golf business community

The effects of the global financial crisis have been felt in some form or other by most of us, so it is little surprise that a report from KPMG Golf Advisory Practice suggests that revenue from the golf business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMA) has dropped dramatically in recent times.

The report measures the impact of the economic downturn on golf through the business performance of golf courses in 2009 and reveals that two-thirds of the golf courses surveyed in the EMA region said the financial crisis had impacted negatively on their operations, with nearly half of all courses reporting reduced revenues and profitability.

Golf courses based within a residential community or tourist resort area are surprisingly the worst hit of all, with 78% saying that they had experienced a down turn in their operations.

Overall 35% golf courses reported lower or stagnant revenues without being able to reduce costs, raising the prospect of unsustainable business operations based on current trends.

Half of the businesses surveyed said that they had been forced to make redundancies or cut staff jobs.

Golf course managers are also relatively optimistic for 2010 with 54% predicting excellent or good performance in the coming year, although managers in Great Britain and Ireland are the most pessimistic with 49% expecting ‘medium performance’ and 11% foreseeing poor or very poor performance.

Andrea Sartori, head of KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice in EMA, concludes;

“While golf course operators, on average, are feeling more positive about their future prospects, two fundamental business factors suggest the way back to the fairway will not be straightforward.

Firstly, 35% of the golf courses surveyed are facing the worrying combination of decreasing revenues and increasing costs. For some golf courses, the narrowing of profitability might come sooner than expected and it would not be a surprise if we saw some golf courses going out of business in 2010. The depressed transaction prices of golf courses are evidence to the fact that the industry is really struggling.

Secondly, nearly half of all the courses surveyed reported a drop in revenues, fuelled in part by one or more of the following: a fall in memberships, green fee revenue, as well as food and beverage spending. While this decline in revenue may not be significant when averaged out (-3% to -5% across the EMA region), it is still worrying that 13% of courses have reported a reduction of more than 20% in the number of rounds played.

Golf courses – particularly those linked to tourist resorts and the ones operating in mature markets like Great Britain and Ireland – will have to work very hard on their relationship marketing, pricing strategies and service levels to attract new customers or lure back the old ones.”

The full KPMG report, Golf and the Economic Downturn, is available to download, free of charge, from the new website: www.golfbusinesscommunity.com

seve ballesteros

Seve Ballesteros is among 32 former champions who have been invited to take part in a four hole tournament as part of the 150th Open anniversary celebrations on the eve of the Championship proper.

Ballesteros who has made a remarkable recovery from the four operations to remove a brain tumor diagnosed in 2008, stated last year that he would love to make a return to the British Open that takes place this year at St Andrews, in July.

Among the other former champions who have been invited to take place in the four hole tournament are Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Nick Faldo.

The tournament will take place on the first, second, 17th and 18th holes on the old course on July 14th. Ballesteros won the second of his three Open Championships on the St Andrews course in 1984.

Spanish Golf Federation president Gonzaga Escauriaza said that Ballesteros is doing well , he started playing again last summer but radiotherapy and chemotherapy had weakened him. Now he his getting better and better and would love to be on the first tee for the four hole tournament, adding “He will probably be there.”

Rumours had him returning next week, next month, in time for the Masters, not at all this season or never depending on the source you read, and Friday’s ‘press conference’ did absolutely nothing to stop any speculation about the world No 1’s future.

While Tiger Woods is under no obligation to tell everyone when he might be ready to return, the style of the speech he made showed that he is in no frame of mind to be taking his eye off family matters for now, and just a brief mention of the sport that has made him a worldwide superstar showed that he clearly has plenty of other things on his mind.

For now, golf betting has Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy as the front runners for most tournaments and it is up to them to try and keep Woods out of the headlines. The way his return to the public eye was designed was widely criticised though, most vocally by Ernie Els.

You can understand the South African’s disappointment as well, given that the speech took plenty of gloss away from the WGC-Accenture World Matchplay, ironically sponsored by one of the companies that used to sponsor Woods.

So what now? Well, the PGA Tour has to move on without Woods and based on the first six weeks of the season it might not be easy. Attendances are down (although next week’s Phoenix event is traditionally a big draw), interest is down and the names of the winners so far have hardly set the Online Betting world alight.

No doubt PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, while publicly backing Woods, is desperate for him to return sooner rather than later but, for now, he will have to hope that some fireworks come soon or even big events on the schedule like Bay Hill and the Masters could prove to be damp squibs as well.

But for now there is nothing golf fans, golf punters and the golfing press can do but speculate, and that’s never really good for anybody. We all went into Friday hoping for something concrete, but despite the candidness of the admissions and apologies, all that happened was a scripted piece of theatre which told most people nothing.

Rent-A-Club - the UK’s first online golf equipment rental service

Rentaclub.co.uk, the UK’s first online golf equipment rental service, is giving golfers the opportunity to hit their best shots with top brand equipment, whenever and wherever they want.

The exclusive new service will enable golfers to test drive new products from Callaway, TaylorMade, Nike, Cleveland, Srixon and Mizuno, among others, just 24-hours after ordering the clubs online.

The new website goes live on Wednesday 17th February and features a simple, five-step process with a virtual assistant helping golfers select clubs beneficial to their game.

The clubs are then delivered securely next day by UPS to the golfer’s home, or a location of their choice, ready to be put into play.

Matthew Fagan, Managing Director of Rentaclub.co.uk, said:

“Golfers love talking about new equipment, including the latest drivers, and how it will improve their game. However, new clubs can be expensive, so this is an ideal way to test drive clubs thoroughly on your own course before making a purchase.”

He continued:

“Having returned the club, if the golfer then decides they want to buy the product, Rentaclub.co.uk will refer them to an experienced local PGA professional within the TGI Golf network for a free custom fitting to ensure the clubs are perfectly set up for their game, guaranteeing optimum performance. They will also benefit from a £25 discount off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.”

The service, which has the backing of leading brands, will offer drivers only initially, with models including the new Callaway FT-iZ, Nike Victory Red Tour STR8-Fit, TaylorMade R9 Super Tri (available March) and Cleveland Launcher DST (available late February).

Driver rentals start from £25 for five days, including free delivery, pick-up and return.

Graham Martin, Callaway’s Regional Sales Director UK and Ireland, said:

“Callaway invests heavily in research and development to create equipment that give golfers an advantage. The best way for consumers to experience this is by enjoying playing and testing the clubs themselves, so we are fully supportive of Rentaclub.co.uk.”

TGI Golf, the UK’s leading network of green grass golf professionals and retailers, is also supporting Rentaclub.co.uk, with its 400 members offering free custom fitting services to the website’s customers.

Matthew Fagan added:

“Although renting clubs is a new concept in the UK, it is a well established practice in the USA. From our own market research, we know that golfers here are keen to try new products in this way and that they will appreciate the value, convenience and fun of turning up at their home course with the best new products – and hitting their best shots.”

Rentaclub.co.uk customers receive their clubs in pre-paid packaging, making it easy to return products. On the fourth day of their rental they will be sent an SMS text message reminding them to call UPS to arrange a pick-up the next day from a location of their choosing, including home or work.

Rental prices for fairway woods, hybrids, sets of irons, wedges, putters and full sets of clubs will be announced as the clubs are added to the rental list.

For more information visit www.rentaclub.co.uk

The dependable Wisconsin native led for most of the last three rounds and, unlike early last season, showed a good deal of composure after seeing his six-shot lead cut to two on a couple of occasions by Luke Donald and JB Holmes.

Stricker’s story is quite an amazing one as it is only six years since he lost his card on the PGA Tour and wondered what the future would hold after completely losing his swing with a driver, something a player with little distance off the tee would find a career-killer.

But he bounced back in style in 2006, finishing in the top ten at seven tournaments, mainly on sponsors’ exemption entries. Since the end of 2006 he has won five tournaments and competed well in the majors.

Victory in one of those has to be the next aim as he has top ten finishes in all four of them over the last two seasons.

Stricker’s resurgence is underlined by the fact that those betting online can get 5/2 on him topping this year’s US Money list.

He will never win any prizes for distance or for playing an exciting game, but in these times of improved technology he gets by, and on the greens there is barely a better player in the world. He topped the PGA rankings with the flat-stick in 2009 and putted superbly at Riviera while others were wasting chances.

Now, with Tiger Woods on the sidelines, he has the right to call himself the best active golfer in the world and what a deserved honour that is for a man who could walk down most high streets in the US and not be recognised.

Steve Stricker is certainly more deserving of the recognition at the moment than a surly Phil Mickelson, who huffed and puffed his way around a Riviera course he has won on twice in the past.

Who cares if Stricker admits to being boring? When it comes down to it, getting that little white ball into the hole is all that matters to him. At the moment he is the best in the world at doing it. Golf doesn’t always have to be exciting or controversial – boring will do just fine after all the travails Stricker has been through.

It’s therefore refreshing to see one of the player’s closest rivals, Phil Mickelson, express his desire to see the talented golfer back on the scene sooner rather than later.

Phil Mickelson revealed that he cares “deeply” about the problems currently affecting Tiger Woods and is obviously desperate to see him make a quick return for both personal and professional reasons.

Some might have been betting that those golfers put in the shade by Woods’ obvious talent would be rubbing their hands in glee at his absence from the sport but, according to Mickelson, this simply isn’t the case. Rather, it would seem that everyone is missing Woods, especially since “nobody will be able to fill the shoes that are voided right now”.

Any sportsman who cares about the public image of their sport wants the best players to be competing on a consistent basis and there is no doubt that without Woods, golf has taken something of a knock. It’s now up to players like Mickelson to come together and show the world that they’re capable of stealing the headlines away from the few determined to make them focus upon less savoury topics.

In the run-up to the Northern Trust Open much of the coverage has involved Mickelson’s continuing use of the Ping Eye2 wedges he has in his bag, which contravene the new ruling with regards to the banishment of square grooved clubs.

The Ping Eye2 wedge is currently exempt from the ruling and offers excellent control over short distances, especially from the rough. The difference is so great that Mickelson used it during the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines despite the club being more than 20 years old.

The biggest talking point came after veteran pro Scott McCarron used a word that is not often bandied around in golf – cheat – to condemn those few still using the club, despite the fact they are not breaking the rules.

Of course, the spirit of the game is what McCarron should have been talking about, but to use the ‘C-word’’ was a shock to many, Mickelson included.

After a few days McCarron did apologise, but the row still rumbles on as the PGA Tour is yet to close the loophole in their rulebook. Talks to find a way to outlaw the old clubs without a legal fight are apparently being held with Ping. For now though, the club can still be used.

Whether Mickelson will be satisfied with the apology is another matter – he admitted he felt slandered by the comments and as one of the biggest names on tour, and apparently one of the cleanest, there is a chance he will take a stand.

But the arguments over square-grooved clubs have at least taken some of the spotlight away from Tiger’s indiscretions and brought the focus back to the action on the course, even if it is not for the right reasons.

Phil Mickleson is currently 6/1 favourite in the golf betting for the Northern Open Trust and his nearest priced competitor is Steve Stricker at 12/1.

The partnership officially launches at the Wendy’s Challenge, which takes place at the Rio Secco Golf Club in Las Vegas on December 19th 2009 and will continue through 2010.

The Birdies For Breast Cancer Collection is inspired by Kwiat’s signature Platinum Star Collection and includes a pair of delicate drop earrings as well as a pendant of the same design.

Cristie Kerr will wear both pieces on tour through 2010. She says of the new partnership:

“I am delighted to have Kwiat join us in our mission to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer. The earrings and pendant that they created are truly stunning. Our hope is that these subtle pieces will serve as a reminder of those we have lost to the disease, and hope for the future.”

Following the launch at Wendy’s Challenge the collection will debut to the public at Kwiat’s Madison Avenue flagship boutique. The collection will later be made available at Kwiat in Las Vegas and all other Kwiat retailers.

Kwiat will be donating 10% of all proceeds directly to benefit Birdies For Cancer.

lee westwood award winner

While the unfortunate Tiger Woods saga fills the gossip pages, Lee Westwood has been hogging the golfing headlines. A week after winning the European Tour’s Golfer of the Year award for the third time the world number four walked away with The Golf Writers Trophy, also for a third time.

Seve Ballesteros is the only previous player to win the Golf Writers Trophy three times, so Westwood is in illustrious company and he said after collecting the award;

“I am delighted to receive the award once again. It is a particular honour to have been chosen for the third time and to become one of only two players, alongside Seve, to have won it three times. That means an awful lot to me, especially when I consider the great players we have had on the European Tour. It is Seve who stands out in my mind for his record and his charisma and to be linked with such a great champion makes the award all the more special.

I would also like to mention Catriona Matthew. She would have been worthy of the award considering what she achieved this year. To have won the Women’s British Open just weeks after giving birth to her second child was a spectacular achievement. I have no idea how she managed it”

Catriona Matthew was runner up to Westwood for the Golf Writers Trophy and was followed by the young Irishman Rory McIlroy in third place. McIlroy had further reason to celebrate with news that he has achieved the highest world ranking of any 20 year old ever when he moved up to ninth place in the list.

lee westwood top european player

Lee Westwood has agreed to become an ambassador for the Golf Foundation Charity, the world number four will support Golf Roots, the national project that aims to improve the playing and personal skills of  all young people.

For the last eight years Westwood has supported the Golf Foundation’s ‘Charity Challenge‘ and this year he was awarded with the organisations ‘Spirit Of Golf’ award at the British Open in July.

Mike Round, chief executive of the Golf Foundation, said:

“Lee Westwood has been a great inspiration to many young golfers and we are all delighted that he has agreed to become a Golf Roots ambassador. Through his links with our charity and the clear enthusiasm he shows for junior golf, Lee has also inspired the whole team behind the Golf Roots project, which is a highly important one for the future of the game.

Golf Roots introduces golf skills and the game’s ’skills for life’ to youngsters from all backgrounds and abilities, in schools and golf clubs and through special initiatives in city areas.”

Europe’s number one player Lee Westwood said:

“The Golf Foundation has helped thousands of youngsters, me included, over the years and I am delighted that they consider me worthy of carrying the title and their good name forward.”