Page 50 - Summer eng 2017

2nd
Place Winner
Crowning Banff’s Best Putter
Mark Jefferis, Regional Sales manager BC NWT & Yukon at Kubota Canada Ltd (left) presents the 2nd place prize from Kubota to Steven Young
Steven Young The Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta steve.young@fairmont.com
We wanted to focus on growing the game in our community and enticing people to come to the facility for a non-threatening, enjoyable activity.
We determined of all the skills in golf, putting is the easiest for an average or poor golfer to excel at and a non-golfer to grasp. So, we devel- oped the idea to challenge the good and bad golfers to come out and see who the best putter in our town is.
We wanted our event to be different than a mini-putt course so the event took place over our actual greens on the 18-hole course, on an afternoon shotgun when the course was completely open by 5:30pm. We didn’t lose any revenue but rather, increased capacity as we wouldn’t sell golf at this time. Each golfer, playing in foursomes, would ‘play’ (putt) on each of the 18 greens to get a putting score.
We wanted to crown the best putter so I did some research on how the PGA tour determines the best putter. In simple terms, the best put- ters get their long putts close and make more putts inside 8 feet than others. Therefore, I made sure every first putt was at least 30 feet so that we would be able to separate the best putters. Over 18 holes, they should be able to get their first putts close to 8 feet away and then make more of these putts than the other participants.
We charged $49 per person. This included use of a rental putter and ball if needed, use of a golf cart and playing 18 holes of putting over our course. We also gave a performance golf shirt and $10 credit for the bever- age cart during the event.
We had three people get hole in ones (one person got two) with each being mid to high handicap players. We had a putt off at dusk and it might have been the greatest part of the event!
We attracted 48 participants in our first year and we expect to double that for next year’s event. The local paper covered it and gave us great press. We normally would not be open that late in our clubhouse, but we had 48 people drinking and eating snacks while we tallied all the scores and winners. It is a great community event that is a lot of fun!
50Golf Business Canada
Delegates of the 2016 Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show exchanged proven revenue boosting or expense management ideas from their facility at the 2.0 Great Canadian Idea Fair.
Presented by Kubota Canada, the Great Canadian Idea Fair is one of the most highly regarded and beneficial components of the annual Golf Business Canada Conference & Trade Show.
The 1st place winner was given an opportunity to choose the Kubota tractor, mower, or utility vehicle of their choice. The selected Kubota vehicle will be delivered to the winning club, and will be theirs for one full season. Kubota also provided the top four winners with generous gift baskets.
The top four ideas will be presented in upcoming issues of Golf Business Canada magazine.
• 1st place “Hit the Green on 16”: Nevin
Dunfield, The Links of GlenEagles
Golf Course, Cochrane, AB
•2nd place “Banff’s Best Putter”:
Steve Young, Fairmont Banff Springs
Golf Course, Banff, AB
•3rd place “Graveyard Golf”: Carol
Ann Campbell, Archie’s Family Golf
Centre, Cornwall, ON
• 4th place “Golf in a Box for Women”:
Greig Burnie, Hinton Golf Club, Hinton, AB