The newly-formed UK Golf Course Owners Association (UKGCOA) has teamed up with IFM Sports Marketing Surveys (SMS) to offer its members exclusive in-depth analysis of the health of the golf course industry.
Members of the UKGCOA will be able to access business performance indicators such as the number of rounds being played, green fee yields, membership numbers, annual subscription rates and operating costs of many different types of golf courses and clubs across the country.
Golf course owners can then use this data, collected by quality golf research specialist SMS, to make informed decisions on strategy and investment based on current market information and intelligence.
Jerry Kilby, UKGCOA Executive Director, said: “One of the core benefits to course owners joining the UKGCOA is access to this data pooling and the opportunity to benchmark their club against others across the country. The objective of this exercise is to develop the professional management within the industry, the hotel sector has been conducting this kind of research for years, giving owners the opportunity to compare figures with the rest of the industry, and now golf course owners can do the same.
“In order to compile this information we need an experienced research company to receive the data, protect its confidentiality and to produce detailed and accurate reports for members. SMS has a longstanding and deep knowledge of the UK golf industry and has been incredibly flexible in helping us to create the data pooling system.”
Tony Scott, Business Development Manager at IFM Sports Marketing Surveys, has worked extensively on the data pooling programme, in particular developing the range of data to be reported on which includes operation costs, rounds played and membership. UKGCOA members will upload this information anonymously to an online portal that will allow them to benchmark themselves on a national scale and to compare themselves against similar clubs.
He said: “SMS has previously worked with a number of leading golf course owners and operators across the UK providing them with data to help gauge how they are performing. With the formation of the UKGCOA there is now a platform that gives us the opportunity to do that on a nationwide scale.
“UKGCOA members will receive regular reports from the information they have uploaded and Sports Marketing Surveys will write quarterly national reports.”
UKGCOA www.ukgcoa.com
IFM Sports Marketing Surveys: www.sportsmarketingsurveys.com