One of the last golf business news of 2019 was the acquisition of Chart Hills Golf Club by the Ramac Holdings Ltd.
The new owner’s probably the first major project is the extensive redevelopment and improvement of the entire 250-acre property.
From mid-to-late July the golf course will officially be closed to allow green staff and industry-leading contractors to work seamlessly to complete work on all 18-holes with the renovated Nick Faldo Design course.
Chart Hills is hoping that all of the works will be completed before the start of the 2021 golf season or sooner if growing conditions are favorable.
The first steps taken to elevate the visual and playing aspects of the course include extensive irrigation and sand-capping to the fairways with over 20,000 tonnes of sand.
During this period, Chart Hills will also be making large-scale changes to the remainder of the facility including:
- a purpose-built driving range,
- upgraded short game area,
- additional practice putting green and
- a refurbished clubhouse.
In order to ensure the most efficient return to regular golf for members and guests, it was decided that all 18-holes should remain closed until the point of completion, shaving an entire year off the original projected completion date.
Initial work is underway on the front nine holes with the back nine set to be completed by winter to allow for a significant period of growth prior to the scheduled reopening.
If I were Chart Hills‘ situation, I would…
Seize the opportunity to:
- invest in sustainability & saving pollinators (see Syngenta’s Operation Pollinator);
- upgrade the tee time booking method from phone number & email address to a proper online booking system. To find extra B2B tee time sales I would use Zest.Golf and for B2C I recommend using Greenfee365.
- utilize existing customer reviews (see social proofs) from Facebook, Leadingcourses, etc. It will help you to build trust and sell more membership, tee time, and events in your golf club.
- change to conversational marketing by utilizing messaging apps and chatbots. You might not believe, but you are losing a lot of sales opportunities just because your website is not facilitating conversations. It is so easy to embed the Facebook Messenger app into a website! Messenger apps are popular in the 18-54 age group. WhatsApp is the #1 messaging app in the UK.
- eliminate such things from the website: {“status”:”Nothing found”}
These are just a few ideas that came to my mind at first sight.