Even if you have never played Bethpage Black, you are probably familiar with the sign at the first tee that warns golfers about the difficulty of the course, which hosted the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens.
That sign has been there ever since I can remember, and I first played the course in 1987. But the real challenge of a round at Bethpage Black, the jewel of the five courses at the New York State-owned facility in Farmingdale, about 30 miles east of Times Square, starts well before you reach the first tee.
Yes, I have spent the night in my car to obtain a prized tee time. Since the park did not reserve times, it was the only option if you wanted to play in the morning, especially on weekends.
It is now possible to reserve a tee time, but the park still has slots for walk-ups (wakeups?), and the message on the sign remains unchanged, although it has no doubt been replaced several times. These unique Bethpage characteristics have long been celebrated and even romanticized as part of public golf lore.
Those two U.S. Opens at Bethpage Black were celebrated as “People’s Opens” because they were held on a public course. But sleeping in your car in a parking lot to obtain a tee time and a stern warning on the first tee are hardly populist messages. As golf seeks ways to foster participation and promote course sustainability, it is time to take a different view of the game’s primary product: a round at one of the 14,300 facilities around the country.
How the Game Grows – or Not
For years, golf has faced declining participation: the number of golfers who have played at least one round during the year has gone down by nearly 20 percent from its peak 15 years ago. We have focused on replenishing those numbers with outreach aimed at recruiting new golfers. To a large extent, that strategy has worked; over the past eight years, more than 2 million people have taken up the game each year.
Over the same period, the golf population has stabilized at around 24 million each year, meaning that we have been losing at least as many participants as we have picked up. One reasonable conclusion is that in addition to some leaving the game due to age or health reasons, many people aren’t enjoying a round of golf enough to keep returning.
One of the keys to sustaining the health of the game is to increase the retention levels among those who already play the game. Think about your own behavior as a consumer of an experience-based product or service that is similar to a round of golf. Whether you are shopping at a store, eating at a restaurant, or visiting a theme park, the total experience – made up of numerous touchpoints as well as interactions with employees and other customers – impacts your overall satisfaction. And the greater the satisfaction, the higher your likelihood of buying again or recommending the product to others.
To gain a baseline understanding of experience and satisfaction, the USGA has conducted surveys with thousands of golfers. We asked a simple question: Thinking about the typical experience on the golf course you play most often, how satisfied are you?
The answers show that golf lags behind other industries, especially those referenced above. In some ways, the results are not surprising, considering that we view experiences such as sleeping in our cars and signs discouraging access as badges of honor, rather than touchpoints that could discourage golfers from returning to the course.
Golf is a game, but sometimes it’s more difficult to enjoy than it needs to be. In some ways, golf has evolved with a presumption that golfers have a high tolerance for experiences that normally would have a negative impact on satisfaction – Bethpage being an extreme example. This view is an indication that golf’s stakeholders are focused on a thin slice of the entire spectrum of golfers. In our minds, the modal participant is the caricature of the obsessed golf nut who will go to any lengths to play the game.
Exacerbating this view is the demand-supply imbalance in many areas of the country. Geographically, courses are not evenly distributed across the entire golf population. Demand greatly exceeds supply in many areas, and in the largest metropolitan area in the country, there are enough golfers who are willing to endure sleeping in their cars in order to play.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of golfers do not have a high tolerance for negative experiences. Their level of engagement with the game depends on how welcoming, how accessible, and how enjoyable they find their typical round of golf. Delivering a satisfying product to the millions of current and (hopefully) future golfers is a key to ensuring that the game thrives for generations to come.
Improving Experience
USGA research provides a starting point for the areas in which courses can improve the golfer experience as the industry works to foster the long-term health and sustainability of the game.
Poor pace of play is cited as one of the most important factors in contributing to dissatisfaction with a round of golf. Improving pace of play has been one of golf’s major challenges for decades. To date, most of our efforts have focused on changing the behavior of golfers.
The lack of progress suggests this approach is not working. For some ideas, consider the examples provided by other industries to the same conundrum. Because if there is something universal about the human condition, it is that we hate waiting.
We hate waiting to hit a golf shot. We hate waiting for a table at a restaurant (especially when we make a reservation and the table is not ready), waiting to check in at a hotel, waiting for flights, waiting in line for a ride at a theme park.
Rather than trying to change customer behavior, the provider has made changes to their product through a combination of technology, data and communication in order to alleviate their customers’ frustration. Restaurants have improved data about turnaround times in order to help scheduling reservations. Hotels have added mobile check-in. Theme parks now have apps that provide real-time information about the rides that have the shortest waits.
20 Percent Improvement in Golfer Satisfaction
Golf is slowly coming to the same conclusion, but sometimes a little information goes a long way in understanding the breadth of the road that remains to be covered. Part of the USGA survey entailed asking golfers to rate the experience factors that contributed to satisfaction levels. We then asked hundreds of courses to rate the experience factors they thought golfers valued.
On the whole, we found a perception gap between what golfers value and what courses think golfers value. For example, 67 percent of golfers said the availability of on-course restrooms is important for the golf experience. Only 37 percent of golf facilities thought the same way. There are numerous other examples, but it is evident that courses can’t deliver a satisfying product if they don’t really know what that product is.
Experience and satisfaction take place at the facility level, and we are committed to fostering awareness, funding research, identifying best practices, developing tools and providing guidance that the 14,300 golf facilities around the country can use.
In conjunction with significant advancements that the rest of the industry is undertaking, we believe we can raise the overall level of golfer satisfaction by 20 percent in the next five years, which can only happen by making improvements at the facility level. And for each facility, providing a better golf experience will mean identifying and improving the touchpoints that have the greatest impact on satisfaction for the golfers who play that course.
For example, the experience of playing a busy muni such as Bethpage Black – as well as the expectations of its golfers – would be very different than it would be for a private club down the road or for a daily fee course in New Mexico. So while other facilities look for ways to better serve their clientele, there are undoubtedly touches that Bethpage can add to improve the experience of their golf-crazy overnight guests. Mints on the dashboard, perhaps?
Become a member today and let’s leave a positive impact on the game we love.
