Page 49 - GBC winter 2016 Eng

RuLES: PuTT wITh yOuR PuP
• Sundays after 4:00pm we invite you to leash up your best friend for a round at the Wood. Ladies we don’t mean your husband – we are actually talking about the family dog. You can bring your husbands to play too, but only if you want to! Bring your pup along as you navigate the course, they’ll love being able to explore the beautiful surrounding of our immaculately maintained property.
• There are no additional fees associated with bringing your dog, but there are some additional responsibilities:
• Dogs must be on a leash at all times in order to ensure control and to protect other wildlife that lives at or visits the Woodside property.
• Dog owners are responsible for raking paw prints in bunkers.
• Dogs and their behaviour are the sole responsibility of their
owner.
• Barking or disrupting others golfers with bad behaviour will
be grounds for removal.
• Owners are responsible for cleaning up after their dogs and
ensuring that dogs do not urinate on greens and tee-boxes
• Failure to meet the terms outlined will result in removal of the
owner and the dog from the course.
• It should be noted that dog free tee-times are available for those who
would prefer to play without the company of a fury companion.
• Dogs will also be welcome to join you pre or post game on our lower level patio.
The one thing you will notice is that generally the people attracted to this program are those who are deeply invested in their dogs and the kind of people who do everything with the pets. The tournament experience gave us another awesome idea and that was to provide our rescue partners the opportunity to bring dogs needing homes to other tournaments at our club.
Allowing guests the ability to see and begin the adoption process during tournament registration brought exposure to our rescue groups but more importantly, provided many great dogs with new homes.
Tip #1
If you decide to implement a dog friendly program at your club be sure to promote it! The launch of our program led to more free press than we could have imagined. Radio, television, print – locally and nationally, the requests poured in throughout the summer.
Tip #2
Make it all about the dogs. When dogs are happy, and that isn’t hard to accomplish, they make people happy. We created a check-in process that provided complimentary milk bones to our four-legged guests. We also handed out doggy waste bags to ensure owners were reminded to pick- up after their little buddies. Water stations were located on tee-boxes and at all entrances to the clubhouse, including the pet friendly patio.
The creation of the pet friendly patio provided our guests with an additional opportunity to enjoy a cold one and a meal with their best friend before heading home. Located in a residential community, we found that food & beverage revenues were increasing as many of the local residents would stop in for an adult beverage while out walking their dog.
ThE PERFECT FIT
At the end of the day, this program was, and is, the perfect fit for Woodside. We have experienced such success with the program and would love nothing more than to see it spread across the country to courses of all shapes and sizes, models and makes. Wishing you all an exceptional 2017 entertainment season!
Golf Business Canada
Golf Business Canada 49