CGI/Mardyke Arena Golf Club Seminar at Lee Valley Golf Club

By Niall O’Shea

The newly formed Confederation of Golf in Ireland (CGI) were out in force last week at the Irish Open, giving over 800 free lessons in their customised driving range at the Irish Open.  The CGI were also in Cork earlier in the week to host a business planning seminar for golf clubs.  The event was jointly hosted by the CGI and Mardyke Arena UCC and it took place in Lee Valley Golf Club.  The CGI was set up late last year with the specific aim of stopping the decline in the numbers playing golf and building plans to encourage new golfers into the game.  Golf clubs across the country have seen total membership fall by over 80,000 members in the past 10 years, and several clubs and courses have closed.  The CGI have a number of initiatives to increase the numbers playing, but this event was one of the first to be aimed at the industry.

A large number of delegates attended and many of the local clubs and stakeholders were represented.  The seminar was aimed at managers of golf clubs and their management committees, and the purpose of the event was to stimulate thinking on the challenges facing golf clubs.  Topics that were covered were membership retention, business planning and communications for golf clubs.  Although there was a large attendance from Cork, clubs form Kerry, Tipperary and Waterford and Wexford were also represented.  While there were a number of presentations, much discussion also took place with clubs working through some of the concepts in a collective setting.

Alan Bowes from Fernhill Golf Club in Carrigaline was one of the attendees.  Fernhill is a little bit of an exception as it has seen year on year increases since it reopened for membership on 2010.  Although business is relatively good for Alan, he was a keen participant at the seminar: “Some points that stood out from the seminar were that if you want your club to succeed, you must have a positive and professional team of staff which provide a good product and service and they are not afraid to try out different ideas and take risks. I do feel that is the main reason Fernhill is constantly improving, in a tough economic climate.  Another topic which I think is very important is for clubs to work with each other, rather than looking on one another as direct competition.  I feel that CGI will give clubs the opportunity to meet and discuss ideas and make improvements to benefit the golf industry.  After the seminar we were bursting with ideas, along with the help of CGI we want to bring these ideas into actions.”  The feedback from the day seems to have been hugely positive and everyone left with actions to pursue in their own club with support of the CGI.   As a result of the seminar a number of clubs have scheduled meetings with the CGI Golf and the Business Development Officers.

PGA Professional John Dooley from Glanmire was an attendee and while he wasn’t representing a course, his golf tourism business brings golfers into Ireland and could be exactly what many of the club delegates were looking for.  John explained his business and how it starts with golf and quickly diversifies: “I trade as Concierge Golf and the main parts of my business are focused at golf tourists coming to Ireland to play golf and enjoy the various other experiences that Ireland has to offer.  These include tee times, accommodation, transportation, golf coaching, fishing, cycling, sightseeing, food experiences, shopping and all types of requests.  What I offer, is to book all those various services for each of my customers to the standards and expectations that they require.  I also offer golf operations consultancy, which is focused on selling golf tee times, golf memberships and internal golf operations.”  While inwards tourism is his main focus, he has also set up several tours and itineraries for Irish golfers looking for a special experience abroad.

John was one of a few delegates at the seminar who was not representing a club but he found the presentations worthwhile: “Ronnie Malcolm was indeed excellent, he touched on his insights to managing the process of attitude change to creating a functional business plan. I must say it was very impressive”

While part of Concierge Golf’s target audience is international, John is quick to point out that he has potential personal and business customers in Ireland: “If you would like to play golf at some to the top or less known destinations in the USA, such as Pinehurst, Kiawah Island, Florida, Arizona and over to Palm Springs or if your club that has a weak golf tourist business and they would like to develop this business further, please feel free to contact me and I’d be happy to talk.”

While this particular event was focused on clubs, much of the CGI work is currently aimed at golfers and potential golfers as John Roche from the CGI explained:  “Get into Golf projects are our biggest focus at the moment with over 50 clubs running the programmes.  Dunmore Golf Club in West Cork is one such project who currently have 24 ladies participating in the programme.”   Roche who is the Director of Golf and Business Development is working on new initiatives to help develop golf stating: “Our goals are more short to medium term, what we want to try to do is address the situation where the numbers participating in the sport are declining.  Long term we would have aspirations that that situation would turn around and more people would participate in the sport.  But in the short to medium term it is about putting programmes in place, putting coaching programmes in place, it’s about getting people playing golf or attracting them back to playing golf.”

Mardyke Arena’s Wayne Falvey led an afternoon session on social media.  As Marketing Manager for the busy sports arena, Wayne uses all aspects of social media and he has seen how it can be used to reach and engage his target audience.  He gave the delegates ideas around the fundamentals of social media and tips on how to develop a strategy: “Looking at the number of users on social media platforms in Ireland and afar, it is vital for clubs to have an online presence and incorporate it with their overall marketing strategy to communicate with their members and visitors.  I’m a fond believer that ‘we don’t have a choice on whether we do social media the question is how well we do it?’

Patsy Ryan from Mardyke Arena UCC was also involved as the seminar organiser and as a speaker on the day.  Patsy’s presentation outlined the importance for all clubs to have a planned membership retention policy in place, as he described: “Membership retention starts from day 1 and not just when the annual subs are due”.  Ryan has a wider brief in his role with the Mardyke but he explained how his work with the CGI fits in with their objectives: “As part of our business strategy, which is about inspiring excellence in everything we do, the Mardyke Arena UCC are committed to bringing world-class speakers and seminars to Cork to improve elite sport & business and athlete development. We have two high profile speakers coming over from the USA in the next few months – Vern Gambetta (July 12^th) & Nick Winkelman (September 20^th).

Carrigaline’s Cillian is a Winner 

11 year old Cillian O’Keeffe from Carrigaline got a behind the scenes view of the Irish Open in Fota, and his guide was former tournament winner Ross Fisher.  Cillian won a CGI/Irish Open schools art competition and described the behind the scenes tour; “Ross brought us onto the putting green and we tried a few putts, and he gave me a signed golf ball.  He took us into the player’s lounge and into the media centre and showed us what it’s like to be interviewed.”  Fisher seem to enjoy the time with Cillian and the other winners and said, “With golf the word on everyone’s lips this week in Cork, the youngsters have really come onboard and supported the event with an amazing selection of paintings and drawings. I think I saw a few Rory likenesses in there too, so he’s obviously a home crowd favourite.”  The other winners were Aidan Jenkins (6), St John the Baptist national school, Midleton and David Oskwarek (7) St Patricks, Mallow.  Hundreds of young people between the ages of 4 – 13 entered the competition for an opportunity to meet one of the European Tour’s great players and win prizes such as passes to Fota Wildlife Park ad BIC stationery packs.  All entrants will receive a signed certificate from Pádraig Harrington in recognition of their participation.

 

Golf Lessons go Down a Treat 

The CGI staff were out in force at the Irish Open as part of their drive to increase the number of active golfers Ireland.  As well as having a stand in the tented village, the CGI also had an indoor driving range where they gave over 800 spectators a taste of golf.  Several instructors were on hand each of the five days to look after the huge numbers wanting to try out the game.  Several schools, clubs and special Olympics groups visited the range on Wednesday and Thursday.  As well as regular irons and wedges, the CGI staff used junior clubs and training aids to help everyone enjoy their lesson.  In addition to the lessons, CGI staff also gave out hundreds of hats and wristbands, with many of the distinctive hats to be seen dotted around the course.  While the CGI are launching their “Get into Golf” programme, there are plenty of local options available.  Almost all Cork clubs have mens, ladies and junior sections that are actively recruiting new members.  Castlymartyr, Cobh, Blarney and Fernhill are examples of the clubs that have started or expanded their junior golf programmes while Wayne O’Callaghan and Padraig Dooley are two local PGA Professionals who have dedicated junior golf camps and programmes.  Anyone interested in taking up the game should contact your local club or driving range, or visit http://www.cgigolf.org.