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Take a bankrupt driving range, two new owners with no experience in the golf industry or with retail, and mix in the suburbs of Connecticut. Sound like a formula for trouble? Not quite.
The Golf Center of Connecticut, a former Family Golf Center facility, is growing fat and happy in Shelton, Conn., under the watchful eye of two such novice owners, Alan Phillips and Howard Saffan. The center reported increased revenues of 25 percent last year and is expanding to provide even more services to the region’s sports-minded communities. Renovating the site and clubhouse, overhauling operations, creating a user-friendly atmosphere and launching a first-class teaching program have made a world of difference at the once-faltering facility.
“It’s funny, my partner and I haven’t ever been in the golf business before,” says Phillips. “It took us a little while, but once we got down to the mechanics of revamping things, it started to take off.”
Phillips and Saffan purchased the 15-acre facility at auction in February 2001 for more than $2 million. Phillips, who has a background in financing major technical equipment, teamed up with Saffan, an attorney who had done well with a window manufacturing business. One of Saffan’s plants was near a golf center on Long Island, N.Y., and he became enamored with the idea of running a range. Phillips liked the idea, too, and the partners, who met through acquaintances in the Connecticut suburbs, haven’t had any regrets.
“It’s not like coming to work,” Phillips says. “It’s fun to come out. That’s not to say we don’t do a lot of work, but I’m doing the kind of things I like to do—getting out and meeting and talking with people.”
The Family Golf Center opened in 1999, but despite a great location and lots of money up front, it started foundering and soon became available for Phillips and Saffan when all the Family Golf Centers went on the auction block.
They studied what had gone wrong, rolled up their shirtsleeves and set about fixing the facility. Phillips provided much of the marketing manpower, and the visionary Saffan, a mechanical whiz, fine-tuned operations.
The Golf Center of Connecticut quickly turned into a labor of love for both, and now the partners are putting the finishing touches on an $8 million project—The Rink at Shelton, an 89,000-square-foot ice skating rink and indoor sports facility that will open in October.
Under New Management
Nestled into Fairfield County, one of Connecticut’s more affluent areas, the Golf Center is near the intersection of three major highways (Interstate 95, Route 8 and Merritt Parkway), making it easily accessible from anywhere in the state and just an hour’s drive from New York City.
The region has turned into a major hub for corporations, including Sikorsky Aircraft and its 8,000 employees in Stratford, just a mile away.
“A lot of companies have moved up here because they have access to a terrific employee pool,” says Phillips. “It’s a great location for us, too.”
But location wasn’t enough for the facility’s first go around, so Phillips and Saffan were resolved not to rely on it alone. Instead, they began refurbishing the facility and making efforts to regain customer trust. Simple things such as buying a sufficient inventory of new range balls meant a lot in that regard. According to Phillips, after Family Golf Centers Inc. filed for bankruptcy in May 2000, the facility didn’t buy any new range balls and had to limit the number of balls customers could hit in the winter, when it was difficult to pick the landing area.
“Customers would drive from 35-40 minutes away in the winter, and they would be limited to one bucket of balls,” says Phillips, shaking his head. “The facility didn’t have the money to buy new balls and they didn’t have a system for cleaning the ones they had. A customer drives that far and you tell him he can’t hit….We’re probably still trying to win back a lot of those people.”
Phillips says the original center started well but suffered attrition among patrons as simple problems began to mount. At that time, balls were washed outdoors in the open before being fed back to the dispensers. When temperatures dipped in the fall and winter, it wasn’t practical to even try to clean the balls. So despite a covered, weather-protected tee line, the range wasn’t set up to serve customer needs in the off-season. Though they took ownership in March 2001—at the beginning of the spring season—Phillips and Saffan first built a heated shed for the ball washer, as well as a garage to store maintenance equipment. They also purchased 150,000 new Srixon range balls—a buy they make annually, keeping the previous year’s batch for emergencies such as this past winter when inclement weather kept them from picking for nearly a month.
Saffan, meanwhile, was learning more and more about how ball pickers and washers worked, and another early purchase was a Range Servant America ball soaker to ensure that one pass through the washer would get the balls clean. The partners also had Range Servant reconfigure the conveyor system, taking it from underground to overhead, which eliminated tedious efforts to clear jams.
Initially, a lot of Phillips and Saffan’s efforts were focused on finding ways to do things better. “We visited some other ranges and went to all the shows like the PGA show and spoke to a lot of people. There was definitely a learning curve,” says Phillips.
Next, the partners turned their attention to drainage problems on the landing area. Balls stuck in the ground whenever it was wet, and steep elevations around the target greens and bunkers made it impossible to pick some areas other than by hand.
“We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to redo the drainage and to grow new grass so it would look like a country club,” says Phillips. “Now we can pick balls year-round. And when it rains, we’re able to get back on it within a day without damaging it. We think we’ve improved the operational element here.”
Giving the grass landing area and target greens a “country club” look was important to the new partners who wanted to create a visual image of change for the better in the facility. Framed photographs and paintings of classic golf images were hung in the formerly spartan clubhouse, along with more plants and flowers inside and out. Granite countertops enhanced the restrooms.
The miniature golf course was spruced up with more plants and flowers—nearly $70,000 worth. And in another customer-friendly move, a couple of the hardest holes on the 18-hole course were softened. “[Previous owners] made it too hard for kids,” says Phillips. “They made it for Jack Nicklaus. People would come off the course defeated.” On one hole, the ball rolled back down the hill if the player didn’t make a perfect shot. A perch on the top was added for players to hit for and play it safe. Another hole had a difficult shot over a small bridge that most kids couldn’t make. Half of the trap was filled in so that it is easier to approach the hole. “Now they come off the mini golf smiling,” Phillips says.
Little touches also are helping to create a complete experience for players. For example, customers use a token to access their balls from a huge gumball-type dispenser. The popular part, though, is that one in every 10 balls is actually a miniature sport ball (baseball, basketball, soccer) that players get to keep (in addition to getting another ball to play the course).
“That really brings the kids back,” says Phillips. “They love that. People keep wanting to buy them but Howard won’t sell them.”
Fund Raising and Marketing Made Easy
As much as the renaissance at the Golf Center is built around some basic improvements, it’s also built around a dedication to customer service and a marketing plan that could serve as a standard for any driving range trying to grow its reach.
“The bottom line is we try to bring people on to our property,” says Phillips. “That’s what we realized after the first year—we had to get people out and if we did, we could probably get them to come back.”
Phillips subscribes to Guerrilla Marketing tactics, giving away all kinds of coupons and discounts just to attract large numbers of first-time customers. In addition, an estimated $150,000 in giveaways was handed out last year in the form of goods and services to charitable organizations, schools and corporations. Phillips and Saffan love opening the doors for charities and have created a template for attracting these organizations and helping them raise money.
One of the first promotions Phillips created for the Golf Center was a certificate redeemable for four rounds of miniature golf, two buckets of range balls and two batting cage tokens. It was basically a $40 to $50 value and specifically designed as a prize to be given away or auctioned off by local organizations.
“It’s great for auctions at the grade schools and for charities raising money,” Phillips says. “You do things for charity, and a lot of that [good will] rubs off. When people come to us to sell to us, we flip the certificates out. We always have something for them.”
The Golf Center hosted a Habitat for Humanity weekend outing in July, and church groups regularly gather there to host benefits. The American Cancer Society, the Bridgeport Hospital and local sports teams have also recently held events on the site.
The attraction for many organizations is how much of the marketing burden the Golf Center shoulders. Phillips provides signage and gets the word out to the far-flung Connecticut media, including more than 30 newspapers that will run news releases he generates on the organization’s letterhead, as well as radio stations and five different cable television systems. Phillips says he has it all down to a science.
In return, the Golf Center gets publicity plus a lot of new customers brought in by the organization running the fund-raiser. Phillips and his staff walk the organization through much of the marketing and details of planning and running the event.
“A lot of these organizations just have volunteer help,” explains Phillips. “They’re not always trained to run these kind of things, and that’s where we can really help them. For us, what I’ve noticed is about 50 percent of the people they bring have never been to the facility, and like I said, we only need to get them here once.”
Corporate outings are another avenue to attract business. Companies get three hours and full use of the facility for $24.95 per person in season and $19.95 during the off-season. In addition to the outdoor amenities, the Golf Center has a 1,500-square-foot party room in the clubhouse and can cater meetings and events from a full-service grill, which Phillips and Saffan lease out.
“We affordably price the outings, again just to get people out here,” says Phillips. “But we do it right. They’ve got full access and we even have a golf pro out on the range to provide tips. The groups all love that.”
The Golf Center also gives 25 percent discounts to policemen and firefighters, and standard discounts are regularly afforded to high school and college golf team members who practice at the facility.
A Big Hit
More discounts will be offered to local baseball teams that rent out the facility’s batting cages, which just opened this summer. The eight heated hitting stations from Automated Batting Cages are protected by a roof and skylight, and Phillips and Saffan spared no expense, designing a billboard background of Yankee Stadium for batters to hit to. The cement floors in the “outfield” were even dyed green to simulate grass, and each batter’s box includes a real home plate atop infield clay-colored cement.
“They’re so new we haven’t even really advertised them yet but the word’s getting around,” says Phillips. “For next year, we’ve already made arrangements in eight separate communities to give out a pass with a free token to everybody in all the local Little Leagues and softball leagues.”
And batting cages aren’t the end of the new revenue stream. The Golf Center is planning to open The Baseball Academy modeled after the already successful on-site Golf Academy, which is run by PGA Class A professional Richard Lanigan Jr., the former head pro at nearby Redding Country Club and a former PGA player.
The Baseball Academy will operate from a dedicated room at the back of the new rink facility. Phillips and Saffan are also adding some live pitching stations with mounds, and the there will eventually be indoor and outdoor stations for baseball and softball.
“It’ll take us a year or two to get the right pros [to teach],” says Phillips. “We’ll get high school, college and professional coaches, and we’ll provide top-of-the-line teaching in baseball and softball just like we do in golf.”
Strength in Numbers
Phillips and Saffan are justifiably proud of The Golf Academy, a centerpiece for the rebirth of the Golf Center. One of the many professionals on staff is almost always available to walk the 60-station, double-deck tee line, and that friendly, informal interaction between staff and customers has become one of the facility’s service marks.
“From an owner’s standpoint, we’ve made a real commitment to the academy,” says Phillips. “Rich runs it, so he’s really our partner. We pay our pros well, too, so we don’t make a fortune on the lessons but we find it increases our traffic, and people who take lessons with our pros come back to hit here.”
Phillips says students come from some of the finest country clubs in the region to train under Lanigan and his 11-member staff; the academy did nearly 8,000 lessons in 2002. “We have the computer analysis and all that kind of stuff but that’s not the reason they’re coming from all over,” says Phillips. “They’re coming for our pros. That’s our belief, and that’s something we’re really proud of.”
Having a sizable teaching staff has allowed Phillips to broaden his marketing efforts. He’s forged partnerships with local parks and recreation departments as well as with the YMCA and YWCA. Those organizations offer lessons through the Golf Center and do all the legwork to drum up business, and students receive a discount.
“They feed our lesson program for us,” says Phillips. “We had 60 women from 10 to 11 in the morning in April, and we’ve got 60 more now from 4 to 5 in the afternoon. We give the organizations their own days and they go out and get the people.”
Likewise, summer parks and recreation days at the facility are a popular activity. For $9.95 for three hours, children get to play miniature golf, hit in the batting cages or hit on the tee line (upstairs so as not to bother regular customers on the lower level). The events, which can draw as many as 150 kids, fill up the facility during the day. And Phillips doesn’t miss a trick. Each child participating in one of these outings gets a free pass for miniature golf to come back, and likely, to bring his or her parents.
Think About a Rink
The Golf Center is expecting to see even more families this October, when The Rink at Shelton opens for business. The idea for the rink began very simply. Saffan thought the Golf Center could use something to draw in more business during the winter. He began to talk about building an indoor ice rink in the parking lot. When he and Phillips took the idea to the local zoning board, the city mentioned how it was interested in a rink for the entire community. “They wanted us to build a permanent rink, and one rink became two rinks,” recalls Phillips.
And that’s how The Rink at Shelton came to be part of what is fast becoming a full-service sports complex. The double-decker ice rink/sports complex is going up along the left side of the driving range. The main lower rink has stadium seating for 1,000, and the smaller upper rink can seat more than a hundred, all under a multistory atrium with skylights throughout.
In addition to the rinks, which comply with National Hockey League standards, there are 13 locker rooms, six party rooms, a heated food court, modern fitness center, space for The Baseball Academy and a full pro shop catering to the indoor sports offered at the rink.
Scheduling is already under way for skating programs, adult and youth hockey leagues, figure and speed skating, intercollegiate hockey, and inline skating and hockey in the summer. The ice can also be melted down and a sports court added to allow room for summer camps and other indoor activities such as inline hockey leagues, basketball, volleyball and box lacrosse.
“The rink [will be] busiest from September through March so it becomes counter-cyclical with the range,” says Phillips. “We’re transforming the property into Connecticut’s premier sports facility, and we’re going to rename the whole property Sports Center of Connecticut.”
And Phillips just smiles when he thinks of all those new customers who will be drawn to the center. “We just need to get them here once,” he says.
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