John Brown discusses the options that struggling and underperforming golf courses have. The first big misconception is that professional advice and exploratory conversations only come with hard sales pitches for club management contracts. This isn’t the case at all.
The logic first step to take is to pick up the phone and call a consulting or golf management company. KPI Golf offers free phone consultations, investing hours in learning about the club’s challenges and assessing best fit.
John bought his first golf course at the age of 23. Ever since, he’s been involved with owning and operating golf facilities of all kinds around the country. In this podcast episode, he discusses the great things about club ownership as well as the downside that comes with it.
Either way, in his 5th decade in the business, John’s always got interesting things to say and value to bring. Read more
Case Study
Facility: 81 Hole Private Golf Community with 4 Clubhouses, Marina, and 1,200 Members
Location: Southeastern United States
Ownership: Private Ownership/Developer
Focus: Containing Costs and Return to Profitability
About: This is a very successful well established golf community with associated real estate, marina and many other components. Their $23 Million operating budget has gotten away from them leading to an annual loss of $1.5 Million.
Country clubs bringing in outside management do so in one of two major ways:
1. They recognize they need help and expertise to help them move forward optimally.
2. A firm offers to inject some capital over time in exchange for ownership stake in the club (equity vs. non-equity). Read more
Visiting my parents in Southwest Florida this week. Their golf community lost their golf course a couple years back and it’s super sad to see.
All the residents came here for social golf, sunshine and fun…now they have to take their games on the road.
I talked with a group of them about strategies for underperforming clubs and how things could have been different. Read more
There is no solution that allows for anything other than constant oversight and management. This is because conditions, economies, market positions, competition, and consumer preferences are always changing.
The only way to compete is to evolve with the times. Golf courses are quickly finding that they are not different.