Research, " golf facilities that employ the
best practices below see as much as a
16 percent increase in rounds.
s 'REETERS
s &OUR OR MORE SETS OF TEESWITH THE
forward tees less than 4,500 yards)
s ! GOLF SHOP OF SQUARE FEET OR
more, and that features women's
APPAREL AND EQUIPMENT
s -ALE AND FEMALE GOLF SHOP STAFF
s -ALE AND FEMALE GOLF INSTRUCTION
s !BUNDANT DIRECTIONAL SIGNAGE POSTED
on the course
s $RINKING WATER AVAILABLE
at three tees per nine
s #HILDCARE AVAILABLE
Hook, Line and Sinker
( Featured Member
Like many golfers who come to the game
as adults, Rob Etten fell hard.
Etten and a friend picked up two cheap
starter sets and played one of San Francisco's
municipal tracks every Saturday
morning: Golden Gate, Harding Park,
Lincoln Park and The Presidio. Then came
lessons. Soon, he established his fi rst golf
handicap: 24.
Etten quickly became enamored with
golf and was into it hook, line and sinker.
" I found my passion, " he says. " Golf is it. "
Now Etten, 45, calls Roseville home. He's
well into his second decade of organizing
an annual golf trip for a growing group of
golf buddies. " I'm the den mother for the
group, " he says, adding, " I do
all of the planning. "
At one time, the group's
organizing principal was focused
on compatible playing
levels. Now the group
has become more inclusive,
with a wider range of playing
skills and handicap indexes
and a new-found focus
on fellowship.
Etten's professional and
leisure lives intersected when,
through an acquaintance
with former Minnesota Golf
Association president Jerry
Clark, he facilitated a meeting
of Minnesota's allied golf
leaders. It turned out to be essentially
a reset of the MGA's
Etten File
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" The MGA is a leadership
organization, and our mission is
clear: Increase golfer
participation at every level. "
strategic plan.
" The game hasn't changed, but everything
around it has, " Etten observes.
People are busier now than they used
to be. They spend what free time they
have much differently than previous generations
did. Their kids are into organized
sports all year round, making time tighter
than ever. Above all, the economy more or
less directly correlates to the number of
rounds being played.
For all of these reasons, Etten sees an op8
MINNESOTAGOLFER
Spring 2012
portunity in getting the occasional golfer
to play more. The occasional golfer has the
desire to play and enjoys the social aspect
of the game, yet the challenge is in being
able to get this golfer more involved.
Above all, Etten is optimistic about the
future of golf. He believes that with the
right messaging, the MGA can tap into the
signifi cant occasional golfer market.
" The MGA is a leadership organization,
and our mission is clear: increase golfer
participation at every level. "
www.mngolf.org
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http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2012
