Reinventing your Failing Golf Course
Golf as we know it, has been declining for many years. We previously discussed reasons for this and will touch upon them again, before getting into how Barbaron wants to turn that around. Brian Costa wrote a compelling article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Americans Want to Play Golf – Until They Try It, The number of people trying golf for the first time has gone up, but overall participation continues to drop. What is the sport doing wrong?” on March 7, 2016*. Other than the two main issues of cost and the time it takes to play a round of golf, Costa focused on embarrassment of a first time golfer and the design not being beginner friendly*. These four facts; cost, time, embarrassment, and playability are what is fueling the decline in the sport. Barbaron has a remedy for this and a vision to attract and retain even more first timers in the sport.
The facts show that golf is showing a decline and the number one question is, how do we make golf popular and attract the younger generations? Barbaron has a vision, led by our President and designer Terry LaGree, to transform failing golf courses to do exactly that, attract the younger generation and still appeal to the older generations with faster rate of play and better playability. By taking a failing 18-hole course, Barbaron envisions remodeling to create a Six12 golf course, which has been discussed in our previous blogs. As we stated, Six/12 courses have been a success in Canada and can be here. They provide the options of faster play for the time crunched schedules of today’s world and lower costs due to less maintenance. So, we have redisgn an 18-hole course to a Six/12 course, but what do we do with that leftover, unused land?
This is where Barbaron would add extra amenities to help draw in the younger generation. With a comprehensive market analysis that is specific to your golf course location, Barbaron would design amenities such as 3-hole practice area, computerized driving range, tennis courts, basketball courts fun obstacle / fitness course, walking trails, rock climbing wall, small concert area, bocce ball and croquet courts, etc. Also, if need be, make improvements to your concession/restaurant area. Your newly design course can be a family fun attraction that will dramatically effect your real estate value, as well as maintaining the origins of traditional golf that will continue to appeal to your current market of golfers.
Stay tuned for future blogs continuing on the topic of transforming your failing golf course into a thriving Six/12 attraction!
*http://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-want-to-play-golfuntil-they-try-it-1457379085
