Data Driven - Winning in the Golf Business
by Casey Bourque
As the golf industry is waking up to the new world of technology, innovation and data-informed decision-making, we're sharing ways to help golf course operators win. We believe that optimal performance means objectively evaluating what is working, what isn’t working, and to continuously prioritize highest impact activities based on facts. Operating less than optimally means missing critical growth opportunities, diminishing market share, reduced valuation, or even the club's demise.
Episodes
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KPI Golf's 85/50 Membership Sales Program from the Member's Side
I played the Golden Bear Club in Orlando today. It's outstanding. My friend just joined the club and he's super excited about playing more golf with his friends out there right now. It's the ideal time for the club (if they were hurting for members) to engage him in actively referring his friends...
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Interview with Blue Sky GM: How Real-Time Performance Data Brings Huge Impact to Golf Operations
In this episode, we're interviewing David Mayo, the General Manager at Blue Sky Golf Club in Jacksonville, Florida. The club is managed by Hampton Golf, a company that KPI Golf is closely collaborating with on data-driven solutions to help country clubs compete. Hampton Connect is a brand new...
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A Data-Backed Discussion on Golf Inclusion & Participation with Stuart Lindsay
Stuart Lindsay has been in technology and data-driven marketing research since the early '80's. He's one of the golf industry's foremost thought leaders on industry trends, localized marketing research, weather impact statistics, and fact-based decision-making for club operators. Today, we're...
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Golf Course Owners Forum - How to Market and Sell Golf
In today's Golf Course Owner and Operator's Forum, we're discussing how to market your golf facility. I'm leading a discussion on strategies that golf courses typically fail to consider. Golf is what we call a "Considered" buying process. The time it takes to usher someone along the customer...
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Welcoming the Golf Industry into the Modern Age - Using Data on a Daily Basis to Win
Data in the golf industry is completely fragmented. There are more than 20 major point of sale systems (think cash registers with accounting software)...and they don't speak the same language. There's really no system of aggregating and using big customer data in the golf business...until now.…
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Giving Without Expectation - Business Strategy with Legs
At the core, KPI Golf is built around the principle that golf courses serve as the epicenter of the communities in which they reside. The local living environment goes the way of your country club - jobs, recreation, real estate values, quality of life. This is a story of how we have chosen to...
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A Case Study: Free Golf Lessons in Orlando
We're working with a couple different golf courses right now to deploy a test run of free golf lessons as a marketing instrument. The program is part of KPI Golf Management's push to get golf courses reconsidering the relationship golf instructors have at their facilities. I'll be dedicating 4…
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John Brown Shares His 85/50 Golf Course Membership Sales Strategy
The private club model is changing. In the past, exclusivity and privacy was highly touted. Nowadays, younger generations don't look nearly as favorably on these kinds of policies and clubs in general - of course there are elite exceptions. Most golf courses are working harder and harder to…
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Why Golf? Because You’re One Day Away from the Keys to the Castle
If you’re 20 or 30-something and you don’t know how to play golf, you’re making a huge career mistake. All the old dudes running companies are retiring and play more golf than any other part of the population right now. It’s not going to last forever though. When you play golf with someone…
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Why a 90-Page Request for Proposal is Probably Bad for Business
KPI Golf responded to 2 requests for proposal today - one of which was a whopping 90 pages long! So, you can probably imagine the work that went into composing a 90-page RFP. I won't mention which golf club it was, but they spent a whole lot of time, energy and money on conducting market…
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Golf Course Owners: How to Get Vendors Competing for Your Business
John Brown is talking with one particular golf course owner about operating expenses on our Club Operator's Forum. This is a 6-week program where we discuss golf industry trends, and share insights on how club owners can compete and make life better for themselves. It’s common practice to stick...
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John Brown’s PGA Show Recap - Hampton Connect, Mini Launch Monitors & Equipment
We had a great 2019 PGA Show. KPI Golf struck an incredible collaboration deal with MG Orender and Hampton Golf to deliver their new Hampton Connect club management software to the market. John Brown and I go over some of the cool things we did and saw last week at the Show as well. We found some...
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Exactly How Free Golf Lessons Are Helping Golf Courses Win vs. Slumping Demand
The Free Golf Lesson Marketing Plan Our free golf lesson program is designed to completely change the way that golf instruction is deployed as a marketing tool for country clubs. Below, I have outlined the business case for free golf lessons as the gateway for newcomers to take up golf at your...
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Options for Underperforming Golf Courses
John Brown discusses the options that struggling and underperforming golf courses have. The first big misconception is that professional advice and exploratory conversations only come with hard sales pitches for club management contracts. This isn’t the case at all. The logic first step to take…
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The Good, Bad and the Ugly of Golf Course Ownership
John bought his first golf course at the age of 23. Ever since, he's been involved with owning and operating golf facilities of all kinds around the country. In this podcast episode, he discusses the great things about club ownership as well as the downside that comes with it. Either way, in his...
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Country Club Pitfalls: Golf Management Deals Too Good to Be True
Country clubs bringing in outside management do so in one of two major ways: 1. They recognize they need help and expertise to help them move forward optimally. 2. A firm offers to inject some capital over time in exchange for ownership stake in the club (equity vs. non-equity). Potential…
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Golf Courses Turning to Tumbleweeds
Visiting my parents in Southwest Florida this week. Their golf community lost their golf course a couple years back and it’s super sad to see. All the residents came here for social golf, sunshine and fun…now they have to take their games on the road. I talked with a group of them about…
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John Brown on Humility, Mistakes & Data-Driven Decisions
There is no solution that allows for anything other than constant oversight and management. This is because conditions, economies, market positions, competition, and consumer preferences are always changing. The only way to compete is to evolve with the times. Golf courses are quickly finding…
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Ways Deploying Trust Can Bring Revenue to Your Golf Club
When I go to Germany every summer, the days are very long. The sun rises around 4:00 am and sets around 10:30 pm. Golf courses over there have come up with a very creative (and simple) solution for bringing in revenue during those odd hours of the day when nobody is working. Creative Sources of...
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Keynote: Golf Course Marketing for Club Owners
We've been living in a thriving economy filled with a huge wave of avid senior golfers for the past 5-10 years. That's not going to last forever. Golf course owners need to aggressively push for winning market share in their local competitive set...or they'll lose when things shift. We're talking...
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The Big-Time Advantages of Local Synergies Between Golf Courses - Clustering
KPI's John Brown and Casey Bourque discuss the advantages of golf course clustering for golfers, staff members and for operators. According to John, this was a hugely successful strategy that helped many of his managed clubs in the past. Whether it's buying power, shared supplies, or improved...
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Private Golf Course Turnaround - John Brown's Hybrid Solution
The Private Club Model Isn't for Everyone Anymore KPI Golf's John Brown discusses a special private golf club turnaround in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This private club had been operating as a private golf course for over 30 years until the club was beginning to lose members. The net loss of...
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Know a Golf Instructor Bringing Big Impact? Here's a Stage to Share Their Story
$300/Hr Golf Lessons aren't Helping Anyone Golf Digest just ran an article on the nation's top golf instructors under 40. I get it that these are the elite instructors catering to elite clientele (meaning rich people already playing lots of golf), and that they'll likely be the ones replacing the...
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KPI Golf’s John Brown Shares Survival Advice for Underperforming Golf Clubs
KPI Golf's Casey Bourque and John Brown discuss the golf marketplace and how underperforming golf clubs can compete. The truth is that golf participation is down and common sentiment is that there are still more golf courses that need to come off the market to bring supply & demand equilibrium....
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The Business Case for Free Golf Lessons | Keynote at Golf Academy of America
KPI Golf’s Casey Bourque speaks at the Golf Academy of America campus in Orlando about the state of the golf business and why complacent golf courses are going to lose when the economy takes a turn. Radical ideas to attract Gen-Xers and Millennials are required to replace the Baby Boomers who are...
About this show
As the golf industry is waking up to the new world of technology, innovation and data-informed decision-making, we're sharing ways to help golf course operators win. We believe that optimal performance means objectively evaluating what is working, what isn’t working, and to continuously prioritize highest impact activities based on facts. Operating less than optimally means missing critical growth opportunities, diminishing market share, reduced valuation, or even the club's demise.
Hosted by
Casey Bourque
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