Think things are bad for pros here? Look up north.
Thanks to the miracle of Google’s news search, I came across an item that’s rarer than a double-eagle. It’s an article by Ian Hutchinson from today’s Toronto Sun that actually offers interesting insights into the golf industry in the Great White North. You can check out the full article here, but here are a few interesting excerpts:
- “Golf is not about people anymore, it’s about bottom line. Therefore, club professionals are gradually losing control of pro shops and losing lucrative revenue from golf cart rentals. Many are learning other aspects of the golf business to enhance their value, while others are treated as seasonal workers.”
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This, to some extent, is old news in the U.S. But, in the private club-centric golf community of Canada, it’s an interesting change.
- “Club professionals have themselves to blame to a certain extent. Either through arrogance, naiveté, or a little of both, many ignored the warning signs and stuck their heads in the sand, only to get their tushies booted.”
Ditto in the U.S. Most golf professionals never saw the evolution of golf from a social activity into a cut-throat business coming. The old guard was left in the dust.
- “The pros can shoulder some of the blame, but not all. The golf industry, as a whole, has not paid attention to what its own consumers want, preferring instead to concentrate on what it wants.”
That was true down here five years ago, but not today. Any facility ignoring customers is just that – ignorant.
- “Nobody can fault golf course owners for wanting to run their facilities in a cost-effective manner, but so often in trying to achieve a better bottom line, businesses end up amputating the very things that made them successful in the first place. In this case, golf is cutting at the pros, its high-profile, front-line people.”
Well, that’s where I tend to disagree with Mr. Hutchinson. If Canadian pros still had the same cushy deals (cart revenues, pro shop contracts, etc.) that American pros did a decade ago, they shouldn’t have been surprised by what’s happened. Frankly, it’s just modern business reality in the service sector.
Click through and read the entire article. It offers a lucid look at the state of the golf industry among our neighbors up north. (Even better, it offers the opportunity to navigate through to a section of their site called the SUNShine Girl. Canadian newspapers rule!)