When looking at our past few assignments I personally believe that the client demographic is the most important. This is such a major part of any business plan to ensure you are reaching the right groups of people to keep the course functioning and making money. This is largely due to the fact that our course is a mix of private and public, so without appealing to the public players our course would really struggle. We do our best to listen to the members as they are our guaranteed visitors but by making decisions (ie. easy pins, quick puttable greens) to appeal to the public demographics of our area we can help our company reach goals that in turn help our department the following year.
Secondly I would look at the physical characteristics such as trees, slopes, and drainage simply for the fact that these have a major impact on the turf characteristics and what grasses will grow better throughout the property. When looking at these two categories we realize that the first ensures that the business is thriving, which can allow for a bigger budget to improve and maintain the course. The Second can correlate with the first because it gives us the understanding of how different areas of the course are affected by varying daily environmental conditions. This can help with course set up decisions that may help the course play easier or more challenging depending on the specific clientele on each particular day.
I think it is extremely to look at these two factors whether working at a private course or public. Understanding your demographic is one of the first steps to a successful business. I look forward to learning and adapting my methods based on these factors, not only for my course but any course I may work with in the future. Helping all courses be successful is something we should all strive for to help the game of golf grow and evolve. It should be the goal of everyone in our industry to encourage the next generation of golfers as well as bring our existing demographic back to enjoy what we have to offer time and time again.
Thank you Ian for a great first year and I look forward to seeing you in the new year!
Cheers, Matt
Matt's Reflective Journal 