Reading The Green Newsletter

There’s been a lot written about the economy of golf, particularly how *course interest and customer experience* affect revenue. This is one of municipal golf's biggest issues! Having recently been introduced to the idea of the "Experience Economy," which perfectly addresses the above sentiment, I was reaffirmed in my belief that "going big" isn't something to fear.

Sadly, we've recently heard two more stories in as many days, of municipal courses that are in the process of closing for repurposing. As you know, we’re advocates of closure under the right conditions, but only after the owner has gone through the proper research and analysis to see exactly how poorly the course itself is actually doing. Our experience is however, once you dig deep into the financials, you’ll find it comes down more to perception, than reality.

It seems these days you can’t pick up a newspaper or read somewhere online, negative perceptions regarding the game of golf. To me, this narrative is becoming old.

I was told early in my career there were only three things that make for a good golf course; drainage, drainage, drainage. I find more often than not, many golf facilities just don't have enough drainage on their course to keep up with the rising levels of golfer expectations. Maintaining and improving course quality is why we encourage every course to be addressing their drainage on an annual basis.

What a year 2018 has been! Staples Golf was fortunate to have worked with over a dozen Municipalities all over the country, and we hope you and your golf course(s) had a great year too!Here’s a "rapid-recap" of the Top 5 Best Performing Reading the Green’s from 2018 (including our personal favorite!) according to you the subscribers.