Every sport in the world is constantly trying to evolve.
The mission is to become bigger and better amongst the loyal followers of your sport. By becoming better, more people will follow your sport and greater opportunities will present themselves.
Much like sports, country clubs are also trying to become bigger and better. But how? The answer is simple — by attracting more women and children.
As you already know, golf is an incredibly challenging sport. This challenge can be intimidating, and that intimidation is a reason why many women shy away from attempting to learn this beautiful game.
As a PGA professional, I have witnessed this challenge first hand. Being a head golf professional at a private country club meant figuring out ways to improve member retention. Without members, private country clubs can’t survive.
The sure-way to improve member retention was to help women and children learn to love the game of golf. This was done by creating social events for the women, and miniature golf courses for the children.
Social events at a country club can include many things. Some clubs offer a beginning golf group called “The Niners.”
This is a group of beginning golfers who get together during the quieter hours at a golf course to play nine holes together. Often, there is no score kept in order to keep the atmosphere casual and relaxed.
Depending on which club you are at, it is also not uncommon to have a “wine and nine” group.
This is self-explanatory. Golf plus wine equals fun.
By teaching women to have more fun on the golf course, your membership will grow.
Children, on the other hand, are a bit more interested in the actual games involved around a golf course. A popular thing to do for children is to create a miniature golf course on a practice putting green.
I have been involved in the construction of many of these, and they are as much fun to build as they are to play. My co-workers and I used to have a blast driving around collecting fallen tree branches, stones and countless other items we could find around the course.
These items were then used to create some spectacularly fun miniature golf courses for the children. Suddenly, coming to the golf course was fun and exciting.
Once this excitement was there, we could eventually begin teaching these children the actual game of golf.
Growing the game of golf is essential to the future of this game we love.
Sometimes it takes some creativity to introduce the game to those who don’t yet understand how to play.
Golf needs to be fun.
By creating more social events for women, and more fun-filled activities for children, the game will continue to grow and country clubs will be able to flourish.
