City of Kingman, Arizona: Cerbat Cliffs Golf Course

The City of Kingman hired JJ Keegan+ after a competitive RFP. The goal was to evaluate the marketing and operations of Cerbat Cliffs, its municipal course, which was running an annual deficit funded by the city. The study included a community-wide golfer survey and a review of the course’s point-of-sale reporting, which found only 4 of 15 essential management reports in use. Keegan presented the findings directly to City Council. His recommendations were a rebuilt POS and data framework, a customer database for email marketing, guaranteed reservations with a credit card, and dynamic pricing. Under the report’s scenarios, these changes could cut the deficit by more than $300,000 a year. City staff have since built their golf marketing and operations action plan on the study’s findings.

Darien Golf Course Gets Mixed Ratings In Study

JJ Keegan conducted a regional golf-course study surveying more than 1,800 golfers, evaluating public courses across pricing, conditions, layout, and overall experience. Their findings showed Carriage Greens in Darien rated well for affordability but ranked near the bottom in course quality and recommendation, highlighting clear opportunities for improvement.

Money Well Spent – Or Not?

The article “Money Well Spent – Or Not?” examines how golf course managers can control escalating maintenance and renovation costs by making smart, long-term investments rather than simply spending large sums without strategy. It highlights several key points:

• Investing in Technology: For example, Buffalo Dunes Golf Course in Kansas adopted autonomous mowers, which not only improved cutting quality but also saved significant labor hours and reduced overall maintenance costs.
• Strategic Planning: The piece stresses the importance of developing comprehensive master plans before embarking on expensive projects such as new irrigation systems or extensive bunker renovations. This careful planning helps avoid costly missteps and ensures that investments align with future needs.
• Reevaluating Routine Practices: The article suggests that some traditional practices—like costly fertilizer programs or unnecessary intermediate mowing cuts—can be streamlined to free up resources for more impactful projects.
• Investing in People: It also advocates for investing in staff development, using initiatives such as tuition programs or forgivable loans to retain talented personnel, which can yield long-term benefits.

Q & A Call

• JJ’s Journey and Expertise: Learn about JJ Keegan’s incredible journey, his consulting services, and his award-winning books that have helped educate the industry.

• Future of Golf: Get JJ’s predictions on the growth and potential decline of golf and understand the factors influencing these trends.

• Golf Course Selection: Discover what golfers look for when choosing where to play, and how you can enhance your course’s appeal.

• Key Metrics: Understand the essential KPI’s that every golf course owner and GM should monitor to ensure success.

• Revenue Growth: Learn the top strategies for increasing revenues and managing expenses effectively.

• Technology in Golf: Explore the technological advancements that could revolutionize golf course operations.

• Loyalty Programs: Gain insights into the effectiveness of loyalty cards, season passes, discounts, and other promotional tools.

Opinion: Longer lead time for reservations

Longer lead time for reservations has potential to change the golf industry

Golf’s narrow tee-time booking window is costing thousands of dollars annually.

Airlines, hotels, car rentals, theaters, sporting events and restaurants all share one thing in common: consumers can make reservations more than seven days in advance.

Football, baseball, basketball, hockey, movies and concerts all allow you to purchase tickets in advance on a non-refundable basis.

At most golf courses in the United States, however, golfers can only book tee times up to seven days in advance. Golf may be the only entertainment activity for which reservations are accepted during such a narrow booking window. Whether or not that policy is a hangover from the days of using paper tee sheets, a golf course’s adherence to its seven-day policy can cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

FROM BITES AND BYTES TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Editor’s note: We invited JJ Keegan, a consultant and former owner of a tech company, to explain how technology has evolved in the golf industry. The names mentioned in parentheses throughout this article reflect the influential people who directed the companies.

“In the 1899 edition of Punch Magazine, Charles H. Duell, com- missioner of the U.S. patent office, said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

History has been unkind to that statement.
Since 1980, about 80 companies have developed software for golf courses. Thirty-three have been sold, 20 liquidated, and two remain operational though no longer involved in the golf indus- try. Only four golf-focused software companies operating today were incorporated before 2000 — Club Prophet, Club Essential, Jonas and Micros.

Capitalism creates; capitalism destroys.
Looking back at the four distinct phases of software adoption by the golf industry is a nostalgic journey down memory lane with uneasiness about what may lie ahead.

AAGUSTIN PIZÁ MAKES THE GOLF INC. POWER 2020 ISSUE AS ONE OF GOLF’S UP AND COMING SUPERSTARS

Pizá Golf, recognized internationally for their innovative approach to golf course architecture which blends traditional British fundamentals with contemporary innovative designs from North America – proudly announces that Founder and Director Agustin Pizá has been included in the prestigious Golf Inc. Power 2020 issue. The annual fall issue that focuses on the most powerful people in the golf business.

Within this highly sought after Power 2020 issue, is the “Golf’s up and Coming Superstars” feature written by JJ Keegan. This section is dedicated to “a new generation of leaders moving up in the ranks and bringing with it signs of a more diverse future.”

ASGCA Foundation releases new book to help clubs make design decisions

The book also features a number graphics and charts, including the life expectancy for a course’s infrastructure, maximum slope for green speeds, suggested size for tees and much more.

Author JJ Keegan previewed Designs on a Better Golf Course: “There were many fabulous things in this tome and some that surprised me,” he said. “The insights that ‘every design is a compromise’ and ‘the focus of some architects is to prevent what golfers want – a good score’ are among the candid comments that make this book a valuable resource. By itself, the charts on ‘Green Slope vs. Speed’ and ‘The Appropriate Size of the Green based on the Length of the Approach Shot,’ create fabulous guidance that validates why purchasing this book is a wise investment.”

Overseer of the Empire

A CU grad who learned the game at Aurora’s Meadow Hills, Troon Golf CEO Tim Schantz is the heir apparent to the title of “most powerful person in golf.”

Now, as the CEO of Troon Golf, which operates some 500 golf courses worldwide, including seven in Colorado, Schantz can touch more people in golf than almost anyone else—and is indeed poised to be among the most powerful people in the game. The son of an Orvis fly-fishing guide and a needlepoint shop owner, Schantz was in the first graduating class of Aurora’s Overland High School in 1982. He learned the game at Meadow Hills as a teenager, then played Flatirons Golf Course and begged an occasional round at Boulder Country Club as he worked his way through CU as a scholarship student.

PGA Tour, EZLinks forge new company to compete with GolfNow

The PGA Tour is entering the world of online tee-time booking via a new deal with Chicago-based golf software company EZLinks Golf, Inc. in a move that is expected to challenge GolfNow, the market leader.

The PGA Tour is now a substantial owner of the newly forged affiliate company EZLinks LLC, in a deal finalized last week, according to EZLinks LLC CEO Gary Cohen.

“It can be a game changer because it gives golfers and courses a real choice,” Cohen told Golf Inc. Magazine.

Survival Tactics: How Modern Practices And Managing Expectations Leads To Municipal Success 

As Jim Keegan, one of the premier municipal golf consultants in the nation, said, “If the question is: can municipal golf courses be successful, the answer is a qualified yes. Within a major metropolitan area where demand exceeds supply, municipal golf courses can thrive. Think Bethpage, Brown Deer, Crandon Park or Torrey Pines.

“In the hinterlands, the type of golf course experience needs to match the attitudinal behavior and demographics of the residents. Demand for golf needs to be closely monitored. If the facility is an entry-level golf course that serves as the entry door to the game and is funded gently by the general fund, there is justification for that municipality to be in the golf business. But to attempt to compete against a daily fee course offering activities that compete against private enterprise, probably not.”
Knowing your course and your customer sounds easy. But far too many operators get it wrong.

Geoff Converse: Cape & Islands golf gets down to business

Last week, there was a conference held at Barnstable Town Hall on marketing Cape & Islands golf in an attempt to grow the industry here.

Over the past decades, that task was undertaken by the likes of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, Tee Ball Golf and a consortium of different courses banding together to promote the region.

Last year, the Town of Yarmouth hired an outside consultant to help the golf committee and help guide Yarmouth into the future. His name is JJ Keegan, who specializes in the business of golf and offers insights into making a golf operation profitable.

Keegan travels the world over in his position as a mentor, consultant and observer. He is a treasure-trove of information to help courses, municipalities and country clubs turn what may be a struggling venture into a self-sustaining and growing enterprise.

1. Presented to City of Johnson City Council on December 4.  With less than $300,000 in revenue, losses nearing $8.7 million since acquired by the CIty, deferred capital exceeding $3.0 million and over 50% of golfers non-residents, this was an easy call.
2. For a major newspaper, we performed a financial analysis on five public courses owned by Donald Trump.  The hypothesis of the intended article was, “If He Can’t Run a Golf Course, He Certainly Can’t Run a County.”   The article was killed.  Each of the five courses analyzed how “unique” events that adverse distorted the financial performance of the courses.   We advised that the article would have been misleading and inaccurate based on information analyzed.
3. Continued transition planning for the City of Palo Alto with OB Sports for the grand re-opening of Bay Links Golf Course.
4. Commenced preparation of four-hour seminar for February 6, 2018, for the GCSAA titled, “Municipal Golf:  Imaging the Possibilities.”  Will be co-presenting with Josh Heptig, Golf Course Superintendent, San Luis Obispo.
5. Completed GLMA for Cold Lake Country Club again predicting their actual golf revenue within 1%.
6. Commenced analysis of Harry L. Jones Golf Course in Charlotte, NC that is contemplating either closing 9 or renovating all 18 holes on a course situated on a landfill.
7. Preparing Webinar Series (January – February) for Salt Lake City’s six golf courses to create a strategic plan using 18 templates to heuristically find a solution to current woes other consulting firms have attempted to solve.
8. Read “How Non-Conformists Move the World” by Adam Grant and Stevie Nicks Autobiography over the holidays.

Like most cities across the United States, the golf market in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is highly competitive.

There are a range of courses spanning the municipal, public and country club sectors. Bakker Crossing fell somewhere in the middle, as a moderately-priced public facility, known for presenting golfers with a challenging round. With competition from all sides, the club saw a need to differentiate itself. It engaged golf course architect Kevin Norby, ASGCA, to conduct a long-range master plan study, and commissioned a detailed market and financial analysis by golf strategist J.J. Keegan.

Talk to golf strategist Jim Keegan on the phone, and in seconds you’ll discover his passion for the golf industry. You’ll also learn he likes to rattle the statistics: In mid-July, he’d just completed 20 flights in 30 days. Over his career he’s worked with 4,000 courses in 49 countries.

“Advising is one role, and getting clients to execute is another,” said Keegan, who formed the consortium of leading golf experts in 2005.