Need More Golfers? Appeal To Women!

As the golf industry stagnates, a recent research study emphatically says that appealing to women is a prudent path to the economic health and well being of the game. Moreover, the study reveals that the majority of those women surveyed said they would pay a premium price to play their “ultimate” facility.

Women find the game costs too much, takes too long to play and is too difficult, according to “The Right Invitation,” a comprehensive research study to guide the golf industry to meaningfully increase women’s golf participation and satisfaction. The study was funded by the Little Family Foundation and conducted for the National Golf Course Owners Association.

“The golf industry needs customers and the obvious group to pursue is women,” the study noted. “There is a great economic opportunity for the golf industry to attract and keep a large underrepresented and underserved portion of the golfing public.”

The Little Family Foundation focused on women in their study because

“they are underrepresented in the golfing public, have discretionary money to spend and often will make the decisions on how family leisure time is spent.”

Arthur Little and his wife, Jann Leeming, learned first-hand about how to attract women (and families) at Province Lake Golf, the course they owned from 1996 to 2005 in Parsonfield, Maine.

As a result of the study, carried out by Jon Last of New York-based Sports & Leisure Research Group, Little and Leeming will be producing a “how-to” guide for golf facilities to follow if they hope to achieve economic success with women. They've also established a new web site, www.golfwithwomen.com, to educate the golf industry on "best practices" for increasing play and enhancing revenue from women and families.

Current players as well as lapsed players were interviewed for the study. Women were asked to detail their “ultimate” golf facility and experience, and it was determined that they would pay an 8 to 15 percent premium once they found a place matching that description.

But the study also found that there were large gaps in the perceived delivery of benefits between women players and facility operators. Specific examples of how the perceptions of women differed from the golf operators who believe their facility is “women-friendly” include:

• Almost one-third of golf facilities are currently charging higher fees than the $50 women expect to pay even for an “ultimate” facility.
• Most facilities have multiple sets of tees, although those that describe their facilities as “woman-friendly” have no more sets than facilities in general.
• While fewer than one quarter of golf facility customers are women, nearly all facilities consider women important to their financial success and to the overall environment at their facility. Yet only two-thirds of facilities consider themselves as “women-friendly” and only a very few of them provide the features that women want in a golf facility.

In a surprising development, the study found the game’s difficulty did not rank as highly by women as the inability to reach greens in regulation, which is a result of limited tee positioning.

According to the study,

“It is critical to remove the intimidation factor by providing tees at the proper yardages for the full range of swing speeds. Properly designed sets of tees reduce round times and makes the sport much less difficult and more enjoyable.”

The study concluded this could be a make-or-break issue for facilities if they expect women to return. For example, for an average woman golfer with a 65 mph swing speed (140-yard drive) the optimal tee yardage is 4,200 to 4,500 yards, and for women with 75 mph swing speeds (165- to 170-yard drive) the best total yardage is 4,800 to 5,100 yards.

Beyond tee positioning, other key issues uncovered by the study include:

• Courses need to be more flexible in providing play options that address both time and cost, such as nine-hole rates, pay-by-the-hole and low junior fees that are part of a family play plan.
• Fifty percent of women who no longer play said if they would continue with the game if they had steady and enjoyable playing partners.
• Childcare must be provided at a reasonable cost, a fact that has been duly recognized by the ski industry for many years.
• Facilities must select personnel, especially in their pro shops, that are receptive to and completely supportive of the issues that are of greatest importance to women. Staff members who are not true believers, the study says, can and will undermine all of the positive programs that a facility adopts.

The complete 84-page study, as well as summaries, can be found by visiting www.golfwithwomen.com. It makes for interesting reading.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.