Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr
If I owned a daily fee golf course what I would like is the fewest players possible paying the highest rate possible.
If your course is in Florida where you can operate year round, you can get an average of about 9 hours of tee times. Let's say that we have about 40 days that are rained out. You would have 315 times 9 hours giving you 2,835 hours of tee times per year. Depending on how you schedule tee times, you can get anywhere from 16 to 36 golfers per hour off your tee. That's between 144 and 324 players per day. That's between 45,360 and 102,060 rounds per year.
Lets say for example your maintenance budget for a good quality 18 hole course is $2 million. You can get that $2 million from 45,360 golfers $44 per round or you can get it from 102,060 golfers at $20 per round or any number in between.
Now that doesn't include other expenses such as pro shop and club house help or taxes, mortgage payments, utilities for buildings, depreciation, interest, capital acquisitions etc. Nor does it include any profit. Those per round prices would need to be raised to make a profit and cover additional expenses. There might also be other sources of revenue, but with those come additional expenses. In some cases such as pro shop merchandise the expenses out weigh the revenues.
One problem that is created by doing the maximum number of golfers at the lowest price is that your maintenance costs would go up or the quality of the conditions would go down because of additional wear and tear. The problem with doing the least amount of golfers is that other revenues such a food and beverage, (which I believe are separate entities in TV) range, carts, pro shop sales, etc. will suffer. Also if you have a loyal clientele base and you lose some of them, you'd be losing a greater percentage of your business. It's also more difficult to attract people that are willing to spend more money on golf. More Toyota Corollas are sold than Rolls Royces. The higher you price anything, the smaller your market becomes. But still, the fewer players you have, the less wear and tear on your course so that would be the ideal way to run a course. Most courses are somewhere in between. They get what the market will bear. If your course is full and you'r making your budget and making a profit, you'd probably try increasing the price. If you weren't attracting enough players to pay the bills, you might have to consider lowering the price. It's not rocket science.
I don't know what green fees are here compared to other courses of similar quality in the area, but why should that matter to anyone? Play the courses that you think fit your budget. I play the executives and maybe once a month or so, play a championship at the afternoon rate or go of campus. I don't play Bay Hill because it's out of my price range. I don't complain about the price for the same reason that I don't complain about the price of a Rolls Royce.
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Doc:
you make an interesting case. However for some residents it boils down to this. TV markets golf both free and affordable for retirees. Yet the executive courses are not exactly free and residents put up with a lot of aggravation. and for those residents going off campus apparently the fees don't fit their retirement budgets
As to TV championships there are several courses in and around the area of equal quality and at lower prices.
I played TV championships two days a week for 6 years with a priority and reached that point where it just was not worth it to me, any longer. It was not the fees but simply playing this much lost it appeal