A shot at recovery

30 October 2009

As the golf season draws to a close, a leading golf club recovery expert believes the industry needs some fundamental changes to stay out of the rough.

It’s been a tumultuous year for Ireland’s golfing industry as leisure spending drops apace and the lucrative golf tourism trade suffers badly from the US recession.

Amid a backdrop of closures, receiverships and membership fee cuts, one firm is busy managing the crisis – Carr Golf Services specialises in the management of golf clubs, particularly distressed ones.

Commercial Director Ed Petit believes the industry is set for a further shakeup as activity slows down over the winter.

“I think it is inevitable that some courses will close down. There was a surge in participation in golf through the end of the nineties and that flattened out a little in the early part of this century before plateauing in the last year and a half or so.

“However, the development of golf course continued to soar at the same pace so there was always going to eventually be an imbalance between demand and supply.”

Petit suggests that the traditional model of club membership may soon be an outdated one and believes the entire industry needs to look at itself very closely.

“I think the attitudes of golfers are changing and the old model may soon be gone. I think we will inevitably see consolidation between clubs, perhaps allowing golfers play multiple courses within the same membership.”

Carr Golf Services works directly with clubs or insolvency practitioners to improve the fortunes of struggling clubs. It provides a full audit of a golf club’s structure, reviewing its costs, services and revenue streams.

“We look at all aspects of the club, from the course itself and the services to members to the bar and restaurant and the kind of golf plus food packages available,” comments Petit.

“For example, we are working with one members club at the moment to turn around fortunes. Unfortunately, membership numbers dropped this year so we have to look elsewhere to make savings and increase revenue.

“We’ve reduced the overheads on the clubhouse by 28 per cent, we’ve increased green fee revenue by 27 per cent and boosted food and beverage takings by 30 per cent.

“It’s definitely not all about going in and making cuts and slashing everything. That doesn’t work. It’s about engaging with the membership and providing them with a better product than they have already.”

One area where Petit believes courses can make substantial saving is course maintenance. He has set up a separate company which provides outsourced maintenance to courses.

“By centralising maintenance for several courses, we can reduce costs for an individual club by between 30 and 50 per cent.”