SLO County Golf, Wine & Real EstateGolf, Wine & Real Estate News and Events Blog
FLO Golf in SLO CountySunday, July 10, 2005The Golf industry overall continues to struggle since September, 2001. Many factors are involved in the decline such as current oversupply of golf facilities, high cost of fuel, higher housing costs and changing recreation patterns of our society. At the same time, golf courses face higher operating expenses, most apparent with fuel and fertilizer costs. This past winter's excessive rains further reduced golf rounds and course revenue here in SLO County.Let's face it, the industry's good fortune that resulted from the emergence of Tiger Woods and the industy's subsequent struggles due to oversupply and rising costs are nothing the individual golf course can control. Nevertheless, many of our local courses are finding creative ways to get more golfers out to the course such as offering Free Beginning and Youth Lessons at Chalk Mountain Golf Course and The First Tee Program and Infinite Golf discount membership at Avila Beach and Blacklake Golf Resorts to name but a few. These efforts are worthy and hopefully fruitful, but I'd like to see more of their creative thinking targeted at their existing base of golfers, finding ways to make their experience more enjoyable, perhaps more affordable, and maybe even more frequent. An idea I think many golfers would appreciate is making efforts to reduce slow play. Since I often head out to the course by myself and join up with other twosomes or threesomes, I get to talk with a wide variety of golfers. The most common complaint I hear from these golfers is not about high costs, but about having to wait to take every shot because of backed up play. Most golfers maintain a good attitude about waiting since they just assume its now a permanent part of the game. Perhaps an effort by SLO County courses to reintroduce the element of "flow" to the game will result in increased participation. Instead, many courses deploy a number of marshalls and require use of carts on weekends in an effort to keep play moving. However, I don't think slow or walking golfers contribute to slow play nearly as much as the inefficient loading of the golf course does. As courses embrace short tee time intervals to maximize rounds per day and revenue, they inevitably force the course to backup. When the course is overloaded, the natural flow of the game can only be experienced in intervals and only when everyone on the course consistently hits their balls on or near the fairway and flys around in carts. Earlier this year, Ray Festa from Morro Bay Golf Course pointed out to the County Golf Course Advisory Committee that the tee time intervals at Morro Bay Golf Course are the same as when the golf course was having 100,000 rounds per year. Since the golf course is currently getting 65,000 rounds annually, it might be time to modify the starting times, increasing to longer intervals and not overloading the golf course off the first tee. This alone might improve pace of play and contribute to better enjoyment of a golf round. I understand that a trial program was started at Morro Bay to increase the tee time intervals and see what the customers have to say. Communications will be very important as courses increase tee time intervals. The golf starters will need to be trained to hold back players until their designated tee time and players will need to be informed on why they are being held back. Golfers will reap the reward of playing a wait-free round of golf and rediscover its natural flow. As a result of this effort, SLO County could become a preferred golf destination by marketing its unique "FLO" Golf. "Experience the FLO in SLO... San Luis Obispo County - Golf without the wait!" |
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