If Golf's Leaders Would Listen We'd See Golf Booming Again

DO YOU WANT TO SEE GOLF BOOM AGAIN?

GROW GOLF THE SMART AND EASY WAY - I MEAN GAINING NEW GOLF PLAYING CUSTOMERS OVERNIGHT!

I hope you'll copy or link this message to any golf course owner, golf management company, or any golf group like the National Golf Foundation, USGA, etc. Mike Kahn - [email protected]

In fact, this message goes out to everyone connected with the golf course industry. I mean management companies, the PGA, the National Golf Foundation, the USGA, Pellucid, Golf, Inc., the National Golf Course Owners Association, and all local Golf Associations (did I miss anyone?).

Believe me or not, I probably started more ordinary people at golf than anyone. However, I’m no golf building hero. I started thousands and thousands of people at golf because I needed golf playing customers. 

Here’s the story...

I opened a brand new golf center in Peterborough, Ontario on Saturday, June 1, 1963. Our golf center included a floodlit par-3 course, a lighted driving range, a lighted miniature putting course, a stocked pro shop, and a snack bar. The golf center was located right beside the world-famous lift lock on Ontario’s Trent Canal. It was a beautiful sunny morning and I was fully stocked in the pro shop, the hot dog grill heated and ready, staff trained, all smiles and eager to manage a mob of customers. One problem.

Nobody showed up!

The morning of Saturday, June 1, 1963, was the most disappointing moment of my life. By 11: AM, the only ‘customer’ to walk through the clubhouse was a Peterborough City Alderman who asked to play the par-3 golf course - mentioning that he didn’t have to pay because he was an important city official. My first golf customer was a free-loader!

REALLY!

I can go through all the money we spent on highway billboards, ads in the local newspaper, even radio spots, but my realization by noon on that day was that nobody in Peterborough, Ontario (outside its two private country clubs) played golf. I mean, how did we expect to have a lineup of golfers to play our par-3 golf course, or buy a bucket of balls on the driving range when no one in Peterborough played golf?

But something curious did happen that June 1st day.

By 4: PM on June 1, 1963, our miniature golf course was packed! Every one of my 100 putters was out, and people were waiting in line for putters to be turned in. The price to play mini-golf then was 50-cents for adults, 25-cents for children. By 7:PM that Saturday evening I had over $300.00 in sales – almost all for miniature golf (that was a lot of people!). 

SEASON-END - NOVEMBER, 1963 RESULTS OF OUR FIRST SEASON IN PETERBOROUGH, ONTARIO - NOT GOOD!

My job at the Peterborough Golf Center was a big jump for me in golf. A Canadian PGA member, I was hired by a Toronto company to finish building the golf course, staff and stock the clubhouse, and market and manage the business. I reported to an office 100-miles away in Toronto. So, when we tallied revenue from all sources in November of 63, the end of our first season, it showed we took in just over $32,000 for the entire summer. Up to 80% of all income came from mini-golf, the driving range, and the snack bar. The golf course was virtually empty. (To put the 1963 total income of $32,000 for an entire summer in perspective, 20-years later I took in more than $32,000 in a single holiday weekend in 1983) 

The year 1964 was not much better but I'd learned something.

In meetings in Toronto with the owner, leading Canadian PGA professional, Bert Turcotte, in mid-winter of 1965, I said I needed to create golf playing customers or the golf center was doomed to die. With a green light, I was able to run a learn to play golf ad in the local newspaper in early spring when I got back to Peterborough (I wintered in Toronto). My original ad targeted women - housewives. 

Then the most amazing thing happened!

The very day the ad ran my phone immediately started ringing. The calls were from women desperately wanting to sign up to learn how to play golf. Originally I hoped to sign up a dozen people. However, while the ground was still snow-covered in Peterborough, in '65, close to 200 women signed up - ready and eager to learn how to play golf. 

It was crazy! But my point here - to all the associations in golf, is that I had found a gold mine! I mean, I discovered that thousands of Peterborough residents wanted to give golf a try. They'd been shut out of golf entirely because the two private clubs in town were like moated castles. Moats designed to keep people out.

Then there’s I discovered something else...

All these golf-curious people not only wanted to learn to play golf, but they wanted to get out on the golf course right away! Well, that worked for me at that dying Peterborough golf center because I NEEDED GOLF PLAYING CUSTOMERS!

(I'm not the brightest star in the sky. I mean, I wasn't a calculating guru-type studying the behavior of society so I could apply my findings to create golf customers. I'd try anything because was desperate for customers. Otherwise, the Peterborough golf center would die and I'd be out of a job! Mike Kahn)

Are the mover and shakers of golf listening (you know who you are)? Remember. I've been saying for some time that there's at least 10 million Americans ready to take up golf right this minute but golf's movers and shakers keep ignoring them (there's a psychology in play here, but it'll take a greater brain than mine to figure it out).

So, what I'm saying did was, instead of starting them by teaching the grip, stance, and swing, I took them out to the golf course and showed them how to play a golf course – quickly and safely (Remember. I needed green fee-paying customers right now). So, I explained a set of golf clubs, the various accessories golfers carry. I explained the golf ball, why the dimples, stuff like that. I outlined some of golf's most basic rules, why penalties, bunker rules, when it's your turn, etc., etc. I even named the various grasses on a golf course, showed them a greens mower, and told them the greens were mowed as low as 5/64th of an inch.

By the end of what I called the ‘orientation’ lesson, I told my brand new students that they could come out any afternoon, like today and play the course. I encouraged them to get together with fellow golf beginners and come and have fun on the golf course, meanwhile learning the game together. I told them they needed to play several times before they could decide whether the game was right for them.

The five-week schedule above was the original 1965 schedule plan for teaching women (housewives in 1965) in the mornings, and later, businesswomen in the evenings. I avoided Mondays and Fridays due to holiday interruptions, etc., except our junior classes were set for Fridays after school. Sixteen in a class seemed the most appropriate number, but some were as high as 20 persons. Every time slot was sold out every spring for over 20-years - over 300 brand new golfers each year. The businesswomen's classes were also sold out, but I could not run a third evening class because hungry mosquitoes came out usually after 8:30: PM - then making later evening outside teaching unbearable! By 1970 I'd added senior couple classes at 1:PM TO 2:PM, and 2:PM TO 3:PM. They were classes of mixed senior couples.

As you can see, the lessons were only one-hour, once a week. I gave each student a book of ten driving range tickets. I wanted them to use the tickets so they could work on their ability to hit the golf ball between each lesson. They needed to get used to hitting golf balls, so they could more quickly be comfortable playing the game (it was the hand-eye coordination thing that each student needed to develop, more or less themselves). I would even ask them for a show of hands during the classes indicating whether they'd got out to the range to hit golf balls.

After the end of the five classes, I had them play a game on the par-3 course together. One of us - me or my assistant - would be on the course with them to give various pointers, but mostly we encouraged them to enjoy and have fun learning and getting the feel of the golf course - but specifically emphasizing to play briskly and safely.

By 1967 I'd expanded my learn-to-play-golf program to include men, women, businesswomen, and another bottomless pit of new golfers – senior men and women. To make this story as short as possible, here’s the result of my learn to play golf methods.

(In teaching new golfers we emphasized that they could play right away, but they had to know that others on the golf course wanted to play in a more or less set time - four gours to play 18-holes. We pointed out things like where to place your clubs when putting out so they were located at the side of the green on the way to the next tee. We emphasized recording your score after you leave the green so as not to hold up the following players. We assured them if they walked more briskly and played in the allotted time, regardless of their score (ability), they would never be noticed by other players on the golf course. Mike Kahn)

By 1970, the (1964) dying Peterborough golf center became a five-hour round on a Sunday. For instance, I had 70-rental sets that would go out twice on a Saturday or Sunday. My snack bar selling 10-cent Cokes and 25-cent hot dogs was bringing in over $1,000 bucks a day (and meeting my margins). My driving range with 200 buckets ready to go out in the morning was turning them over some days five or six times!

In 1972 I made a deal with (Bert) Turcotte whereby I became the sole proprietor of the Peterborough golf center. During all my years there, I kept detailed records of daily, weekly, monthly and annual business right from the starting day in ’63. The golf center's business grew every single year (26-years) until I left after 1988. Over that time I (we) introduced golf to at least 300 people every single year (65 to 88). Well over 7,000 people over that period.

BTW: My annual learn to play golf classes, ran only in the spring each year. I ran the newspaper advertisement in late February and by the first day of spring, every single class was sold out!

WHAT ABOUT THE PRICE FOR THE LEARN-TO-PLAY-GOLF LESSONS?

I never considered offering the lessons for free. It was important for people wanting to play golf that they understood that golf was not a free pastime. After all, eventually, they would need their own golf clubs, etc. And new golfers needed to know and get used to the fact that they had to pay to play a golf course. That's why I never gave free classes. I set each year's prices based on the year, etc. I kept it low, but not too low. However, I did offer a full fee refund - no questions asked - if they felt the lessons did not suit them. I was never asked for a refund.

As I created a steady stream of new golf players, I saw my own economy growing. I began following my new golf players to try to learn how much each new golfer added to the golf industry in five years. In 1975 I was comfortably estimating that a new golf player would add at least $5,000 in brand new money into the golf course industry in five years.

New-golfer spending included...

• green fees,
• cart fees,
• membership fees,
• golf equipment,
• golf lessons,
• practice,
• clothing,
• accessories,
• grill room food and drink,
• and even golf travel. 

REPEATING THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THIS ARTICLE

"This message goes out to everyone connected with the golf course industry. I mean management companies, the PGA, the National Golf Foundation, the USGA, Pellucid, Golf, Inc., the National Golf Course Owners Association, and all local Golf Associations (did I miss anyone?)."

GET THEM PLAYING RIGHT AWAY!

The lesson here is that people are more likely to take up the game of golf and stick with it if they get out to play the golf course sooner – all but immediately! I learned that because back in the late 1950s when I worked at a Toronto area daily fee golf course with 100 rental sets. They were all out on the golf course on a Saturday or Sunday. These were all rented by golfers’ who had never taken a lesson. They were people who loved to get out and hit a golf ball, walk the fairways, and enjoy a few hours of fun time with their friends. The first tee at that Toronto golf course was lined up from dawn to dusk. Golfers then were ordinary people, men, some women, and seniors – many WWII veterans.

What I’m trying to explain is that most of those 1950s golf players never took a golf lesson. Some may have participated in group clinics at some time. Many of them didn’t even own golf clubs. Renting golf clubs to play a public golf course was quite common in 1958 (unheard of in 2019).

DO YOU READ ME?

I learned at the golf center in Peterborough, Ontario, that people want to get out on the golf course ASAP! Waiting for endless (boring) lessons serves to chase many prospective golfers away from the game. Let's face it, Golf lessons can be quite boring and unexciting.

In my experience, the method of teaching new golfers needs to start by teaching them how to play a golf course. I emphasized maintaining the 'proper' speed of play and safety. I explained a set of golf clubs, the design of a golf ball, basic rules of play, how to keep score, to leave the green quickly, even walk briskly. I turned out thousands of 100-shooters who could play 18 in less than four hours.

P.S. One of the reasons for the 5-hour Sunday rounds at the Peterborough golf center was its long par-3, 3rd hole that always had a ‘tailgate party’ on the tee. Long par-3 holes are always tie-up holes. In the Peterborough course, it was a course layout flaw. Live and learn. 

BTW: I’LL HELP ANYONE WHO WANTS TO ADOPY MY ‘PLAY-NOW’ LEARN-TO-PLAY-GOLF METHODS.

Write me with any questions. Or to set a time for a phone conversation. I’m not looking for or asking for anything. I’d just like to see a few failing golf courses saved – just like my golf center in Peterborough.

Mike Kahn, President, Golfmak, Inc. In golf in North America for over 65-years. Write to me: [email protected]