In response to the concerns prospective golfers have about the game, Deer Run GC in Victoria incorporates daily rates instead of dues, offers craft beer and whiskeys, and encourages speedier play with “FastPlayFriday.”
A recent report in the Minneapolis-based Twin Cities Business discusses how golf courses in the area are reaching out to the next generation of golfers.
“Golf costs money and takes a lot of time,” Minnesota Golf Association communications director W.P. Ryan said. “It’s what young people don’t have a lot of.” And the new sheen that Tiger Woods imprinted on the industry couldn’t hide the fact that golf retained multiple stigmas, including dues, dress codes and a “WASPy aura,” Business reported.
From daily-rate courses to exclusive, members-only clubs, they are loosening their ties, slashing their prices and trying to find ways to keep the pipeline full. “I don’t know that anyone has figured out how to get 18- to 34-year-olds playing just yet,” Ryan said.
The privately owned Deer Run Golf Club in Victoria focuses on a user-friendly, high-quality experience, but with daily rates instead of monthly dues, Business reported.
“Country club membership just doesn’t have the same cachet to younger people that it once did,” General Manager Tom Abts said. “Clubs have to recognize that they need to change, but that’s difficult because older members like the status quo.”
Though Deer Run’s target membership, influenced by its location, is affluent professionals about 40 years old living in the southwest metro, the club is making big strides to appeal to people across the spectrum. Abts says his courses aren’t intimidating like some other clubs. Their golf and beverage carts are spacious and new, and golfers can relax at an in-house pub stocked with craft beer and whiskeys, Business reported.
Perhaps their most intriguing change was Abts’ introduction of “FastPlayFriday,” which encourages speedier play and means people don’t have to take a huge chunk of their day to finish a game. They also haven’t ignored marketing. Their ads are splashed with cheeky slogans that riff on cultural and social memes like “Fairway to heaven” and “Welcome to the real Magic Kingdom,” Business reported.
It’s not just the daily-rate courses fighting for younger folks. “The struggle for us and other golf courses is reaching out to juniors,” said Ben Lehmann, first golf assistant of Minneapolis Golf Club.
The club is running clinics and camps to get kids involved in the sport early. Tees have been added in the middle of fairways to help beginners. And the company offers large discounts on dues for those under 40 years old, Business reported.
Even large PGA Tour-owned TPC Twin Cities is trying to engage younger people. TPC General Manager Alan Cull said allowing members’ children to play for free and relaxing the dress code has helped keep the club vibrant, Business reported.
“The old blue-blood golf club has come and gone,” Cull said. “Golf has a totally different face today.”
At the Legends Club in Prior Lake, attracting new and young golfers is a priority. “We run a Junior Golf Academy each summer that fills up every session,” said Jeff Kennedy, golf professional and director of marketing.
“One of our most popular instruction programs is Get Golf Ready,” Kennedy said, which introduces novices and recent beginners to the game. “It is a five-lesson program that gives the participant a backstage pass to the world of golf. They learn how to make tee times, golf course etiquette and golf fundamentals.”
Many clubs are chasing the business demographic, which can bring big money. Cull said about half of the TPC Twin Cities’ 400 members are corporate clients. Because TPC is part of a group of clubs, members have access to golf courses across the country, a point that TPC emphasizes to businesses, Business reported.
TPC also employs a unique corporate membership that isn’t tied to a single individual. Instead, businesses can assign a designee who holds the membership, with privileges of transferability should the designee leave the company. Even with the designee, other executives have access to the course, Business reported.
But a club doesn’t need multiple locations to satisfy the corporate crowd. The Minneapolis Golf Club takes a formal approach. The club also provides top-of-the-line equipment when a member brings a client to golf. MGC closes its courses on Mondays to offer corporate outings for groups of 80 to 140 people. Executives can get away from the office to mix and mingle while golfing, eating and relaxing. The club hosts roughly 20 such events per season, Business reported.
Deer Run Golf Club welcomes business executives, but doesn’t specifically market to them, said Abts. “I prefer that they understand and appreciate what we are doing rather than actively court their business,” he said.
MGA’s W.P. Ryan said golf still serves a purpose for many business people. “Golf opens a lot of doors,” he said. “If you’re comfortable negotiating your way around a golf course, that has to help your business career.”
At Legends, Kennedy says, he sees business people who want to “unplug for a few hours and actually make a connection to build a true relationship with clients. There is no better way to do this than on a golf course.”
The Minnesota Golf Association tallied nearly 150 new golf course openings between 1990 and 2006. Since then, at least 18 have shuttered, 11 of which ceased operations in the last four years, Business reported.
Yet Minnesota is still one of the healthiest states for the game. Golf is a $1.2 billion business in the state, with $360 million attributable to tourism, according to a report prepared for MGA by SRI International consulting firm.
While the number of registered MGA golfers has declined in recent years, Tom Ryan, MGA executive director and chief operating officer, argues the narrative of golf’s decline is more nuanced.
“Golf certainly is not going away anywhere—certainly not here in Minnesota,” he says. “We’ll lose a few more courses—some out of the blue, and some that are struggling. What we’re seeing is a real estate story almost more than a golf story.”
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