Page 18 - GBC Spring 2021 English

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Golf Business Canada
rounds. We limited the number of rounds based on how much a consumer spends. We had Club 60, Club 50, Club 40 or Club 30 with the number indicating number of rounds for your membership fee. It’s been a huge success for us.”
The Links of Brunello’s pay- by-the-hole subscription model has been ongoing since the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based course opened in 2016. It’s consumer friendly because it’s time friendly. Augmented now with a 30-day booking window it’s been a well- intentioned initiative that caters to a younger demographic. But customers across the board have also bought in to the concept.
“Typical for our industry we track rounds played after 5 pm but we track holes played as well, said Mortensen, general manager at The Links of Brunello. “We broke up our traditional nine and 18-holes with options for six and 12-holes. We call those attraction rounds. This year those went up from 23 percent to 33 percent. It was crazy. We had people come out and play an hour before darkness.
Numbers don’t lie. In 2018, the course did 27,252 holes after 5 pm. Last year it did 43,074 holes and with more people at home this year it did a whopping 68,364 holes.
“That equates to 1,400 more paid rounds than last year after 5 o’clock,” said Mortensen with a smile.
Slade King contends Play Golf Calgary’s pre-payment concept isn’t exciting but, “it’s impactful to the bottom line.” Urged by Alberta Health during COVID the cornerstone operations platform at the five Alberta courses exceeded expectations. Not only did it protect tee time inventory, but it helped streamline a cadre of different rate scales.
“We were at a 12 percent no show and short show rate for the past three years. This year we were at three percent. That’s an improvement of nine percent,” explained King, Chief Operating Officer for Play Golf Calgary. “It worked well at all five of our courses.”
Consider that a bit of an understatement. By moving to upfront pre-paid green fees each course earned an additional $38,000 per month. “Who wouldn’t want to add $150,000 - $200,000 to their bottom line cash flow,” asked King with a laugh. “We can re-train decade old thinking on what the value of a tee time is. Let’s show new golfers and returning golfers that if they don’t show up that tee time is gone.”
Clearly, attendees were impre- ssed. King’s prepaid green fees and Tamburano’s new membership platform garnered 1st and 2nd place in the Canadian Idea session. Both will be featured in-depth in upcoming issues of Golf Business Canada (see page 44).
KEYNOTE KANUNGO
‘Strategy In a World of Disruption’ was as timely as it was engaging. Speaking from Edmonton, Alberta, highly acclaimed disruption strat- egist, Shawn Kanungo concluded this year’s Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show with a resounding exclamation point.
Throughout an interactive, thought-provoking, 60 minute address featuring guest appear- ances from Toronto Raptors head coach, Nick Nurse; tennis great, Andre Agassi and a clip of the late soccer great, Diego Maradona’s most famous goal, the partner in Queen & Rook Capital challenged attendees to embrace disruption. In doing so, he urged everyone to apply it to operations and take a forward thinking approach to new ideas and innovation.
“What we have learned from history is where there is disruption there is opportunity,” Kanungo told attendees. “Pre-pandemic we