The Pellucid Perspective - March 2017 - 4


GROWING
THE GAME

available and produce recreational equipment that overcomes
the major initial barriers to getting the ball airborne, hitting
it relatively straight and creating enough distance so that the
course plays more like the game they see on TV or their Wii
Golf. This is not called non-conforming equipment, this is
called recreational golf equipment
* How will I keep this from getting out of control out on
the course? Answer, I guess I don't know the answer to that yet
because I don't know in what direction or what magnitude it will
go "out of control" in your particular facility. If the younger golfers are playing music in their carts and it can be heard 3-4 holes

4 The Pellucid Perspective

away, I think you can probably figure out how to bring that to
someone's attention and correct it
* What happens if a significant number of golfers "regress"
into recreational golf ? Answer, I don't think I see the problem
here from an owner/operator standpoint. They come out at same
or higher frequency, they pay you the same amount of money as
previously and they likely tell more friends that they had a good
time. Other than potentially even fewer golfers carrying handicaps or us potentially losing some lesson revenue because they're
no longer obsessed with par and self-improvement, I don't see
the downside. To offset that potential lesson revenue downside,
I'd suggest that more people coming
into the recreational game will create
at least an offsetting number of interested golfers who come in casually and
develop an interest in improving some
of their basic skills
What are the barriers to doing this
at 15,000 golf courses this upcoming
season?
* Time to think through how to
modify the 10 guidelines above to your
course
* Buy a sign to put on the 1st tee
(next to your current one)
* Doing some marketing to your
existing golfers and any new golfer acquisition programs you send out, such
as "We encourage and welcome recreational golf where safety and fun are the
only 2 rules!"
* Watch and monitor the results:
Did we get any new golfers who told
us that this new aspect of golf made it
more interesting and worth a try? Did
we get any incremental rounds from existing golfers/customers who said that
getting rid of all the baggage made their
round at your place more enjoyable and
hence they played more often or gave
you more of their existing rounds?
The upside is that it doesn't require
large cups, new teeboxes, more marshalling or the approval, strategy or
marketing dollars of any industry association or groupthink. It can be a
short-term competitive advantage until
other folks perceive that it's an advantage (at which point they'll follow, I
believe in relatively efficient markets).
Even at full adoption though, I believe
it has the potential to expand the golfer
base or frequency, which would have
the benefit of a virtuous cycle in that
everyone could potentially benefit from
n
that situation.
March 2017
http://www.kempersports.com http://www.kempersports.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - March 2017
