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Entering the Internet
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It’s no secret that the Internet is here to stay. As more and more people are making the Internet their first stop for information and communication, it is becoming almost a necessity for every organization to maintain a Web site that provides pertinent information. Many golf courses have made the foray onto the Web, and to be effective, a course’s Web site needs to be more than just an address, phone number and pretty course shot. Are you part of your facility’s Web presence?
Superintendents can be a great source of information for Web site content, and many superintendents around the country are providing content for their courses’ Web sites, which benefits golfers — and the entire facility.
Gordon Seliga, CGCS, was the catalyst behind the Web site for Lakeview Country Club in North East, Pa. Five years ago, Seliga, a 22-year GCSAA member, began his own site, which focused solely on Lakeview’s turfcare operation. “Then a board member asked, ‘Why doesn’t the pro shop have one?’” Seliga says. This led to the development of www.lakeviewcc.com, which offers everything from membership information to a club calendar, tee time sign up and a virtual tour of the clubhouse (See “Success story”).
Although his Web work takes him less than an hour a week, Seliga says the site has been a hit with club members, especially younger ones.
“It’s more up-to-date (than a traditional newsletter),” he says. “The younger members even give us suggestions or want to add their own photos.”
Marketing tool
For 10-year GCSAA member Patrick Waymire at Lake Powell National Golf
Course in Page, Ariz., a Web site has not only made connections with golfers,
but also has worked as a great marketing tool to bring in business. Located
two hours from a major city, the golf course sits on a mesa overlooking
the tourist destination of Lake Powell, but because most tourists were
coming to swim, not golf, the course needed to step up its efforts to
get people to trade in their Speedos for Softspikes.
Although the Web site was initially developed by Lake Powell National’s director of golf operations, Johnny Miles, Waymire says his involvement was always part of the marketing plan to boost attendance at the course.
In the Superintendent’s Corner, Waymire provides a brief biography of himself, updates course conditions and offers an FYI section about different golf course management practices such as aerification and what that means to the golfer. He says he also takes care to write his pieces in “layman’s terms” to help his golfer audience understand as much as possible.
So far, www.golflakepowell.com has brought about a noticeable increase in the number of golfers, Waymire says.
“The Web site has helped a lot,” he says.
“I’ve had people come up to me from Phoenix to Flagstaff and
say they’ve read it.”
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Waymire says he does not consider himself a computer geek or a good writer, but he says the small time commitment — about a half hour every month — and the flexibility of the Web site means he can do as little or as much as he wants.
E-mail newsletter
If your course does not have a Web site, you can still make a connection
with your golfers online. Jonathan Jennings, a 22-year GCSAA member, is
the CGCS at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill. Instead of reaching out
to the club’s 125 members with a Web site, Jennings produces and
distributes a weekly newsletter via e-mail, with nearly all members on
the mailing list. The newsletter features the current week’s course
activities as well as what’s coming up the next week. He also sends
digital pictures of projects such as topdressing greens and provides the
upcoming week’s weather forecast.
“Because of time, my ability to communicate with members was sometimes limited,” Jennings says. “I did this so they would know what’s happening. Our green chairmen have loved it. They never get any questions, even in difficult times, because the members already know what’s going on.”
Jennings says he creates the newsletter in a Microsoft Word document and copies and pastes the text, along with photos, into the body of the group e-mail.
Although he considers himself to have an above average
level of technological savvy, he says it’s not a requirement.
“If you can type in a word document and send an e-mail, you can
do this,” he says.
Jennings says he’s come to see the e-newsletter as a part of his routine duties. Every Friday morning it’s sent out by 7 a.m.
Jennings says the newsletter not only keeps the members updated on the course, but also on who is caring for it.
“It keeps my name out in front of the people,” he says.
Educational tool
It doesn’t take an upscale, metropolitan membership to benefit from
online information. At Wamego Country Club in Wamego, Kan., population
4,200, www.wamegogolf.com has provided a great line of communication between
the membership, board of directors and new superintendent Trampis Nickel.
Nickel, an eight-year GCSAA Class A member, who started at Wamego CC in
June, used the club’s already established Web site as a way to introduce
himself to the membership.
“With starting in the mid-season, I hadn’t had the chance to meet a lot of people,” Nickel says. “I wrote a two-paragraph introduction about myself and my background and made a calendar of my upcoming applications on the course.”
Nickel says he uses the site, which also includes current conditions, membership information and tournament results, mainly as an education tool. He is part of a team of two full-time employees, along with the club manager, so being able to use a quick and easy way to provide information to the entire membership at once is important.
“I’ve done billboards in clubhouses before; people just walk by them,” he says. “Now I have people stop me and comment on things they’ve seen on the site. You’d be amazed how many people are computer-savvy in a small town like Wamego.”
If your course has a Web site, you can be an important part of the content. For more information about developing Web content, contact the GCSAA communications department at 800-472-7878, or attend the “Captivating Content — Newsletter and Web Article Ideas and Development” communication workshop at the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in Anaheim in February.
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