Page 18 - GBC winter 2015

“If resources for social media content creation are an issue for you or your club, a new free NGCOA Canada program, ‘golfsocial’ can be a bridge to a more dynamic social media presence. “
Another marketing pillar Wood quite often sees as ‘shaky’ at clubs all over North America, still, is websites. He believes in being ‘copy-heavy’ but all too often peruses websites without nearly enough information, story, passion or testimonials.
“Nothing that resembles any kind of quality marketing effort,” he says. “You can make any part of your club interesting if you try but I often wonder what private and semi-private clubs are trying to hide about their golf course. I mean, if your course was built by Stanley Thompson, Donald Ross or A.W. Tillinghast why would you not want to tell people that?”
‘Junior golf is the hope of our future.’
- Tom Watson, five-time British Open Champion
Fewer boys and girls play golf today. The reasons for the lack of sustained growth in the segment are multi-layered but certainly fall to varying degrees on a smaller number of parents passing the game down to their children; competition from other sports, activities and technology; fewer discretionary dollars available for budget-sensitive families and less time to participate.
Notice the absence of the word fun? It is because, quite often, once kids get on a golf course they do find it fun. And, provided they are intro- duced to the game properly and pro-actively, they want to return. A first impression,evenforaneight-year-oldisthefirstindustrysteptobuild- ing a customer for life.
“If you look kids in the eye, listen to them, smile and build their confidence you win them over,” says award-winning junior coach Doug Lawrie of Focus Golf Group. “Do that, everyone wins.”
It is in the area of junior golf where Canadian golf owners and oper- ators are stepping up. Across the entire country facilities are more engaged with kid’s participation than ever and the market is responding. Summer golf camps with add on membership component, inexpensive pricing activations for membership and green fees ($1 a hole at a number of courses during down times); engaged professional staffs placing heavy emphasis on fun and quality youth programming via Golf Canada, the Canadian Junior Golf Association, TGA Premier Junior Golf and other outlets are moving the needle and helping to reinvigorate junior golf right across the nation.
“You have to create an environment where passion can grow,” says Sean Foley, swing coach for PGA Tour players Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan and Matt Every. “Kids are so impressionable. Help them. Help them build a personal relationship with the game.”
Reed Markham might refer to that as a trend for today with an impact tomorrow.
Golf Business Canada
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Golf Business Canada