Page 41 - Summer eng 2017

Strength
In Numbers
Join the
Learn to
Golf
Movement
My wife and I own a small mom and pop 18 hole golf course in Orr Lake in Ontario, that we purchased 11 years ago. As we like to say, our course is close to everything and beside nothing! Our first four years were great with business growing nicely each year, but in the fifth year our business plateaued.
SUCCESSFUL LADIES PROGRAM
I inherited a golf pro from the previous owner who basically ran the pro shop and leagues, and taught the occasional lesson to our regulars and some junior clinics in the summer.
In the fall of 2010, I was approached by the head of our local Parks & Recreation program about offering Ladies Learn to Golf Clinics for the township programs. I jumped at the idea as I was looking for a new way to increase revenue and get my golf pro doing more teaching.
I did not want my revenue to be peripheral business to the lessons, so we created a package that included lessons and green fees. The first year was slow, but by the fifth year we were putting 135 people through these clinics at $270 a pop! This was the first time I was introduced to the profitability opportunity of growing the game of golf.
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