Is Golf Dead?

Grg Client,

Happy Halloween! I would like to welcome you to a new Staples Golf correspondence that we are launching to share with you our notes, design thoughts, and important lessons learned that we have experienced over the last few months. In this edition we will be covering the past 12 months of activity and interactions with golf facilities that range from Michigan to New Mexico, and from private to municipally owned facilities. Your feedback and thoughts are welcome and we appreciate the chance to learn from each other as we look forward to 2015.
Is Golf Dead? Or Just Mostly Dead??

             

With tongue firmly planted in cheek we ask the question in order to challenge the notion that golf, as we know it, is gone. Maybe it is because Carl Spackler has finally followed Superintendent Sandy’s advice from the beginning of Caddy Shack and killed all the golfers.

Did you notice 2014 was the 250th year anniversary of golf moving to the standard 18 holes for a regulation course? So is this anniversary a sign that golf has indeed changed forever? Golf course owners appear to be looking for new ways to manage a profit on a shrinking topline, scramble to address resource availability, and to find new customers for their facilities.

Honestly, I’m an optimist on golf’s future for groups who build curiosity into their plans for the long term and are open to looking at the game differently than our predecessors. Have a thought on this? Please share it with us.

What Sidney did to Hobbs on their way to Detroit

It sounds like a murder mystery title from the 1930’s but in reality these are the names of the cities for some of our latest projects. We are in the middle of a Master Plan for Meadowbrook Country Club in Detroit, completed an irrigation renovation and light remodel at Hillside Golf Course in Sidney Nebraska, and are just finishing up our first Community Links concept in Hobbs, New Mexico. The last 12 months have been busy and we are very thankful for it. Here is what we learned:
Meadowbrook Country Club (originally built in 1916 by Willie Park Jr. as a 6-hole course) was looking for a team that their new members could identify with and a story that they felt was built for the future. We were honored to be selected! It is encouraging to see clubs in Detroit investing in their future. Attracting families and beginner golfers along with the acknowledgment that even in Michigan potential water constraints will affect golf, setting up contingency plans for all areas of club management is proving to be a key component of future success.

Overlooking the 18th Green at Meadowbrook Country Club.
In Sidney, Nebraska, it turns out that the “one size fits all” irrigation concept, set up the city to spend 30% more than was necessary. For a $25 green fee course, providing a system that was built to last for 30 years while NOT costing them $2mil was critical to the project’s success. This is also an example of how to “phase in” a Master Plan. Since this City is limited on their annual cap ex plan, we were able to alter the investment in the irrigation system, and then were surprised when they reinvested half of the savings into a series of improvements including tees, bunkers and a pond. We see this trend continuing for value oriented facilities. This allowed Sidney to share with their golfers how this course can look and play with the Goldilocks “just right” irrigation offering.

Master plan rendering for Hillside Golf Course in Sidney, NE.
Finally, in Hobbs, New Mexico we have experienced one of the golf stories of the year in watching a city and its golfing community come together to view the golf course as a key attraction for engagement by the people of Hobbs. Rockwind Community Links will open for play in early 2015 and will look to increase the number of people on the facility by 20% inside of 12 months due to the number of programs (and golf plus options), the city has planned. It is in Hobbs that we learned that when you bring the community together, rally its leader around the game of golf and listen, that you can find room for more than just golfers and we think this is part of what will help drive the future success of golf.

The new 15th hole at Rockwind Community Links in Hobbs, NM.
What can Foot Golf teach us?

If we have learned one thing in 2014 it is to be curious, and ask the questions others have refused to ask. It’s time to look at old problems from all angles and to include others in our dialog. Do we think foot golf is the cure to what ails the game of golf? No; but we feel it reflects a dramatic change as to how a golf facility can and should be utilized.

Maybe finding new ways for people to come and enjoy a round of *insert your type of golf here* at a given time when the course is typically empty will be the solution. Those maybe speed golfers, disc golfers, or foot golfers.  Or even uses outside of the sport such as cross country races, rock concerts, or Boy Scout camping events can be used to fill the space, and even bring non-golfers to the course. One thing is for sure; we don’t have all the answers. Yet the challenge of designing flexible usage for these facilities and environments is one we welcome.

Foot golf continues to grow in popularity as a supplemental option for many courses.
We are looking forward to the 2015 to 2020 period as one where all of us are prepared to honor the past and be curious about how we can create inviting environments for people to share time outdoors with each other and have fun.

We know one thing, more people on the course property increases all the other revenue segments for a facility, and top line growth makes the sustainability challenges that much easier to implement.
Here’s to Golf’s next 250 years,

-Andy Staples