So you are a golfer and you’re on the golf course having one of those days where nothing feel right with your swing resulting in poorly hit golf shots. Then out of the blue, you hit a solid 5 iron into a tight pin placement to within 2 feet of the hole. The ol heart now is pumping producing a spring in your step. You’re feeling good now and want to play more golf.
It is those one or two excellent shots during a round of golf that keep golfers going and keeps them coming back to playing golf.
More to Why Golfers Play Golf
But…there are other things that keep golfers playing golf.
Where they play golf is a huge factor for most golfers and is usually why they return after a really bad round. Golfers are usually creatures of comfort and if the golf course they play frequently is comfortable to them they are going to come back.
If the bar and grill area in the 19th hole is comfortable it plays a factor in if a golfer will come back. But if the after golf hangout is not comfortable’ the services is slow; the crowd is not golfers, golfers are not going to come back.
The practice facilities are some golfers forte and if all the range balls are cut-up real golfers are not going to come back.
Private Clubs
For the private sector, who they allow being a member is a factor to many golfers on if they want to be a member of the club or continue to be a member.
If the golfer is a social golfer and the other members are not golfers, that golfing member will not want to come back.
Private country clubs and golf clubs are finding it hard to keep the golfers coming back and keeping the non-golfers happy at the same time.
Change Is Needed
There are a number of reasons relevant to playing golf that brings a golfer back to play another round. However, what is being found from surveying golfers is that many of the reasons golfers are returning to play more golf have little to do with playing golf.
Golf course managers and owners probably need to take heed to these reasons and keep that part of the golfer’s golf a reason they will come back to play more golf.
Golf Facilities Must Look Good
Worn out clubhouses and visitors areas will send golfers packing. You ask, what does the visitor area of the golf club have to do with golfers playing more golf. Answer: Golfers usually play in packs and they usually like to get to the course early to warm up, eat breakfast or lunch. If the club is worn out or by the looks of things you get the feeling that the management is not serious about the facilities there is a likelihood those golfers will NOT return.
Pace Of Play
If it takes 6 hours to play the golf course, golfers are not going to return. On the most part golfers have a choice on where they can play. If a golf course becomes too full most golfers will not say anything to anyone. They just will not return.
Tournament Factory
When a golf course has too many tournaments it chocks down the number of open tee times available for golfers to schedule. Eventually, the golf course or golf club or county club will become a tournament factory and only have tee times at odd hours or during times of day that normal players cannot play. A tournament factory will turn golfers away.
Too Pricey
Many times a golf course will receive critical acclaim from an influential golf magazine, tour pros or golf TV show. As a result, the owners or board of governs of the club will raise the price to play to match their so-called elite status. The golfers who were loyal to the golf course..usually the same people who helped make the golf course receive the media praise…will not return due to the price to play not worth it. Golf courses have for some time now priced themselves out of the market.
Too Difficult to Play
When the 300-yard drive became the standard length for a Drive along came the 7000 yd long golf courses. Now it is not unusual to see golf courses measuring up to 7900 yards. This created 485 yards Par 4’s and 225 yards Par 3’s.
These huge holes satisfied the 2% of the golfers who can play those lengths but put the 98% of golfers to play the forward tees which were placed in a less visually pleasing place on the course. It also made the forwards tees too long as well putting PAR way out of reach for a large majority of golfers.
Thes monsters of the Golf World also make golfers not return to play them.
6 Hour Sales Pitches
Golf has always been and will continue to be a great character evaluator. A person’s real personality comes out on the golf course.
This makes golf a perfect tool for business development. Business Golf has been played for centuries. However, the tightening of the economy over the last 100 years has developed the High Volume Salesperson who searches for ways to squeeze business out of everyone they meet..including golfers on the golf course.
The 6-hour sales pitch become the fear every golfer had when accepting to play a round of golf with someone they just met at a business conference.
Nothing was worse than trying to sink a par put when your playing partner was explaining to you the advantages of their widget over their competitor.
Business golf played the Wrong way also makes golfers not want to return to playing golf.
Unruliness of Players
There will always be golfers who do not follow the rules golf to the letter. However, today there are golfers who do not even know there are rules for playing golf making it hard for real golfers to play with them.
Lack of respect for the local rules is also becoming the norm for many golfers. Disregard for dress codes and golf etiquette grinds on the golfers who play golf as golf was made to be played.
The unruliness of a growing number of golfers is also running real golfers off.
So, there are a number of things that keep golfers coming back to play golf, but a hard greater number of things turning real golfers away from playing golf.
Golf needs to change to become relevant to those who have not been properly exposed to golf, but Golf also needs to enforce what was set up hundreds of years ago as the standard for playing golf.
Golf needs to help inself to survive.
Let me know how I can help.
