Golf is a thrilling sport that links executives doing business and wealthy retirees. For this reason, investing in a golf course can be a lucrative idea. However, you need to know the economics of golf for you to succeed.
Labor
Cutting the staff size is one of the strategies to help you cut down costs since labor will represent over 50% of a golf course maintenance budget. You need to be careful since reducing staff size when skilled and devoted workers are lost can bring negative impacts.
Golf course maintenance is a demanding task, and it tends to have a competitive labor market. For this reason, hiring and retaining reliable maintenance human resources is one of the biggest challenges of golf or country club management companies.
There are numerous hidden costs to be considered when recruiting and training new maintenance staff. It will take a few weeks to teach a devoted person to do several repairs work with a constant level of competency.
Nevertheless, it will take many years for new workers to become productive as skilled employees. Getting rid of qualified and dependable employees that earn more salaries than recruit can help you save money in the short run. However, replacing those workers with new ones to cut down labor cost leads to more mistakes. This will reduce efficiency and increase the wear and tear of machines and turf.
A highly skilled labor force is a priceless asset. In this case, the best way to cut down the cost is reducing the number of inexperienced workers.
Capital Expenditure
The commonly used tactic to save money during the recession was to stop capital expenditure for source improvement. It included replacing turf maintenance tools and upgrading infrastructures like irrigation and maintenance facilities.
Golf courses with ready capital during the latest recession had a chance to negotiate for low prices for irrigation systems and course improvement projects. Unluckily, the majority of courses lack enough money to purchase the discounts given by golf contractors.
For this reason, many golf courses are exposed to high costs due to failure to change old tools or upgrading inadequate facilities. Failure to capitalize on the course improvements and to improve your equipment will affect how golf enthusiasts perceive your facility.
The compensation in the golf business is high, and golfers will want to play at a facility that shows a high level of commitment to quality. You can achieve this by making improvements to your facility and upgrading your equipment.
Fairways
You can simplify the fairway mowing work by shifting from stripped mowing patterns to classic patterns. This tactic helps you to reduce the time and cut down labor, fuel consumption and equipment tear is also reduced.
Course Accessories
You need to invest in modern accessories such as benches, ball washers, decorative plantings and detox mixing containers. Even though these accessories are designed for decoration and convenience purposes, you will need labor and capital to install and maintain them. Therefore, you can opt to remove some course accessories and decorative plantings to have time and resources to enhance the playing condition.