The problem with these four resorts is that they are catering to the same individual all of the time, upper class people making $150,000 plus a year. They don’t allow the real people such as you and I the time of day to come and play at their course, or stay at their resort. Can I blame them no not really? People are paying the money to play and stay there and they are taking advantage of it just like any good business would do.

Now things have changed in the golf resort world, especially in Florida. When the economy started to slow down, the amount of golf being played, and the amount of people staying at Florida golf resorts also started to slow down as well. The 4 popular golf resorts I mentioned above probably haven’t changed their ways yet, but I can guarantee you that since they haven’t changed their ways and are probably losing large amounts of money because they haven’t adjusted to this new economy.

In reality, what did this economy do to the golf world? How has it changed the golf world? Will the economy ever improve? To tell you the truth, I do not have a truthful answer I can give you because a lot of golf resorts and golf clubs are not being honest with themselves or other professionals in our industry. The economy has started to slow down play in all areas of the country. The economy has made golfers start to play at cheaper courses, or look for special offers that are occurring at particular resorts. No longer can resorts rely on regular customers because a lot of those regulars have ditched their home course in search of the best deal.

What can they do about this problem before it gets to bad? It is very simple; in fact it is really a no brainer. They need to come up with an astounding promotion that drives traffic to their resort. Need an example? I thought you might want one.

Juliette Falls is a new Florida golf resort in Dunnellon. It is only about an hour away from both Tampa and Orlando and is roughly 15 minutes way from Ocala. Its a very isolated place. Juliette Falls has a beautiful course and the luxury golf homes are jaw dropping. So what does a Florida gated community do when the economy slows and homes stop selling? They came up with a strategic plan that involved a promotion supplement their lost income. Juliette Falls made the decision to start selling special packages that allow you to stay in a incredible million dollar Florida golf homes, play a round of golf on their astonishing course full of waterfalls, and enjoy all of the resorts facilities for the low price of just $199 a night. What golfer in their right mind would refuse an offer to stay in a luxury golf home and play a round of golf for that price, I know I couldn’t. What this does is create a new stream of money using assets that they have and are not in use. If they sell only 2 stays for every night of that year, that’s $145,000 a year in pure profits! It also could supply a steady stream of potential home buyer leads! Why aren’t all the other golf resorts thinking this way?

Golf Resorts need to start thinking outside of the box. In this economy it may be the only way to keep a positive income!

Roy Williams reviews a new great golf resort every month and also reviews Florida golf communities. He contributes to multiple golf review sites across the internet. He is a consultant for many golf resorts across the country.

The golf industry is behind the times in almost every core aspect of running a business in this day and age. Most golf courses still have a website that provides no information and looks like something that my 12 year old daughter could create in a few hours. These golf clubs need to embrace technology and develop a website that both promotes AND generates business. There are a handful of golf marketing businesses that specifically create websites to help generate more business for golf clubs, why aren’t more clubs taking advantage of them?

Another way the golf industry is behind the times is marketing in general. Look at how much effort golf clubs are putting into promoting themselves. Are they even trying to promote themselves? The average golf clubs does the following things which they call “marketing”.

They place a black and white ad in the town newspaper showing how they just lowered the price of play. This only gets them into discount wars with their competition which only causes them to lose MORE money. They should instead find something that they do better than the rest of their competition, create a unique sales proposition promoting that something, start promoting their course for that something, and possibly even RAISE prices because they do something the other courses do not.

They place a boring ad in the yellow pages and local phone book. Honestly, with the invention of search engines such as Google and the amount of people who use the internet these days, how many people do you think still use the phone book to find information when they could just power up their computer and type in a search term? The answer is almost no one! These clubs that are spending thousands of dollars a year on this single ad could be directing that extra money towards something more beneficial such as a website or direct mail campaign like I mentioned above.

They place an ad in the local penny saver. Once again, something that is proven to be ineffective in this day and age. Instead they should be looking into fusion marketing techniques and working with other businesses to promote their golf club. They could easily go to the local Cadillac dealer and give away a free round of golf with every car purchase. Not only will the dealership easily accept this offer, but it will get new people, with MONEY, at the course and they will easily make up the lost green fee revenue by the new players paying for a cart fee or eating after the round at the club house. They will even convert some of these players into regulars. Think about that for a second, if they charge forty dollars a round, and the new players plays on average ten times a year, they just made an extra $400 off green fees alone. If you get 20 new players a year from the car dealership that’s an extra $8,000 a year from a simple green fee promotion with a car dealership!

Another way golf resorts are slowly killing themselves is with real estate. A lot of golf communities that were doing great in the early 2000s are now drowning in a sea of debt because of unsold lots, unsold homes, and not enough members. What can they do to help fix this problem? Lets look at what Juliette Falls, which is a Golf Resort in Florida, in Dunnellon did. They first got a first-class website from a company named Legendary Marketing. They built their website into something that looks very good and promotes exactly what they do. Well guess what, the economy dropped off and now they have over forty homes that are in the price range of $500,000 to more than a million and no one was buying them. How can they turn this around? They came up with an incredible promotion that is how! At Juliette Falls you can stay in a Florida Luxury Golf Home worth over a million dollars, play a round of golf, enjoy the onsite spa and eat at a fancy restaurant for $199 a night. If they sell only one night for every day of the year, that’s over $70,000 in additional revenue for the resort AND they get new prospects and leads at the course every single day which they can use to promote to in the future! Why aren’t all the golf communities thinking this way?

As you can see, the golf industry is slowing killing itself by being behind the times in technology, marketing, real estate and a host of other things that will be addressed in a future article. If you are a member of a golf club, or even better part of the members committee, stand up and say something about the actions your club is taking. Tell your club they need to break the mold of what they have been doing because it is not working. Make them think outside the box! Make your golf course management company become accountable for the actions the club takes! It may be the only thing that they can do to save your golf course!

Roy Williams is a former course manager and has worked for various golf courses across the United States. He now spends his time reviewing Florida Golf Communities and Florida Luxury Golf Homes for various websites in the southern USA region.

The 18-hole championship golf course designed by Jim Engh is the crowning jewel of the Sonoran desert. Jim Engh has earned many awards including being named Architect of the Year by Golf Digest in 2003. The course features gorgeous mountain views and the Blackstone rock from which the community gets it’s name, make Blackstone Country Club golf course a worth admiring.

Blackstone has choices between fine and casual dining restaurants, a bar, wine cellar, and space to host private parties and other special events. The Hacienda is Blackstone’s Mediterranean-inspired clubhouse and is located in the center of the golf course. Blackstone memberships are 80 percent equity position and a social membership requires real estate ownership within the Blackstone community.

Blackstone has 200 custom home sites ranging in size from 1/2 acre to 1 acre and range in price from the mid-$200,000s to $1 million. Blackstone also features 350 luxury single-family homes by Camelot and T.W. Lewis priced from $600,000 and up. So whether you are looking to buy land to build on or a luxury home there are many options to fit your lifestyle.

Blackstone has received many awards including being named No. 27 on the Best New Course list by Golfweek in 2007, named Residential Course of Distinction by Golfweek in 2007 and received a merit award as Best Public/Private Recreational Use Facility for the Hacienda Clubhouse in 2007.

Closing Comments

It is easy to see how Blackstone Country Club is quickly becoming the gated community of choice in the Peoria, Arizona. See for yourself all the luxuries Blackstone has to offer.

Hubert Miles is the founder of Gated Communities USA, an online marketing service that provides information on Gated Communities in the USA and Internationally. Find information on Retirement Communities Today.

“We can not start a new budget when we don’t have final numbers for 2009.” “We haven’t decided what we are going to do with our operation in the off season.” “We’re too busy to create a plan.” “We’re scared of what it might look like.” “We tried that before and it did not help us at all.” “Our golf management company wont allow us to create our own plan.”

Any of this strike a chord? Be honest now!

The reality is that many golf clubs either don’t have the commitment, skills, discipline, or desire to put together a plan. Planning is work! Very hard work! But like any other hard work well done, it provides amazing benefits.

A forward thinking approach with a financial plan in place for the entire year and then updated on a quarterly basis with a forecast with a focus on creating the future is a paradigm that almost any successful business utilizes. Yet, I find that in most cases golf clubs do little more than take a perfunctory look at the numbers from the prior month usually about 30 to 60 days if not more after the month has ended.

I have seen amazing transformations in the actions golf resorts take when the financial realities of their company are made known to them in black and white terms with a well thought out financial plan and a forecast of the future business. I have implemented forecasting where it previously wasn’t utilized and immediately new plans were developed for better expense controls and the marketing ideas became number 1 priorities instead of just when I get to it afterthoughts.

Directing focus towards creating the future through a thorough, well crafted business plan is what separates great operators from marginal and poor operators. It the difference between swimming toward a destination and just drifting with the current. It reminds me of a something from the book from Alice in Wonderland. When Alice encounters a Cat during her travels, she asks the cat for advice on the road she should take. The Cat responds by asking Alice where she would like to go. Alice responds that she really does not know. The Cat responds by telling Alice that if she doesn’t know where she wants to go, then the road she takes really doesn’t matter. Do you know where you want your golf club to go in 2010?

You need to have goals. Putting together a financial is more than just number crunching. There is much groundwork that must be completed in order to get the proper foundation to plan. A solid financial plan is the final results of a thorough Business Planning process which includes:

The Components of a thorough Business Plan include:

1. SFSWOT Analysis

This is analysis of each club departments and the club’s overall

Successes

Failures

Strengths

Weaknesses

Threats

Opportunities

It provides a critical self assessment of your Club and provides a great foundation for goal setting for both qualitative and quantitative improvements in the upcoming year.

2. Competitive Analysis

Who is your competition? What are the fees at your competitions club? What is your golf club’s unique selling advantage?

3. Membership Planning

What are your Club trends for both membership enrollment and attrition by category? What real growth do you want to plan for in 2010? What has been the trend with upgrades and downgrades? What are you doing with Initiation Fees? Do you have financing in place? How will you handle your wait list to join? To resign?

4. Pricing Plan

What price increase will you take this year and when? Will member dues increase? will that cause member attrition? How will you price your golf cart and guest fees? What about F and B. Remember, except for a very few elite Clubs in the Country, cost does matter.

5. The Payroll Planning

What payroll increases are you authorizing for the golf clubs employees in 2010? Are the increases performance based or just no thought across the board increases? Can your golf club afford to give salary increases? Do you have incentive based compensation plans in place or do you just pay for showing up regardless of the job performance?

6. Expense Planning

What expense increases are you anticipating? Have you reviewed each department on a line item basis to determine if the expenses may have significant fluctuations up or down? Items that can change significantly include general liability insurance, property taxes, utilities, fertilizer, chemicals, and fuel. Did you review these thoroughly to ensure you have an accurate view of the expense side of the financial plan?

7. Marketing Plan

Do have a written quarterly game plan for driving the revenue sources that are important to your Club? Are there specific timelines and employees assigned to carry out the plans? Did you budget enough money for marketing to achieve the results you will need? Check out our industry best website solution for Private Clubs at Private Club Commander

8. Retention Planning

Do you have a comprehensive calendar of events that appeal to all segments of your membership to keep them using the golf club and providing needed revenues. Is your calendar planned ahead at least three months at all times? Or are you trying to come up with things or offers at the last minute because the newsletter copy is due?

9. Qualitative Improvement Planning

Do you have a written quarterly plan in every department for qualitative improvement? Specifically, are you challenging all of your Club departments to implement 2 or 3 initiatives that either create a better member experience, provide for improved employee efficiency, introduce a new product or service, or produce a better financial result?

10. Capital Planning

Do you have a written capital replacement plan in place for 2010? Replacing depreciated assets on an annual basis is a component of a successful business. Do you have the necessary money to replace what is needed in 2010? Are you going to lease or finance needed golf equipment? Have you made sure you have done the analysis? Is your plan at least looking ahead five years?

Bob Devitz is the CEO of Legendary Golf Management Companies and is an expert in the operations and marketing of Private Clubs. Bob has over 25 years of experience in the industry, primarily in senior managerial roles with ClubCorp. Bob is a member of the PGA of America. Having worked with hundreds of Private Clubs during his career, Bob brings a results driven, bottom line approach to the Club Industry.

One big difference between shooting and golf is the physical effort and fitness level required to play golf to a reasonable standard. Golf requires you to be reasonably fit and flexible due to the process of hitting the ball. Shooting required less flexibility, but you still need to have a degree of general mobility as you need to be able to swing the gun with the movement of the clay. If you have any inherent injuries, it is more likely to hamper your golf than your shooting.

Also, a game of golf (the full 18 holes) takes around 3 hours to complete whereas going round a clay pigeon shoot for 100 clays will take between 1 and 2 hours, so you don’t have to set aside half of the day to practice or take part in a shooting competition whereas with golf, you would.

Another key difference is that as a Golfer, you become a member of a club, so as tied primarily to that club for your games. As you in essence only have 18 holes to shoot at you are therefore limited to the variety of targets available to you. With clay pigeon shooting, shooting at one ground is not as restrictive as the possible variety of targets that can be set up is endless. Membership fees at shooting grounds tend to be much less than at Golf clubs. Most grounds will change their layouts on a regular basis so you never have a change to get bored.

Whatever activity or sport you choose to take your mind off things, remember to always treat it as a bit of fun rather than a competition, or it will defeat the object of going there for a stress-free relaxation session and will end up with mounting pressure to win resulting in even further stress.

For more information on events, visit sportingtargets.co.uk for a great shooting venue that’s also brilliant for stag party

Stretch and Warm up When your swing your club and hit a golf ball with a lot of force, you are performing an explosive move. Explosive moves will often strain your muscles, including the lower back muscles if you havent warmed up. Why should playing golf be so different to other exercise? You would never sprint down the road at full speed without at least some kind of warm up, like running on the spot. If you get up in the morning and tee off, hitting the ball as hard as you can, without any stretches or warm ups beforehand, you could easily sprain your back muscles. Do these 2 stretches-your hamstrings and shoulders. After doing these two stretches (see below), twist lightly side to side. Now do some practice swings, slow and easy, with your golf club. You should now be warmed up sufficiently.

Hamstring stretch Your hamstrings (the muscles at the back of the upper legs) are important to stretch because they are attached to the pelvis. This means that they pull on the pelvis when they are tight. You need looser hamstring muscles in order to prevent them pulling on your pelvis and lower back. A simple standing hamstring stretch is as follows: Put your right leg in front of your left leg, keeping the right leg straight. You can bend the back leg (left leg) slightly. Bend forward at the hips and hold onto your right shin or ankle. You will feel a stretch down the right leg. Hold this for 15 seconds or so and then repeat on the left side.

Shoulder stretch Any swinging motion such as swinging a golf club uses the shoulder muscles. Like your hamstrings, if they havent been warmed up, the shoulder muscles can be strained by sudden movements. Here is a simple shoulder stretch: Place the right hand at the back of the neck, between the shoulder blades. Your elbow should point upwards. Hold the right elbow with the left hand. Pull gently. You will feel a stretch in the right shoulder. Hold this for 10-15 seconds. Repeat with the left shoulder.

Good Posture If you bend your back when you pick up the ball or your golf bag, the repeated action over a few hours can strain your back muscles. Dont bend your back. Bend your knees. Let your leg muscles take the weight of the bag and not your back.

Strengthen your abdominals The abdominal muscles support your torso. Thats why weak abs often lead to low back pain. Do 5-10 minutes a day of abdominal exercises, such as crunches. Crunches are preferable to sit-ups as sit-ups can put a lot of strain on your lower back. Do 10 crunches a day. Each week, try to increase this number. In addition, do a stability exercise, for example the plank. Hold the position for 15 seconds and increase this time each week.

Walk Golf should involve a bit of walking. Walking will engage the muscles that remain stiff if youre sitting in a golf cart all day. Walking exercises the hamstring muscles, for example, which will mean less chance of lower back pain. Make it your aim to walk the first 9 holes before you start sipping G&T in the golf cart ! Enjoy your golf!

Build your Back, Beat the Pain is a step-by-step plan that anyone can follow to stretch and strengthen key muscles to prevent back pain.