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Since its opening in April, Blue Hole Golf has been pretty busy most days, though owner Scott Hiles never really knows until he stops by after work to check the ball dispensers. For a large part of the day, Blue Hole Golf is unmanned—a true do-it-yourself range, in more ways than one.
Not only did Hiles build the facility on an enviable shoestring budget by doing nearly all of the work, but customers also serve themselves in what is a literal turnkey operation.
“During the day, our range is self-serve through the vending machine,” says Hiles. “We’ve got a Range Land golf dispenser set up on dollar bills instead of tokens. I come by in the morning and open up the restrooms, make sure everything’s OK, and we’re all set to go.”
The small clubhouse and pro shop opens around 4 p.m., when Hiles’ stepson or his daughter drops by to work the counter. Hiles gets on-site about a half hour later and does “whatever needs to be done, picking balls, construction or mowing.”
Before 4, though, it’s all self-serve on the 32-station tee line and artificial turf putting green.
“We’re such a small market, we just can’t afford to staff it all day,” says Hiles. “So during the day, somebody comes out and they put their $5 bill in, get a bucket and hit their balls. No big deal. It’s probably not the smartest thing to do as far as keeping track of balls, but it works for us in this community.”
“This community” is Campbellsville, population 10,600. Tucked in the south central part of Kentucky, 90 minutes southwest of Lexington, Campbellsville sits in Taylor County, which has a total population of just 23,000. Hiles describes Campbellsville as a neighborly community full of folks happy to have a place to hit golf balls.
“The biggest thing we hear is that people are just tickled to death to finally have a golf range again,” says Hiles. “The last one I can think of around here was probably 25 years ago.”
Different Direction
Maybe Campbellsville hasn’t had a range in two decades because the area hasn’t warranted it. There’s no public golf course and only one country club, and the town doesn’t have the demographics that could support a big golf learning center. That’s why Hiles went in a completely different direction.
“I thought if we could keep within a budget and keep labor costs down, we could make it work,” he says. “There are people who want to hit and there’s no place for them [to go]. We’ve got a captive audience. The nearest driving range is 25 miles away. The country clubs, in this county and others around, unless you’re a member, you can’t go there and hit.”
Ideal Property
Hiles, a local business owner who also has dabbled in real estate, kept his eye out for a suitable site—a parcel with a reasonable price tag that was located between town and the local tourist hotbed, Green River Lake.
Green River Lake State Park is an 8,200-acre retreat for boating, water-skiing, camping and just for vacationing families in general. Other than one children’s camp, though, there has been little development around the lake.
Hiles found his ideal property four miles from the park’s entrance and just a couple of miles from downtown Campbellsville on Highway 55. Recreation-minded traffic heading to the lake has literally watched Blue Hole go up there off the main road.
“We get a lot of traffic from salesmen and truck drivers that stop and hit a few balls,” says Hiles. “One particular guy runs a route up here every two weeks and he just keeps his clubs in his truck.”
Passers-by weren’t the only ones watching.
“Some folks here heard what I was doing and they called to ask me if they could go out and hit some balls,” Hiles recalls. At the time, he had just started clearing the property. “There was just dirt and mud out there and somebody calls me at home and asked if they could play. I told them, ‘Sure, you can go out and hit [balls] but you won’t ever find them.’”
Hiles didn’t mind the Sunday morning phone call. It’s thanks to such observant residents that he saves on his marketing budget.
“Word of mouth in a small town is the best advertising in the world,” he says. “When they started seeing something being built out there, everybody wanted to know what it was, how I’m putting it in and how I’m going to do it. It didn’t take long for word to get around.”
Hiles is known in town for Scoots Car Customizing, a familiar Campbellsville business for 17 years, and Triple C Inc., a land development corporation he named for his daughter, Chasity, and stepsons, Christopher and Cameron.
“I’ve always got a project going,” says Hiles. “And I always had in the back of my mind I would build a golf range.”
But the idea didn’t crystallize until two years ago when Hiles and his family were vacationing in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Hiles had booked a tee time at the golf course across from the campground where he was staying and decided to warm up on a local range. That’s when it occurred to him that folks vacationing at Green River Lake might get the same urge to go out and hit some balls if they had the opportunity.
“Already, we get some people who come to the lake and they’ll buy a set of clubs [from us] because they didn’t think about bringing them,” says Hiles of a pretty brisk used-club business at Blue Hole. “Of course, now they know we’re here, so they’ll start bringing their clubs.”
Hiles must have had a pretty good idea about golf and Green River Lake. Plans are under way for the state to build an Andy Dye-designed course at the park, and that can only help bring more golfers by Blue Hole.
Every Dollar Counts
Hiles had been paying more than lip service to the idea of opening a golf range. In the months leading up to construction last July, Hiles gathered not only information, but also equipment.
His fact-finding mission began with calls to the PGA and local country clubs, followed by visits to each surrounding county’s private club. On these trips, Hiles talked to as many people as possible and gathered names and addresses for what would become a mailing list.
This localized investigative work was followed by visits to ranges as far as three states away. Hiles estimates he set foot on nearly 20 ranges from Myrtle Beach to Indiana and Kansas. “If I was out there on the road and I saw a range, I’d stop and take pictures,” he says. “I’d see what their good spots were, what their bad spots were, incorporate the good ones in mine and throw out the bad ones.”
Building a small range in a small community meant making every dollar count. That wasn’t a problem for Hiles.
“My wife calls me a pack rat because I’ve saved everything in the world I can save,” he says. “One thing I figured out was in a small market, I can’t go out and invest a million dollars to put a range in here. We had to keep within a budget and make it work.”
One major step in that direction was buying used range equipment. In the course of his research, Hiles discovered that many ranges become obsolete as property values rise.
“Ranges eventually get encroached on by metropolitan areas,” he explains. When the land becomes more valuable for residential or retail development, many range owners will sell the land—and to other would-be range owners, their equipment.
Blue Hole’s ball dispenser, much of the signage, ball picker, artificial turf mats, flags, yardage markers and golf balls were all purchased that way. “I started buying equipment before I even bought the land,” Hiles says. “I had stuff stashed in my storage building, my other business, my garage, my home, just waiting for the land opportunity.”
Up and Running
Hiles bought 10 acres of former hay and cornfields on Highway 55, not far from his home, for $95,000. Scrimping and saving money where he could, mostly by doing much of the work himself, Hiles was able to get Blue Hole up and running for $165,000, a remarkably low figure in today’s golf range industry.
“I would like to have a little more land to add a little more width,” he says of his 200-yard-wide by 270-yard-deep landing area. “I’m seeing a little more slices and pokes going off into my fringe than I’d like.”
It’s not a problem, though, for the few residents whose houses sit just beyond the end of the landing zone. One neighbor even collects stray balls that fly onto his property and returns them to Blue Hole. In many ways, being a long-time Campbellsville resident has worked in Hiles’ favor.
Because of Hiles’ successful track record with other business ventures, the Campbellsville National Bank didn’t hesitate to back him on the new project. Likewise, his friend James Southern of Southern Backhoe proved an indispensable ally.
When rain bogged down construction last summer, Southern was able to get things moving again. Hiles raves about his friend’s work on the landing targets and bunkers and in helping to install the range’s irrigation system. And while Hiles would have preferred to open Blue Hole last fall, he now looks at the delays as a blessing that allowed his bluegrass greens and his Bermuda grass tees to fully grow in.
Pitching In
Hiles also enlisted the help of his wife, Robin, and kids, who all pitched in, sometimes literally.
“My daughter was out there when she was 15 years old, throwing bales in the straw blower when we were reseeding,” he says. “It’s been a family project and that was part of it, building it for them to have employment. In a small town like this, it’s hard to find summer employment unless you go to a fast-food restaurant, not only for our kids but for others, too.”
Chasity or Cameron opens the pro shop on weekday afternoons, and the eldest son, Christopher, has parlayed his experiences at Blue Hole into a job on the grounds crew at Campbellsville Country Club.
“I’ve always dabbled in construction and it came naturally to me,” says Hiles. “That was a big thing in keeping the costs down. I sacrificed my time for the money we’d save. We laid the sod ourselves—my wife, my daughter and sons. We raked, shoveled, worked pretty much on everything.”
Hiles has put perhaps more of himself into the facility than he would like. Last summer, construction was delayed when brush Hiles was burning on the site caught his legs on fire, resulting in an emergency room visit and severe burns.
“It was on the back of my legs, which shows I was running,” he jokes. “I was blistered pretty badly and that slowed me down for about a month. It’s healed up now. I just don’t tan too well back there.”
The injuries didn’t slow him down for long. After a contractor built the shell of the 512-square-foot clubhouse, Hiles finished it off, including running the wiring.
He also did most of the paperwork, though a certified public accountant helped set the business up as a separate entity, Blue Hill Golf Inc., to protect Hiles’ other business assets from liability and to allow for sales tax. The corporation fits under his Triple C business umbrella.
Vision Intact
Surrounded by open fields and marked by the solid, simple yet functional architecture and design, Blue Hole has a comforting rustic feel to it. Five of the 12 matted tees are covered, and Hiles is considering adding heaters for this winter. Twenty grass tees are a highlight, along with the five inviting bluegrass targets, ranging from 75 to 175 yards, situated amidst two sand bunkers. The targets are well-defined and a bright contrast to the fescue and perennial rye mix on the rest of the landing area.
“They’re a very brilliant green and they stand out so much, people love working toward those targets,” Hiles says. “If they’re not just coming out and smacking balls, they’re working on their game and aiming for those. It does two things for me. It keeps balls in a concentrated area for quicker picking up, and it gives [customers] something to shoot for.”
Hiles hasn’t had a need for barrier netting, not with his neighbors bringing balls back. “I’m losing a few balls over the 270 [far end],” he says. “But putting up $20,000 worth of barrier netting to save $500 worth of balls doesn’t make much sense.”
Other than perhaps wishing he had a little more room on all sides of his landing area, Hiles’ vision for the range survived intact. The only disappointment, he says, is the 1,300-square-feet synthetic turf putting green. After laying hardwood floors and ceramic tile at his home, Hiles felt spreading the turf wouldn’t be a problem but he’s unhappy with his stretching job.
“That’s one thing I would have been better off letting someone else handle,” he says. “It’s not bad but it has a few wrinkles. It stays busy, though. People will putt while they wait for a spot on the tee line to open up or they’ll come off from hitting and practice putting.”
Hiles isn’t considering pulling the green up and going to grass. He has enough kids coming out to the range that the wear and tear on a natural grass green wouldn’t be cost-effective, especially since patrons use the green for free. Instead, he has something else in mind for children and teens to do. He’s in the process of acquiring a little more land to add a miniature golf course, possibly as soon as this summer. The land for that project adjoins his parking lot and Hiles is chomping at the bit to get started. He researched miniature golf at the 2004 PGA Merchandise Show, talking to designers and builders and finally ordering a blueprint for a course—not surprisingly—that he can build himself.
The future at Blue Hole also likely includes a golf simulator to go into what is currently a 1,200-square-foot utility building. Hiles hopes that addition will perk up the four-month-or-so winter season. Batting cages are a future addition he’s eyeing, too, as the little range looks to grow. And those changes will certainly bring more regular hours to the on-site staffing, a role Hiles hopes he could eventually fill after retiring from his day job.
‘Too Much Competition’
Hiles’ vision for the facility’s future doesn’t include some of the more traditional golf-oriented amenities. Blue Hole offers a small selection of soft goods in the pro shop, but there’s no move afoot to expand the offerings beyond the basics of balls, gloves, tees, shirts, caps and some used-club trade.
“There’s just too much competition,” he says. “I see a lot of our customers come out with a brand-new driver from Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart sells a driver for $15. And the people who come out here who are really serious about golf, they’ve got their own clubs already.”
Used clubs do sell a bit, but the big item in the pro shop is snacks. Chips, crackers and cookies are all popular and there are vending machines outside for drinks. That retail success, though, doesn’t mean Hiles is looking to get into food service. He doesn’t want the hassles and increased regulation that goes with operating a restaurant.
Blue Hole also is unlikely to ever employ a staff professional but Hiles has contracted a couple of locals, a PGA pro and a golf coach, who offer lessons and clinics at the facility. Hiles would like to offer group lessons for children but would rather his outsourced instructors build such a program to bring in more customers.
More traditional marketing is done with radio advertising, direct mailings to those lists he built early on, and through fliers, which, of course, are created and printed from Hiles’ home computer—another cost-saving option for this do-it-yourselfer.
“I’m learning that the scale of numbers [for the range business] is a lot different,” he says. “In my other business, I’m used to turning a thousand dollars a day. In this one, we’re looking for $150 a day. We’re figuring out what our budget will allow. It’s not going to make me rich but it’s going to pay its own way and that’s all I’m asking for the first year.”
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