The Pellucid Perspective - April 2014 - (Page 6)

GOLF COURSE DESIGN Affordable golf: Back to the future? By Harvey Silverman T he term "affordable golf " leaves many wringing their hands in distress and arguing that golf has priced itself out of the reaches of too many Americans. Others view the term as a challenge to achieving profitability at a golf course. In either case, the discussion of causes and solutions can range anywhere from thoughtful to rancorous in pursuit of elusive ultimate and universal answers. Richard Mandell has been trying to corral concerned minds for five years with his Affordable Golf Symposium, held most recently at Dairy Creek Golf Course in San Luis Obispo, CA. Mandell is a golf course architect whose idea was spawned from conversations with clients going back to the mid-1990's. Back then the industry wasn't concerned with affordability - participation and frequency was growing annually. Build it and they will come - with lots of money to spend. It wasn't until 2006 that Mandell realized after listening with a keen ear to client comments as well as industry pundits, and now having adequate resources within his own company, it was time to step out from behind the drafting table and attempt to tackle what ultimately might determine the long term health of the golf business, let alone individual golf courses. The Affordable Golf Symposium was born. To be clear, the symposium will never answer the question of whether golf is affordable to individual golfers. Rather, its goal is to discuss, analyze, suggest and refute ways golf course operators can more affordably maintain and operate their facilities to acceptable levels of golfer expectations, and hopefully achieve profitability. Thus, Mandell enlists the local GCSAA chapters, as well as PGA sections and owners associations to invite members to attend. Nearly 100 golf course personnel participated at this year's event. The group of presenters had an all-star quality to it, based on my own recognition of their names and accomplishments, including: Ted Horton, Bruce Williams, and Tim Moraghan discussing the folly of replicating tournament conditions; Craig Kessler from the Southern California Golf Association speaking on the economic challenges facing growth of the game; J. Rhett Evans, CEO of the GCSAA, debating whether brown is the new green; and Dick Rugge, former Senior Technical Director of the USGA discussing what the golfer has gained by improvements to equipment. Josh Heptig, the host and Director of Operations for Dairy Creek and the other two San Luis Obispo county courses, took everyone on a tour of their zero waste facility as a case study. Two other case studies were paneled by appropriately credentialed speakers including Mandell and staffer Ben Hood, and the day and a half symposium ended with four local golfers discussing their expectations each time they visit a golf course. What became clear early on is the enormous struggle facing those charged with creating and maintaining acreage of grass 6 The Pellucid PersPecTive designed for golfers to walk and play upon. Being set in California, much talk was about water, both the cost and supply of it, amidst the news that Pasatiempo and De Laveaga golf courses in Santa Cruz were facing an 80% cutback in water supplies by the time you read this article. Never mind that as the attendees visited the outdoor zero waste facility the skies opened up and rain descended upon us, welcome for sure but not plentiful enough to make a dent in California's ongoing drought. The fact of the matter is that here in California, as well as other parts of the country, either lack of water or the price of it is creating new difficulties in being able to affordably maintain a course. Dick Rugge took a bit of a side trip to talk about consumer affordability as it relates to equipment. He first made it clear that today's equipment has made the game easier to play, and displayed side by side a current 460cc driver next to an early model metal driver. The contrast in size was striking (pun intended). He then discredited the accusation that equipment costs are an unaffordable barrier to entry. Rugge mined a time machine to find newspaper ads from 1960 showing club sets on sale for under $50. Using an inflation calculator, he posited that sets today can be found on numerous websites for $129 (and some even less than that) that are as affordable today as those from over 50 years ago. If someone wants to start playing golf, they can find a full set of clubs with a bag for $100-$150. Footgolf gained traction as a discussion topic in that it both provides a new source of revenue for the facility as well as being very affordable to maintain. The discussions on brown vs. green and replicating tournament conditions produced the loudest opinions on how golf on TV creates an expectant image of what a course should look like, along with the realization that this will not change anytime soon. It is an unsolvable problem that can only be mitigated locally through communications with golf customers that hopefully lower expectations. Mike Huck, an independent turfgrass, irrigation, water and soil management consultant, made the point that brown vs. green is polarizing to both golfers and course operators; and that it might take a couple generations to change golfer expectations to accept brown as a course standard. He predicts that within five years California (and maybe other states) will institute metering and regulation of ground water and posed the idea, might we be looking at a future that includes greens fees with a water surcharge? Mandell concluded the symposium with his own thoughts and concepts he incorporates into his designs and renovations. To his credit it was not a sales pitch for him and his firm, but rather included thought provoking real-life ideas he sees as exemplifying affordable golf. His basic premise that "less can be more" is a return to the way golf was meant to be played and requires an understanding of how the game got from there to here. I'm not sure everyone agreed that placing fairway bunkers (See Affordable golf on page 13) April 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - April 2014

TOC
Can "hacking" reverse golf's demise?
Putting for profit, and participation
Affordable golf: Back to the future?
Beating the high end daily fee blues
March '14 golf weather impact: Winter finally yields
Some Busch Garden patrons, Tampa golf market have had too many
City course gambling charges dropped, but GM resigns due to stress
Social media - more message, less massage, please

The Pellucid Perspective - April 2014