The Pellucid Perspective - September 2019 - 2

INDUSTRY
GROWTH

Is "Fun" Golf 's Most Compelling
Calling Card? If Not, What is?
By Jim Koppenhaver

Q

uick, fill in the blank as a golfer trying to convert a non- and interesting concepts that were being tried around the country
golfer to try our sport: "You should try golf because it's to make golf more relevant to Generation Next and I mentioned
________[one word]." In business this is called the "ele- that putting "fun" back in the game and the on-course experience
vator pitch" because they teach that you should be able to explain would help. Nancy, out of the blue, asked "Is it really fun for
what you do/what you're selling/your cause etc. in the time it the first-time golfer or rank beginner?" Light bulb moment for
would take for an average shared elevator ride (about 30 seconds Jim and long pause............................ Flashback to a 24 year old
or less). The reason I ask this question is that I believe golf needs Marine (me) on the driving range of the Kaneohe Clipper golf
a new calling card if we're going to stem the erosion of our player course (in HI) trying to get 10 balls in a row airborne; not particbase and get that number moving northward again toward the ularly fun. Fast forward to this year and my 27 year old son on a
25-30M milestones. Can we agree that our legacy calling cards driving range with me hitting some balls because he's playing in a
of tradition, honor, demanding, exclusive and masochistic (OK, I corporate outing and doesn't want to embarrass himself; also not
made that one up, just checking to
particularly fun. In between those
see if you're paying attention) aren't
two endpoints tens of millions of
as relevant today and, in the case
people have tried golf and millions
of post Baby-Boomer generations,
have taken up the game but I'm
border on repulsive? The challenge,
going to propose that, initially, fun
once we accept that fact that we
wasn't the hook (the eventual lack
need a new calling card, is to figure
of it however likely has been the
out what is/are the most alluring
biggest contributor to lapsed and
aspect(s) of our sport to the populost golfers).
lation in general and Gen X and
As Nancy and I came to agreeMillennial generations in specific.
ment that fun likely wasn't the first
This is no small feat in light of
compelling reason for a non-golfer
colleague Stuart Lindsay's sage
to try the sport, we tried to put
observation that "There are likely
ourselves in the (spikeless) shoes of
as many reasons as to why people
non-golfers in Gen Next and figenjoy golf as there are golfers"
ure out what characteristics of our
(and that would be 20M+ at cursport would be most engaging and
rent count but we're narrowing the
motivating for them to give it a try.
range annually due to golfer atNancy's suggestion for the women
trition). The challenge is that we
was "socialization combined with
can't market against 20M messages Nancy Berkley, a retired lawyer, turned to writing
an athletic activity." Nancy is also
about and promoting the game she loves.
so we're going to have to distill it
one of those golfers who recognize
and figure out the "most attracgolf 's multiple attractions, even for
tive" from among the myriad. I've often said, spanning nearly 20 one golfer. She can enjoy competitive golf, a casual round where
years of writing about the golf industry, that my best ideas come no one is keeping score and even a few holes at dusk when the
from conversations with colleagues who ask good questions and sun is setting and she can just think and relax. While I'm not
challenge me to think. Enter Nancy Berkley. Nancy is a retired suggesting that Nancy's perspective and observations cover the
lawyer who turned to writing about and promoting the game complete gamut of "what would make our game more appealshe loves.
ing to women non-golfers," I would opine that she's obviously
She is a passionate advocate for women's golf with whom I in the ballpark and has forgotten more about women and golf
infrequently talk but it's always a spirited debate. We even have a (and women in general) than I know at this stage in my life and
slide in our annual State of the Industry that Stuart and I loving- life experiences. She has also been on several governing boards
ly refer to as "the Nancy Berkley slide" because it shows whether of golf clubs and has seen the game from inside-out and how
the gender balance of golfers (in '18 it sat at 74%/26% male/fe- decisions are made (the good, the bad and the downright ugly)
male) has shifted in the past year and, in recent years, whether the and the lack of strategy at times like stepping back and saying
drop in the consumer base is primarily driven by males, females "What's the calling card of our course/club and what makes us
or evenly balanced. Anyway, Nancy and I were talking about new uniquely different?"

2 The Pellucid PersPecTive

September 2019
The Pellucid Perspective - September 2019

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