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Like almost every other business today, golf ranges have more technology to choose from every year. Technology can make the work easier and faster, but range owners know they must always consider whether an investment in automation will have a return that makes their decision worthwhile.
Some range operators have embraced the new technology—keeping up-to-date with the latest ball dispensers, automated teeing systems and point-of-sale (POS) software. They are convinced that technology gives them an edge over their competitors. Others are more cautious, preferring to stick with the traditional approach. They are convinced that customers place greater value on the personal service they get from direct interaction with golf range personnel.
Both of these views have merit—because operators from both camps have success stories to tell. So, how do golf-range executives decide whether a new technology is right for their facilities? Cost is always a primary consideration, and so is the threat of obsolescence, because today’s technological solutions for golf range operators are not always in-expensive to purchase or maintain.
Other questions they might ask are: Is the technology appropriate for my customer base? Is there something new and better just another season away? How important is it to stay ahead of the curve, and regularly upgrade equipment?
Show Them the Money
Jim McClure, manager of The Olde Rangemaster in Orlando, Fla., and a 20-year veteran in technology product sales to ranges and golf centers, is careful choosing his words with old-school range owners, a group sometimes reluctant to change.
“You call it technology; I like to use the word automated,” he says. “When I talk to a range owner, I want to automate his range, make things easier for him.”
McClure and those in the business of peddling new golf range products have a tough sell to some golf centers. At Bogeys Sports Park, just west of Richmond, Va., golfers line the artificial tees, occasionally aiming shots toward popular basketball backboard and rim targets at 50 and 75 yards. In the clubhouse, kids from local daycare centers pick out colorful putters to use on the 18-hole miniature golf course, or line up for slices of pizza to eat outside in the picnic area.
There’s a lot going on at Bogeys, but it doesn’t have much to do with automation or the latest technology. In fact, the fanciest piece of equipment to be found is the Range Servant of America ball dispenser just off the tee line, installed in 1998, four years after the facility first opened.
General manager Tyler Carlo doesn’t believe his business is the least bit old-fashioned, though. “It would really be evident that my money was going to the wrong place [if] the balls were no good, the range didn’t have any grass on it, the mats were all worn out, but we had the automatic ball dispenser,” Carlo says.
Carlo is more concerned with amenities and that’s what works for the Bogeys customer base. While he has thought long and hard about a new POS system, Carlo says there are some mitigating factors that keep Bogeys from embracing such technology.
Cost is one issue, and the difficulty training some of his older employees in a new system, is also a concern. That handful of old-school employees at Bogeys is as valuable to the facility as green grass or new balls, Carlo says.
“They’re fantastic,” he says. “And I wouldn’t want to go through that whole training process. I don’t have a pro shop so I’m not keeping track of clubs and shirts. A POS would basically tell me how many bags of Doritos I have, and if a couple of those go missing, our owners aren’t really worried.”
On the Other Hand
Chris Keyte of Easy Picker Golf Products Inc., says he believes that well-researched technology purchases, like adding automated washing and dispensing systems, can start turning bigger profits within a year.
Keyte says a technological upgrade that picks, cleans and distributes balls to an automatic dispenser can reduce needed personnel from three people to one person at a busy range, producing significant savings in wage dollars.
Owners who want the important interaction with customers—greeting them and shaking their hands while handing them a bucket of balls—can sell tokens for the new dispensers at the counter. With less time devoted to cleaning and transporting the balls, there’s more time with customers for lessons, club-fitting or product sales.
McClure concurs. He says that the aim of most mechanized technology is to handle the range balls as little as possible. That saves time and money. He points out that the best ranges, even if they aren’t automated for washing and dispensing, are laid out in a way to make these jobs easier.
“I find that if [an owner] has the money, he’ll automate his range,” McClure adds. “If they can afford it, they’ll want to do it when they study it.”
McClure’s theory to take the plunge holds true for point-of-sales technology, too. At Sun N’ Air Golf Center in Danvers, Mass., an older range opened in the 1950s, a new POS system has breathed new life into the pro shop and has created a handy synergy with the tee line. Sun N’ Air installed Island Pacific’s Retail Pro point-of-sale system in 2004, and the addition is paying off big now that it’s fully integrated.
“We used to do everything the old-fashioned way, just write it down,” says General Manager Stephen Jones. “Since we put this thing in, we’ve been able to track our purchasing, increase our returns with less inventory, and better control our costs.”
Jones says Sun N’ Air has increased its gross revenues more than 30 percent during the past two years, and he attributes a big part of this success to the new POS system.
“Instead of ordering 10 large shirts and 10 extra large shirts, we’re able to see that we sold all 10 extra-larges so we know to order more of them and none of the other,” Jones says. “It’s all right there for us to see.”
Inventory, which took nearly 24 man-hours before Retail Pro, now takes four hours and “95 percent of that is the actual scanning of every item,” Jones says.
“The old way, when you used to do it by hand, when you’d miss one set of irons, it was hard to find what you had missed,” he adds. “With our new system, it will tell you. It will flag it when you had two sets of Callaway irons and you only scan one. Your mistakes are easy to find.”
Sun N’ Air has been better able to track inventory and sales since adding POS technology. They also have used the information gathered through Retail Pro to establish a loyalty program that offers participating customers a chance to earn 2 percent credit back on all their purchases at the facility. Jones says scan cards help encourage customers to make bigger purchases in his pro shop, and then use their reward points on the tee line for buckets of balls.
Sun N’ Air also uses the information to tailor coupons for specific customers. “We can see who our best customers are and what they buy,” says Jones. “If a guy buys 10 dozen Pro VI balls from us the first quarter, we can give him half-off on a purchase, and that kind of thing has really helped us with customer relations.”
Targeting Your Market
Sports Ohio in Dublin, Ohio, is a privately owned, 110-acre sports and family recreation center, featuring indoor and outdoor recreational fields and an outdoor, double-decker tee-line. At the golf range, the staff is in the process of integrating Club Prophet Systems’ Pro Shop-Keeper POS software into day-to-day operations. They gather information from customers whenever possible, often from registration forms for junior camps and clinics, and from sign-ups for their mailed catalogs of schedules and activities. Then they key the information into a growing database that fuels a highly effective e-mail and direct mail campaign to get Sports Ohio’s offerings in front of the right people at the right time.
“It helps us target our main groups, especially families with kids,” says Rebecca Miller, Sports Ohio’s marketing and advertising director. “This is our main point of contact, particularly in drawing young golfers.”
The facility hosts a wide array of age-specific events like night golf tournaments and leagues, and the annual Mutual of Omaha Drive, Chip and Putt tournament, which always draws a big crowd.
Miller stresses that regularly updating their database allows Sports Ohio to stay in touch with its best customers and make them aware of these events. Better than a mass mailing, such targeting helps cut costs.
“It just makes your return that much richer, percentage-wise,” she says.
Technology Here to Stay
Despite the reluctance of some range owners to use technology to address their business challenges, most industry experts agree that automated ball-handling and POS solution are proven money-savers.
“It’s constant,” says Jones. “You have to go to trade shows and see what’s out there.”
Keyte insists automation is here to stay, and will soon be a part of all successful golf facilities. “The days when one person would pick up the balls from the range, another wash them, and yet another place them into a dispenser or basket are like dinosaur days. They’re history.”
Jones agrees.
“I’ve read where you have to be on the cutting edge with technology,” he says. “Look at lessons. People want to see their swing on a computer next to Tiger Woods’ swing. They want to try to mirror that rather than just being told to keep your elbow in. Technology is becoming more and more common everywhere.”
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