Mark King's rant

[T0AD]

words

I could do without 4 releases a year as well.


Also, I'LL say it, people having less money IS political. Unemployment is rampant with nobody trying to fix it. Taxes are up. Healthcare costs just exploded. Costs are up everywhere to compensate. I have fewer bills now than a couple years ago and less money. That ain't no accident; it's a result of the situation at hand that isn't getting remedied.



<bipartisanfrustration>

 

[fireitup]

Dev was ranting to me about that the other day. I came to two conclusions: they're either out of their minds, or they have to charge that much because they likely have little to no income coming in for 3 or so months. Gotta make it back somehow right?

We probably would have played there if the price was reasonable. Instead they ended up with no revenue. In the winter months they should either make the green fees reasonable or close down. It makes zero sense to open, pay employees and then end up with an empty course because you want to charge full price.

 

[fireitup]

I think we need to take our kids to Crystal Springs this year! How about a NJ Love is in the Air event for us locals?

My daughter and I play there regularly. Let me know when you want to play and we will be there.

 

[Luddite]

I respectfully submit that the maintenance/expansion of golf participation is solely dependent on COST and TIME. Time is largely in the control of the participant. One can opt to golf 9 holes and/or opt to play executive length courses but it would still be golf. What Mr. King does not wish to do is control costs. The absolute last thing you will hear Mr. King espouse is participants foregoing the use of 4dollar balls or 500hundred dollar drivers.What Mr. King is suggesting is not an improvement to the game of golf but the development of an entirely new sport. An earlier post referenced the advent of snowboarding. The analogy is most apt but only to clearly establish that what King is discussing is not golf. There are skiers and there are boarders. They may exist on the same mountain but neither would contend that they are participating in the same sport. Mr. King is rightfully concerned with expanding his company's sales opportunities. If a new sport can be created for which Taylormade can supply equipment, great but it will not be golf.

 

[Speedliner]

Other industries have a concept called ARPU, or ARPC - average revenue per user/customer. It's why Best Buy tries to sell you a maintenance contract with a printer. Golf courses don't really seem to have that. Sure I can buy socks if I forget them, but other than food and drink there's nothing to increase ARPC.

Maybe a solution is a Golf Complex. Course, exec/beginner course, range, short game practice areas, arcades for kids, swimming pools for families, indoor simulators for LM data, fittings and winter practice is what the sport needs. A destination and a place you can go spend time and money to get your golf fix anytime, anytime of year.

I think I like this idea. Expensive unfortunately but if it can't work between NYC and DC, areas golf is doomed.

 

[ddec]

Been a little busy the last few days. What exactly was his rant? Even when we were in the TM booth nobody really knew.

 

[ArmyGolf]

I'm moving to Utah! The courses around here are packed and green fees getting ridiculous. It's tough to find a place around here under $80 in season. As a matter of fact a couple of THPer's and I played last weekend. One course wanted $60! It was 30 degrees with wind gusting to 20 mph!

Dev was ranting to me about that the other day. I came to two conclusions: they're either out of their minds, or they have to charge that much because they likely have little to no income coming in for 3 or so months. Gotta make it back somehow right?

This is my situation. The courses here are packed year-round and I actually look forward to the Saturday's with lots of rain in the forecast because that means there will be a couple openings on the tee sheets after the members are done their advanced bookings. I don't think they lose too much money (if any) in the winter because the course maintenance slows down to basically nothing until the grass starts growing again, and they don't need to water in the winter here.

 

[mark blanchard]

I'm moving to Utah! The courses around here are packed and green fees getting ridiculous. It's tough to find a place around here under $80 in season. As a matter of fact a couple of THPer's and I played last weekend. One course wanted $60! It was 30 degrees with wind gusting to 20 mph!

Oh how well I remember trying to find a course to play in NJ when I worked in the Big Apple and Philly! It was easier to find a Giants jersey in Veterans Stadium.

Out here we can usually play year round and if it gets too cold we just drive 3 hours to St. George/Mesquite. Over 20 courses and a local population base of only 90,000.

Returning to Mr. King. As a manufacturer, ideally he'd like to sell MORE units to MORE people at HIGHER prices, right? Sadly, that ain't gonna happen unless he gets lucky with a true game changing innovation.

Barring the first option, he could sell clubs MORE frequently to the same group of people (but they've maxed out that angle) or they can sell slightly FEWER clubs at HIGHER prices (hard to do), or they can sell MANY MORE clubs at LOWER prices (hard to do, especially when you have massive unsold overstock of last season's drivers EVERYWHERE.) None of these options look good to Mr. King, I'm sure.

The only thing left is to create or invade NEW markets. On the invasion front, China looks lovely, except they have no respect for the intellectual property of a foreign company. And there's only so much you can do in Latin America or the third world. So TMag is toying with creating their new market. Like it or not, Golf is currently a rich man's sport. It can't go widely foreign or down to the unwashed masses as it is. To push it to the masses, the game itself must change.

• Four or fewer standardized clubs,
• a bigger floating ball that's easy to find,
• a big cup,
• short courses,
• a simplified rule book.

The Scots might rightly argue that this sort of game is "Nae golf" and I wouldn't argue. Yes, it might be more like kiddie bowling with the gutter bumpers up, but it could still be fun. Heck, I think that if you don't play at least one match of "One club" golf per year, you ain't living.

 

[mark blanchard]

Other industries have a concept called ARPU, or ARPC - average revenue per user/customer. It's why Best Buy tries to sell you a maintenance contract with a printer. Golf courses don't really seem to have that. Sure I can buy socks if I forget them, but other than food and drink there's nothing to increase ARPC.

Maybe a solution is a Golf Complex. Course, exec/beginner course, range, short game practice areas, arcades for kids, swimming pools for families, indoor simulators for LM data, fittings and winter practice is what the sport needs. A destination and a place you can go spend time and money to get your golf fix anytime, anytime of year.

I think I like this idea. Expensive unfortunately but if it can't work between NYC and DC, areas golf is doomed.

This is along the same lines that TMag is thinking. Different ways to squeeze the finite cat or skin some new kittens.

Pro shops in my area are stuck on ways to increase ARPC. They've almost given up trying to sell clubs and balls, lamenting that they can't compete with the big box stores and on-line. One pro told me that if it weren't for tournament pay-outs that must be redeemed in his shop, he'd carry no equipment at all. His best POS items in 2013 were fancy tees and energy drinks. The items he'd most like to add to boost revenue are booze and cigars, but the law won't let him. Likewise, one struggling SoCal track where I used to play got so desperate for ARPC that they added a special type of "hospitality tent" out in the bushes until they got busted.

Sadly, my local golf shops and ranges mostly won't rent out or allow you to use their simulators or LM's unless they think they can fit you for clubs that you will buy in store. To me that's short-sighted, but they figure it's not worth the wear and tear. We have only a few indoor ranges, and oddly they won't sell a winter daily ticket, they want annual memberships. No one I know has ever used them.

But I think you're right. The one course in my area that caters the most to youth, has the best chipping and putting areas, the only exec course, the best range, the longest hours, the most funky tournaments, the most convivial men's and women's associations, and the most flexible pass plans -- is the one course that's booming. And it's the worst track in our county, built on a former dump.

 

[arydolphin]

This is the best article I've read on this subject and it covers both sides of the issue: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles...0001424052702303448204579340812358678966.html

Here's the main excerpt that caught my eye, when talking about efforts in the past to draw in new golfers:

This is where theory and practice may come into conflict. Three years ago at the PGA Show, a well-connected group from Silicon Valley floated some strikingly similar ideas under the name Flogton, or "not golf" spelled backward. But that would-be movement fizzled.

"The main problem we encountered," said Pat Gallagher, a longtime executive with the San Francisco Giants, "was that the major stakeholders in golf, the ruling organizations, didn't really need the game to grow. Their interests, when push came to shove, were primarily to protect the interests of the five million core golfers at the expense of the 20 to 40 million people who might conceivably want to play, or play more, if the game were more fun and less frustrating for them."

Those core golfers, though dwindling in number, still account for 80% to 90% of the money spent on golf. "No one in the industry—not the course owners, not the manufacturers, not the club pros—can afford to alienate them. And core golfers love golf the way it is," Gallagher said. Many are devoted to the game's traditions and impatient with novices clogging up courses.

Take King's pet 15-inch hole concept, or other possible alternative-golf possibilities such as teeing up every shot or encouraging far livelier, less stuffy standards of on-course behavior. It's unclear how easily traditional golfers' style of play—solemnly but happily sweating every 3-foot putt—would mesh with that of the shirttails-out crowd, hitting goofy clubs and whooping and hollering.

One often encounters at PGA Shows an analogy to skiing. Snowboarding, when it first appeared on the slopes, was anathema to traditional skiers, but it is now widely credited with saving the ski industry by attracting a new breed of skiers. So it could be with alternate forms of golf.

Gallagher doesn't buy it. "The difference is that skiing and snowboarding can coexist on the same slope. In golf you've got a single track, and it's not so easy," he said. That single track is also the root cause of slow play: Every group on the course is effectively reduced to the speed of the slowest group ahead.

"We came to the conclusion that alternative forms of golf cannot expect to develop at the same time and in the same space that accommodates traditional golf," Gallagher said.

 

[mark blanchard]

This is the best article I've read on this subject and it covers both sides of the issue:

Here's the main excerpt that caught my eye, when talking about efforts in the past to draw in new golfers:

That old quote is SPOT ON THE MONEY! Thanks for sharing it. I think it captures the point of view of the vested interests who are slowly strangling the game (at least in my region).

I previously shared the case of the one booming course in my area that is trying to be different. It's the worst track in the county, but it's busy. The flip side of the coin is the best layout in the county, a track designed by the great Billy Bell of Torrey Pines fame. The pro's are great, but the men's association believe that they own the place and try to pinch it off as their own private country club. They fight among themselves, scare off all visitors, protest any tournaments but their own and keep the fields of those few tourneys basically closed. They don't like juniors cluttering their loops and resist any deviation from the status quo. As a result their association has dropped in membership from about 100 to about 35, but they LOVE that fact. Bigger slices of the pie for themselves, I guess.

Extrapolate that attitude out to 5000 courses and what will you get? A case of auto-erotic asphyxiation for an entire sport.