More properties are awakening to how senior players may hold the best promise for growing the game.
As today’s golf industry ponders ways to increase participation in the sport, much is made of the need to capitalize on the theoretical “latent demand” for golf among women, and the need to lure juniors into golf and away from soccer, video games and other recreational distractions.
While those demographics certainly represent opportunities to increase participation in the future, golf seems to be paying scant attention to an age group that is not only America’s fastest-growing but the most able to afford golf and club membership, and likely already involved in the game: namely, seniors age 65 and up.
The 2010 U.S. Census revealed that over 40 million Americans were age 65 or older, representing 13 percent of the country’s population. That total is projected to more than double by 2050 to 88.5 million, as U.S. lifespans continue to increase.
SUMMING IT UP
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Perhaps equally important for golf, since 2007 the 65-and-up crowd is the only U.S. age group that has showed an increase in real median household income, gaining 5.5 percent while all other age categories took a hit. More money to spend, likely an already ingrained affinity for the game, and more of them every year—what’s not to like about seniors if you’re in the golf business?
Senior Strategy
If there is any company that is heavily invested in the continuing club membership and golf participation of the senior set, it is ClubCorp. The world’s largest owner-operator of private clubs is now in the process of increasing its collection of more than 200 clubs, with the acquisition of the 50-course Sequoia Golf portfolio.
Ben Dobbs, the Director of Golf and Member Retention for ClubCorp’s Desert Region, is well aware of the need to keep aging members involved in the game.
Citing a survey of membership attrition rates at ClubCorp’s Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Dobbs reports that, “We looked at who was leaving the club there, and it was primarily seniors who didn’t or couldn’t play 18 holes any longer. We developed a nine-hole senior men’s league to help keep those players involved in the game.”
ClubCorp, like other companies and individual course operators throughout the country, has made the connection between the length and difficulty of many of today’s courses and the length of time that seniors will continue to challenge Father Time on the links. It’s a sad fact that regardless of evolving technology, older players don’t hit the ball as far as they did in their younger days.
“We’re constantly trying to get guys to play a shorter golf course,” Dobbs says. “We encourage Tee It Forward and moving up to the next set of tees, although that’s a challenge given the ego factor. As a company, we’re going to get rid of the color red in our tee sets over the next few years, and maybe that will help get rid of the stigma of playing from the ‘red’ tees.”
Puttering Around
Pinewood Country Club, located in Munds Park, Ariz., just south of Flagstaff, is semi-private, but has approximately 1,000 members, 650 of whom are golfing members, with an average member age of 55. Head Golf Professional Brian Obillo says the club has a playing group—and a course layout—for virtually every age and skill level.
“We have 14 different weekly groups, for all ages, but primarily seniors,” Obillo says. One of those groups, the Lady Niners, has an average age “around 70,” Obillo says, and is made up primarily of former 18-hole players who now gather for weekly nine-hole outings. Players are encouraged to Play It Forward, with tees starting at 200 yards from the green on the course’s par-4 and par-5 holes for those who opt to use them.
Another popular program for lady seniors at Pinewood is the Lady Putters group, which draws 75 to 85 women each Thursday evening to the club’s 18-hole putting course, with most of the players clad alike in black pants and white shirts—and many, Obillo says, using walkers to navigate the putting layout. The regular Pinewood course also boasts what are called the Elk Tees, located anywhere between 58 and 140 yards from the green, which Obillo says the club promotes for beginners or “super seniors.”
Eighteen in Paradise
While course length and difficulty can pose challenges for seniors, the time and energy required to play 18 holes is another consideration for the older set. Ka’anapali Golf Resort on Maui has instituted a unique solution to that problem called “Golf My Way.” While the program is not limited to seniors, it is popular with that demographic, according to Ka’anapali’s long-time PGA General Manager, Ed Kageyama.
“Golfers who buy 18 holes can play those 18 any way they want,” Kageyama says in describing the approach. “They may not get in 18 different holes on a contiguous 18 if they play their holes at different times, but they get 18 holes. We have a number of players who go out and play a few holes early in the morning, and then come into the clubhouse for breakfast.”
Those who participate in the Golf My Way program are issued an 18-hole card that the pro shop staff punches, so course marshals will know how many a golfer will be playing. While it may seem tempting for players to sneak in a few extra holes, Kageyama says the resort has seen little abuse of the concept.
Fitting Approach
In the interest of extending their members’ golfing lives (and golf membership dues), more and more clubs are offering fitness programs tailored to the flexibility, strength and overall conditioning required for continued golf readiness. One relatively early adopter of a golf-specific fitness regimen was Princess Anne Country Club in Virginia Beach, Va., and its General Manager, Bill Shonk.
Following the expansion of the club’s fitness facilities, including the purchase of the CYBEX Bravo system used in the company’s Golf Performance Program (“Team Workout,” C&RB, December 2011), Shonk and the members of the club’s fitness team incorporated the golf fitness regimen into their overall fitness programming.
While expenditures for additional fitness equipment and facilities had previously tended to be less popular with the club’s older members, Shonk notes, the Golf Performance programming struck a chord and has become an important element of the club’s overall programming. Something has definitely worked—Shonk says the club now logs over 37,000 visits annually to its fitness facilities.
Ka’anapali has also tapped into the growing fitness zeal among seniors, by combining two of the resort’s primary allures, golf and lush outdoor scenery, into what it calls its Fit Club. Golfers purchase a Fit Club membership for $99 a month that entitles them to play up to six holes on either of the resort’s two courses any afternoon after 4 p.m. during that month, with walking required. The Fit Club has grown to 75 players a month since its introduction in 2011, with an average of 24 players a day.
“I’ve had a number of people tell me they’ve decreased pants sizes since they joined, and more than half of them are age 50 and up,” Kageyama says. “It’s a great way to get out in the late afternoon, maybe to avoid the rush hour after work or just decompress.” Many of the group’s members have told the resort they appreciate the opportunity to walk the course (a relative rarity at Maui courses) and also how the program allows them to get out and play a few holes with their kids or grandchildren.
Getting Their Due
Special pricing breaks for seniors, rightly or wrongly, are prevalent in the public golf market, but rare on the private club side. Reduced-cost private club memberships for juniors or young executives make sense in terms of either binding junior golfers to both golf and the club, or making it possible for young adults to enjoy club membership before they’ve hit their earning peaks. But how about potential senior members, who can probably afford the full tab, but may not consider it a justifiable expense, given their limited future time to play golf and take advantage of other amenities?
Georgia-based Mosaic Clubs & Resorts (formerly Affiniti Golf) has membership programs for seniors that address that very concern. Some Mosaic clubs, Chairman Whitney Crouse reports, have programs where membership dues actually decline as members hit 60, 70, 75 or even 80, to the point where an 80-year old member is paying very minimal or no monthly dues at all.
Mosaic’s rationale is that while Baby Boomers are living longer, their play rate typically declines with age—and as they’re getting less golf for their dues, why not let them pay less, rather than have them leave the club entirely?
“Why would a 75-year-old playing once a week pay as much as a newly minted 65-year-old playing five times a week?” Crouse asks. “And why not let the 80-year-old pay no dues if he only plays a few times a year? His social life is still at the club, and he’s buying drinks, food, shirts and an occasional cart fee.”
Some industry analysts have questioned the wisdom of offering a significant greens-fee discount to public-play seniors. Those players, analysts such as Pellucid Corp. founder Jim Koppenhaver contend, are generally financially capable of paying the higher rates and sufficiently committed to golf, so a few bucks one way or another are not likely to make them give up the game.
Loyalty cards, Koppenhaver contends, are a much more profitable way to keep those older customers coming back, rather than discounting for age to anyone who shows up with an AARP card.
But there’s little doubt that senior golfers who typically patronize municipal or “value” courses can be wooed by a tempting senior discount. Recent results announced by Glencoe (Ill.) Golf Club seem to bear that out. The club’s sales of senior membership discount cards increased by 7 percent from 2012 to 2013, helping to generate a revenue increase of $114,000 and an uptick of 2,000 rounds.
Multi-course operator American Golf Corporation is also lowering the age bar. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company offers what it calls the Par 55 program at its public courses. Golfers can buy into the program for $55, which entitles them to play for the senior rate and enjoy other senior benefits for menu selections, events, etc., once they reach the age of 55. The company also offers a program where golfers under 55 can get the same rates and benefits by paying a $124 fee. In both cases, golfers are required to ride and pay cart fees for the lower senior rate.
The bottom line, as any smart course operator will tell you, is that it’s cheaper, and should be easier, to keep a current customer than to acquire a new one. And in the case of private clubs, where seniors are more likely to already be committed to golf, the longer they can play, the more likely they are to keep writing the dues checks.
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