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Word travels fast in Crystal Lake’s senior community, so it didn’t take long before Lippold Park Family Golf Center was hosting not three, but three-dozen golden agers at its Wednesday morning clinics.
“That’s one of our most successful programs,” says John Swenson, the center’s director of golf. The “Senior Special—For Big Kids at Heart” was Swenson’s first group program when he joined the center’s staff 11 years ago. “Three seniors paid $6.50 to get a medium bucket—65 balls—coffee, doughnuts and a lesson,” he recalls. “Now we average 35 every Wednesday morning throughout spring, summer and fall.”
A municipal facility that’s part of Illinois’ Crystal Lake Park District, the center’s instruction programs are published in a seasonal parks and rec program brochure mailed to county residents, but Swenson says word-of-mouth referrals have been the primary promotion. “We get so many people who are out of our community,” he says. “Some of them have never played golf before. It’s fun to see them come. They meet friends through it and go play golf with those people.”
Taking note of the success with seniors, several instructors at the golf center have begun organizing group evening events for other demographic segments, substituting bottled water for coffee. “When you have something successful you hang on to it,” Swenson says.
In a sport that’s fighting to keep golfers and create new ones, the National Golf Foundation (NGF) reports that lessons provide a solution to one of the top three reasons people quit the game or barely get started: the sport’s difficulty. Group clinics or lessons, in particular, are effective compared to individual instruction because they provide a low-cost (another reason participants stop or stall) and less intimidating experience. In fact, statistics support the importance of group lessons in attracting and retaining new golfers. After its 2003 season, Link Up 2 Golf, a nationwide adult player development program, reported that 82 percent of its graduates not only stuck with the game, but continue to increase the number of rounds they play and the dollars they spend on golf.
Lesson-takers are also more avid range users, reports NGF. Annual range visits by the average lesson-taker number 28, while a non-lesson-taker drives to the range only eight times in a year. It follows then that ranges with a variety of instruction programs tageting high-potential groups such as women, seniors, families and juniors can create not only more golfers, but also more customers.
“The range is our bread and butter, but I see group clinics as a way of offering other services, such as [private] lessons and club fitting,” says Steve Corr, general manager of Stone Meadow Golf in Lexington, Mass. “It also provides repeat customers because they’ve either honed their skills or learned the game a little bit better and they come back and feel more comfortable hitting in a stall next to somebody. It really complements our business.”
A 70-station driving range and par-3 course, Stone Meadow offers four-day summer youth clinics, monthly adult classes from May to October and senior sessions twice weekly that combine free clinics with discounted par-3 play. “We do it all,” says Corr. “The positive point of a lot of these clinics is building golfers’ confidence” so they come back. Take the junior program, he notes. “These are our future customers. As they nurture their golf game, we know they’ll come back.” Already, some juniors stay and play with their parents after a session. Students “usually come with their parents, and they might make more of a day out of it by hitting a bucket of balls or playing the par-3 course after the clinic,” says Corr.
Organized in partnership with surrounding community recreation departments, the youth clinics have sold out eight years running under the direction of Stone Meadow’s own Joe McKinney, a PGA golf professional and former New England PGA Teacher of the Year. The hour-long morning clinics are broken down by age—7 to 10, and 11 and older—with a maximum of 14 students per class.
Most ranges limit class size to somewhere between eight and 15 students, depending on the program’s focus and the instructor’s comfort level.
Bill McInerney, head of the learning center at McGolf in Dedham, Mass., limits his clinics—junior and adult—to eight to ensure that he can deliver personal attention to each student. “That’s a personal preference,” he says. “If I decided that I wanted to take on 15 students at once it would be very financially beneficial, but that’s not how we operate. We’re not looking to make a killing off these clinics. We’re looking to get more people involved in golf, and an enjoyable clinic will help them enjoy the game and make them practice more.”
When he started offering youth instruction 12 years ago, McInerney opted for group lessons in lieu of individual training, thinking children would have more fun learning with their peers. “I didn’t feel kids would be ready for private lessons,” he says. “I thought it would be more fun for kids in a group setting.” The fun is amplified by games and competitions, such as chipping into a circle or over a bag, drills that help children get the ball in the air. McInerney also uses an everyone’s-a-winner approach to help build the children’s confidence and create an enjoyable experience. Prizes include free buckets of range balls, golf balls, miniature golf passes and junior golf kits branded with the range’s official mascot, Billy McGolf.
The center’s many amenities—a 65-station tee line with artificial turf mats, a 12,000-square-foot practice green with 18 holes cut daily for a variety of putts, a cafe and a miniature golf course—also are included in group lesson packages. Both junior and adult clinics contain value-added offerings such as gift cards for the cafe, a free round of miniature golf and 10 percent off practice green membership. “The more you offer at your facility, the more attractive your facility is,” he says.
Practice greens and short courses also open up opportunities for more specialized instruction to help students transition from the tee line to the first tee. Family Golf Park in Blue Springs, Mo., has a par-3 course where students, juniors in particular, apply the skills they’ve learned through group instruction. “We bust them up into teams and have scrambles so we don’t put a lot of pressure on one kid,” says Bob Coleman, the park’s head professional and a member of the United States Golf Teachers Federation. The golf park hosts clinics through local community colleges and also works with secondary schools to promote group instruction. “If you get the kids, you get the parents, and if you get the parents, you get their friends,” Coleman says from experience. “One guy came down and said, ‘My grandson took lessons here, and I don’t know what you did for him, but whatever you did, I’d like you to do it for me.’”
Play Golf America is pushing a trend that would have grandfather and grandson, or whole families, taking lessons together. In 2004, more than 335,000 adults and their families participated in group instruction programs offered through Play Golf America—evidence that a demand exists. As a result, Play Golf America—an industry marketing arm—has developed a campaign to sell golf as a family activity. “Today kids are involved in so many activities, whether it be sports or clubs or school projects, and most times, the parents sit on the sidelines and transport the kids or provide cheerleading. Seldom can they partake in that activity, and golf affords families that opportunity,” says Ron Stepanek, senior manager of player development for the PGA of America, which oversees Play Golf America. “All of our initiatives are designed to address barriers to keep people playing. We can think of no better way to spend quality time than on a golf course.” That’s the message Play Golf America is sending consumers. “On the facility side, we have come up with an array of curriculum or suggested programs that golf facilities can utilize to help attract family golfers—not just attract them but retain them.” The secret: it’s all in the marketing.
“The method of instruction is the same,” Stepanek says. “It’s in the marketing and packaging where you’re trying to bring families together and address multiple objectives.” There are several best practices that Stepanek says work. For starters, ranges can plan a family-friendly open house and offer complimentary clinics to demonstrate the sport’s fun factor (see related sidebar at left for more tips). The benefit of marketing group instruction to families, Stepanek notes, is that “you may need two families to fill an entire class versus looking for six to eight adults.”
Certainly every market can cater to families in some fashion, but determining the demand for junior, adult or more demographically specific programs targeting such groups as women and seniors, can take a little more digging. Many range owners take a grass-roots approach, using informal polls and casual customer conversations to take their market’s pulse.
“You need to survey your area and see what they [consumers] need,” says George Yelvington, director of instruction at East River Golf School at Randall’s Island Golf Center in New York. “We looked at our students’ needs first. We asked people what they thought they needed.”
Previously full-time instructors employed by the center, Yelvington and Rick Nielsen founded their golf school three years ago and now lease space at the range as independent contractors. In the realm of group lessons, the school offers tailored programs for corporations, a one-day comprehensive school, a half-day concentrated program, an introductory clinic and lessons for couples. “It’s pretty fun when you’re teaching a husband-and-wife team who are there because he realizes he doesn’t have enough patience to teach his wife,” Yelvington says.
About 80 percent of East River Golf School’s clients are referrals, even though Yelvington regularly advertises. ROI is hit and miss, he says. “You expect to get ‘X’ amount for every dollar you spend. It doesn’t always work like that.”
Swenson of Lippold Park Family Golf Center can sympathize. “I’ve been doing this now for 40 years, and I don’t have the answer. We just try to do whatever we can.” Marketing golf to Crystal Lake’s youth has resulted in creative character-based programs such as Bob the Builder and “Harry Potter and the Magic of Golf.” Swenson stresses the importance of making group instruction fun, especially for children, and says an enjoyable experience led by enthusiastic instructors will go a long way toward generating word-of-mouth referrals.
McInerney agrees, estimating that McGolf’s newspaper ad results in only one clinic registration each time it’s run. “Clinics are promoted by word-of-mouth,” he says. Including his. “I give about 60 individual lessons a week, and I let people know the clinics are available.” McInerney doesn’t mind pounding the pavement if it results in more people turning to McGolf for learning and practice opportunities.
“I love getting people into the game of golf, and I think a lot of people feel intimidated,” he says. “Taking a lesson with a friend or a group in a less intimidating atmosphere has persuaded many people I’ve given clinics to, to get into the game of golf.”
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