A short-term focus on improving course conditioning can reap rich long-term dividends for golf clubs seeking to attract overseas tourists once travellers begin resuming their passions and hobbies.
That’s the view of Mark Siegel, Founder and Managing Director at Golfasian (www.golfasian.com), one of the region’s foremost companies in golf travel.
Speaking in the latest in a series of Asian Golf Industry Federation podcasts with leading lights from the industry that are being broadcast at www.agif.asia, Siegel said: “Even before the Covid-19 situation, by far and away the thing that golf clubs could do best to attract golfing tourists was maintain the condition of the courses. That has always influenced golfers’ decisions about where they’d like to play.
“When people travel to a new destination, it’s a dream. So, they really want to play the best golf that they can and those courses with good conditions are the ones that get most benefit from golf tourism.
“If I could recommend anything at this point, it would be for clubs to use this little bit of downtime or reflection to look at course conditioning. Put in some upgrades, spend more time and attention to detail with the grasses, the greens, the bunkers, the whole layout of the course. If they focus on those things, I think they’ll be able to pick up a lot of new business.
“When we’re over Covid-19, there will be fewer tee-times available and the clubs that have good course conditions will be able to pick up a lot more rounds from tourists.
“Heavy maintenance is usually feared by golfers because conditions can be severely impacted before they get better. So, this has been a great time for golf courses to go ahead with anything and everything that they’ve had planned or thought of planning. With no golfers on the courses, there have been no disruptions. So, when things turn back on, I’m looking forward to seeing improved conditioning.
“There’s an old Chinese proverb that says that out of bad comes good. Hopefully we’ve learned a lot in recent weeks and will be able to use that knowledge to improve the whole experience of golfing in Asia.”
.jpg){kind=tracking}