The Pellucid Perspective - May 2012 - (Page 18)

CLUB MANAGEMENT KemperSport launches new private club division NORTHBROOK, Ill., Mar. 27, 2012 – KemperSports, a leading golf course management company, today announced the launch of its new private club division named KemperCollection, which will be led by Senior Vice President Barrett Eiselman. KemperCollection was developed to formalize and grow KemperSports’ private club portfolio. “The needs of private club clients and members are everchanging. With the formation of KemperCollection, we are aligning our decades of club management experience to better serve private club owners and their members,” said Steve Skinner, chief executive officer of KemperSports. Among its private club portfolio, KemperSports currently manages some of the nation’s finest clubs, including The Prairie Club, a top-rated 46-hole golf destination in Valentine, Neb., Royal Melbourne Country Club in Long Grove, Ill., The ACE Club in Lafayette Hill, Pa. and Hawthorn Woods Country Club in Hawthorn Woods, IL. This group will add additional resources and customize its services to meet the needs of the private club industry. KemperCollection offers a custom fit approach to golf course management in order to accommodate a variety of facilities and ownership groups. With more than 20 years of experience in the golf industry, Barrett Eiselman will oversee KemperCollection. Eiselman boasts a professional career in golf course operations, hospitality management and sales and has previous experience in managing a portfolio of private clubs. “With the state of the industry, we recognize the need to customize our management offerings to meet the changing demands of the private club owners,” said Barrett Eiselman, senior vice president of KemperSports. “KemperCollection provides a flexible and specialized option for private clubs to benefit from KemperSports’ expertise in specific categories of management to enhance operations.” For more information on KemperSports and a complete list of its managed properties, visit www.kempersports.com n (Pace of Play continues from page 12) (enforcement) becomes less onerous,” he said. Superintendents are part of that “community” that Yates refers to when implementing pace of play procedures. The obvious course conditioning and setup tools are moderating the rough length to reduce time spent looking for balls, non-punitive pin placements and favorable tee placements, reasonable greens speeds, etc. One other tactic frequently advocated by superintendents and universally loathed by riding golfers is “carts on the path.” While it’s understandable when the course is wet or freshly seeded, the next time your superintendent says the fairways could use another couple of days without carts, you might consider that Knuth’s research indicates that when carts are restricted to the paths, the time to complete a round goes up by a painful 30 minutes on average. That’s when it becomes a pace of no future play. n (Market Focus continues from page 17) ued healthy annual population growth rate of 2-3%. Unlike other markets, Houston has also seen modest rounds demand growth, but not at a pace to offset the continued supply growth, so a minimal amount of supply dilution continues to accrue, bringing the net level for the past decade to -5% (the resultant of 8% supply growth offset by 3% rounds demand increase for the decade). This means that the average facility in Houston has suffered a 5% reduction in revenue, driven by some combination of rounds or rate decay compared to 2000. The average facility has throughput of roughly 31,000 rds/ yr, slightly above the national average before factoring in climate and daylight influences. The more accurate measure is the market’s 48% utilization rate, which trails the national average by 4 points. This means that, after factoring out the weather favorability of a 12-month season, the market’s average golf “factory” runs at slightly lower throughput efficiency than the average US course. On the revenue productivity side, the market generates roughly $1.1M per public, regulation length EHE, which is 9% higher than the Top 25 Markets average. After factoring that for weather influence, the market’s Greens Fee Revenue per Available Round (RevpAR = Greens Fee Revenue/ Available (Capacity) Rounds) registers at $14 or slightly under the Top 25 Markets average. (This means despite the oversupply of higher-priced supply in Private and Public-Premium, they’re not translating that into higher revenue vs. the average. Could discounting be prevalent in the public segment?). All in all, Houston doesn’t seem to be a sucker’s bet for existing operators or future investors. While not the picture of health in the absolute in the current and most likely near-term period, relative to other train-wreck markets in the US for the golf industry, this one appears to be just scattered debris on the tracks. Of course, much of the consumer stability to support that golf rests on the relatively volatile energy sector’s health but, given where gas prices are today and America’s penchant for driving, independence and our majority’s aversion to gassipping transportation, the economic future for Houston and the health of the golf market appear to be relatively secure. n May 2012 18 The Pellucid PersPecTive http://www.kempersports.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - May 2012

The Pellucid Perspective - May 2012
Table of Contents
New wave of third-party tee time providers surfacing
The Great Contrarian
Endangered species on your course? En garde!
Pace yourself!
Major golf communities changing hands
April weather impact: Yeah baby!
Petroleum industry keeping Houston golf up to speed
KemperSports launches new private club division
Tough times lead Tucson muni’s to consider privatization
Hits and misses for Get Golf Ready special on CBS

The Pellucid Perspective - May 2012