Optimising the tee sheet as a Head PGA Professional can have a huge impact on the revenue of your golf club and the happiness of your members.
Whether it is showing flexibility with green fees or comparing your rates to nearby courses, there are several methods that lead to a profitable tee sheet.
PGA Advanced Head Professional James Wood has seen great results in this department at Muswell Hill Golf Club, in North London, and at Sudbury Golf Club, in West London, before that.
Here, Wood explains some of his secrets to success.
Prioritise your members when you set dynamic green fees
The first thing is to make sure that the members are happy. If you can increase revenue, without upsetting them, you’ve struck gold.
We have some member roll-ups on a Wednesday and say it is 1pm until 3pm when the members play. Between 12pm and 1pm, I go with ‘Category A’ pricing, the most expensive pricing strategy that we offer, which could be £110 per person because we don’t want it to be busy in front of them.
No one is going to pay it. But then afterwards, or earlier than that, between 9am and 10am, I could say £60, make it considerably cheaper to play at that time of the day.
They (club members) have the swindles, they have the syndicates, they have the roll-ups. Protect them. That's your bread and butter. You look after them. (You have) one bad experience where a green fee has held up the swindle, and it's the end of the world, and then you've got to stop taking green fees.
Pictured: PGA Advanced Head Professional James Wood
Use benchmarking data to optimise your tee sheet
I analyse our competitors. I see local courses and what they're charging at certain times. A lot of them just have a flat rate, like midweek or weekend. I try to make it so that we're more competitive.
I work very closely with the manager and the board with what my limits are, as to how low I can go. There's no upper limit.
When the new season comes, I'll probably spend three or four hours analysing the market, seeing where everything's at.
Use dynamic pricing to unlock revenue
Green fees represent a massive revenue stream for the golf club. At Sudbury, it was around £60,000 in the year when I started. By the end, we were doing over £250,000.
I introduced dynamic pricing. When the members were playing, the price went up, and then when the tee sheet was quiet, I dropped the price.
We were one price for a oneball. The high-end rate would be £90 for a oneball, then it would be £160 for a twoball, so £80 each. Then we’d go down to £75 a head for a threeball, and then £65 for a fourball. We were encouraging you to bring your friends.
It just shows your worth to the golf club and when it does come to negotiating retainers and trying to cement yourself in the future of the plans, it's a fantastic opportunity for you to do that, because you become an invaluable asset.
“Once I had their email addresses I could market to them. I could say, for example, we're quiet next Monday, who fancies a game – it was £50 each, but now it’s £100 for a fourball” - James Wood
Why increasing website traffic is vital
We went cashless. We sent everyone to our website, and by doing so, they got a confirmation email, which they had to show us.
Getting the email address is important, because then you can market to them. Our database is up to 1,800 people now. It was quite low before, and all the traffic we've generated organically has been going through the website.
Once I could market to them, I could say, for example, we're quiet next Monday, who fancies a game – it was £50 each, but now it’s £100 for a fourball. We could market aggressively, and we grew societies off the back of that as well.
Cashless is good for transparency as well, because then the golf club can see all the revenue that goes in. We said you can pay in store, but we're £10 per person more expensive in store. If you go online, you get the cheaper rates.
To find out more about the benefit of digital booking systems, click here.
