What the Golf Industry can learn from Skiing!

Title:                GOLF IS SICK (aka…Great, amazing, awesome!)

MILK RUN (aka ‘First Run of the Day’ aka INTRODUCTION)

“Dude… I was totally ripping it up out there man! Like those greens were freshies this morning. Makes me want to ride the magic carpet one more time”

Had the golf industry followed the lead set by the ski industry over the past few decades, that might have been a conversation you would hear around your clubhouse today.  Your facility would be full of ‘Shredders‘ and ‘Free Riders‘, having fun and playing golf (or possibly, playing a game that resembles golf).

If the golf industry today were more like the ski industry, it’s likely that we would be very comfortable challenging traditions, or welcoming all ages with open arms, or embracing technology at every opportunity.

If the golf industry was more like the ski industry (or even tennis for that matter), we would have found a way to stop our decline, stabilize our industry, develop a plan and see it come to fruition. The press would be celebrating our renewed growth and invigorated new image, instead of kicking us in the shins.

If the golf industry today were more like the ski industry, maybe golf’s ‘snowboarding’ would be here by now?

Sound too simplistic? Of course it is! Because in reality all is not fantastic in the ski business, nor is all lost in the golf business! However, if we look closely at both industries, and in particular to some of the trends and challenges that both industries have faced, we will find that there are many similarities and therefore many opportunities to learn from one another.

STICKS VS. STICKS (aka ‘Comparing Golf & Skiing’)

If you look at golf and skiing with a long-lens, you can draw many comparisons.

To begin, skiers tend to be golfers and visa versa. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, 30% of all golfers also ski. We share consumers that are active, have similar interests and similar income levels.

Second, spurts of growth in both industries have often been caused by advancements made in technology. Golf participation boomed with the introduction of metal woods in the 1980’s, and when snowboarders were finally permitted to ride a lift in 1989 it brought a whole new world of characters to the ski hills.  Back then snowboarding arrived just in time.

Third, in the future both sports will be affected by global trends that are beyond their control. An aging population means fewer kids and that will be bad for both activities (but maybe good for golf cart sales), and most certainly skiing will be impacted if the doom and gloom predictions of global warming are true.

But there are major differences.

Most obvious is that skiing has enjoyed consistent participation over the past couple decades. Other than a banner year in 2007/08 with 21 million skier visits, the average total has consistently been closer to 18 million visits per year since the early 2000’s (Canadian Ski Association).  However in golf, as identified in NAGA’S EIS study, rounds were estimated at 70 million rounds in 2008 and today that number sits at just under 60 million rounds.

Another obvious difference is that ski hills have unlimited access. If there is three feet of powder on a sunny Sunday you aren’t limited to 4 customers every 8 minutes. This allows ski hills to apply yield management practices that are significantly different than for a golf course.  It also allows ski hills to provide discounts or free passes with the hope that it will bring in new customers, with no concern that it will displace a full paying skier.  In golf, when we hand out free passes, we can always hope that they try to redeem it in September during a snowstorm (sorry Calgary!).

Skiing also offers a much-shorter learning curve that allows participants to become comfortable much more quickly than in golf. Michael Berry knows quite a bit about golf, and a lot about the ski business. As President of the National Ski Areas Association of the United States, he has spoken at many golf industry conferences about the similarities and differences between the two sports. “Skiing is a sport and golf is a game”, he states, “and as a sport, the ski industry has spent the last twenty years trying to make it as easy as possible. As skiers we can progress at our own rate without intimidation from other skiers, and as an industry we have focused on making the learning experience as enjoyable as possible”. With a smile on his face he says “I can tell you I have never banged my poles in the snow in frustration or thrown my ski’s in the lake, which is something I can’t say about playing golf”.

Someone who has also seen both activities in action is Patrick Arkeveld, who is the President and CEO of the Canadian Ski Council. His previous job was President of Jonas Software, one of the leading providers of golf management systems in the world. In his experience, he suggests that there are three areas where the ski industry has been able to achieve greater success compared to the golf industry in regards to how they can get things accomplished. He states, “First is the size of our industry.  With only 280 ski hills in Canada, compared to 2,500 golf courses, it is certainly easier to communicate our strategies, implement our programs and manage the expectations of ski hill operators. Second is the way our Council is structured.  While nothing is perfect, we are fortunate that our founders established a structure that represents all interests and it provides great clarity of roles and responsibilities. In addition, our industry really embraces the belief that a united front benefits all stakeholders. Third, and probably most important, is that the ski industry has awesome data.  Our technology can tell us who is skiing, where they are from, how often they ski and even how many runs they take”.  Compare that to golf, where some courses still manage tee sheets using pencil and paper!

WHAT A RIPPER (aka ‘An accomplished skier’ aka WHERE SKIING IS TODAY AND HOW DID IT GET THERE)

Snow boarding maybe didn’t save skiing in the late 1980’s, but it did help reverse some bad trends. Since then however, the ski business has been extremely stable.  As indicated, skier visits in Canada have remained consistent at approximately 18 million visits per year for the past twenty years (give or take half a million due to mother nature). With roughly 2.5 million skiers/boarders in Canada, that equates to an average of 7.5 visits per season per skier.

But although skier visits have remained stable, the opportunity lost for the ski industry has been that participation rates haven’t increased at the same rate as population growth.  In the past twenty years Canada’s population has increased from 29 million to 35 million people.  Much of that growth is led by immigration, and the reality is that many of the new Canadians are not coming from countries that ski, or for that matter, countries that golf.  This is not to say that various ethnic groups don’t become skiers or golfers, but it can be much more difficult for people to understand the benefits of something if they have never experienced it. Imagine moving your family to Ireland and signing your kids up for hurling lessons. That nervousness of the unknown is likely the same feeling that some non-golfing parents get when they drop Johnny and Susie off for a kids golf camp.

That said, what the ski industry has been able to accomplish, even with flat participation, has been to increase revenues. For example, even with somewhat consistent annual participation, ski resort revenue has grown from 840 million in 2005 to 980 million in 2012 (STATS Canada).

So, how did the ski industry do it? How did they manage to stop the decline that was plaguing their industry in the 1970’s? How did they grow revenues with flat participation? Most importantly, how did they manage to not let the invention of that radical snowboarding be the end of traditional skiing?

We should assume it hasn’t been easy and it’s likely the ski industry has had some spills and thrills along the way, but even so, and in an effort to learn from others, here are ten ways the ski industry has earned a gold medal;

Work Together

Andy Hedley, VP of Golf Operations for GolfBC, witnessed first hand some of the advantages that the ski industry had over golf while working in Whistler, “Skiing has worked well with the key decision makers and lobbying Government support. The hotels, tourism boards, government agencies all understand that skiing drives a majority of the Winter Tourism economic activity.  In golf, historically, we have been seen as just one summer activity of many and so have a more difficult time getting a bigger piece of the provincial tourism marketing pie.  When I had a chance to sit in on meetings where marketing dollars were allocated, it seemed to me that the ski industry had participated in a more collaborative process, something the Golf industry is now working towards through the British Columbia Golf Marketing Alliance.”

Embrace change

The ski industry has rejuvenated itself time and time again. When traditional skiing started to wane, along came the snowboard.  When snowboarding threatened traditional skiers, extreme terrain parks were created, and now that snowboarding has started to decline (it’s around 25% today of total participants, down from 30% just a few years ago), along comes twin-tipped ski’s.  It seems that faced with every mogul or snow-bank, the ski industry is able to make significant shifts within its culture to adapt.

Embrace Technology

Embracing technology goes far beyond carbon-fibre and snowboards, and some of the technology that has drastically impacted the sport has no connection to your feet.  For anyone old enough to remember, if it didn’t snow you didn’t ski! Nowadays, snowmaking equipment is so advanced that they can make snow even when the temperature is above freezing. Efficiency has also drastically improved. Gone are the days when you sat on frozen metal for 45 minutes slowly inching your way uphill in a blizzard. Today you and three strangers are whisked through the air on lifts so fast they even have names like ‘Solar Coaster’ and ‘High-Five Express’.

Stay Cool

The ski industry has identified their ideal customer, and that customer is ‘cool’.  Through fashion, advertising and even the lexicon used by skiers, skiing has worked hard to always be at the forefront of what’s cool. By blending new garment technology and a ‘anti-establishment’ message, kids that ski (and their mom’s and dad’s) are the cool ones on the block!

Gather Data

The ski industry has great data.  They have harnessed technology and in some cases, even mandated various improvements to software so that the industry as a whole will benefit. As an example, with the explosion of season passes came the need for lift scanners, and as a result they have been able to gather valuable data of every skier on the hill.

Make It Easy

Probably the simplest and greatest invention ever made in skiing was the colour-coding system used for grading ski runs. Used by the 2,000 plus ski resorts around the world, you can ski in any country and know that a ski run marked with a green circle should have a slope gradient of no more than 25%. Hills with a 25-40% grade are blue squares and runs with a grade of more than 40% are black diamond (otherwise known as ‘Holy S*#@’).

As Michael Berry stated, ski operators know that the easier they make a skiers first experiences, the greater chance they will return. This means that ski hills have been adding easier runs instead of making the hill tougher (hello golf course designers?). Also, by creating safe zones for new skiers to learn, they reduce the intimidation factor that can be so prevalent on a golf course.

The ski industry has also worked hard at making the entire ski experience as stress free as possible. The best example of that is the Discover Skiing and Snowboarding program launched by the Canadian Ski Council which is a package offered at hills all across the country aimed at new skiers/boarders that includes a lift ticket, a first lesson and quality rental equipment (including a brain bucket!).

Attract Kids

Neil Champagne, VP of Operations at Tremblant, is another industry leader who knows a thing or two about both skiing and golf, and see’s first-hand how skiing has advantages in attracting kids. “The ski industry can promote kids FREE programs because we are not working with a limited volume of guests per day, nor affecting revenues on that specific day since the lifts are turning. Plus, there are more & more ski hills that are developing specific kids & never/ never zones for beginners to ensure that their first experience is excellent. Of course with skiing we also don’t intimidate newbies with rules on how to dress or how to talk or be quiet”.

Attract Friends

Because they have great data and research, the ski industry has been able to identify a very important statistic, which is that 90% of new skiers try the sport because of a friend. This realization has led the industry to focus time, money and effort on programs to motivate current participants to ‘bring a buddy’.

In the United States the NSAA (their Version of our CSC) have even launched a program and website called “Bring a Friend” which is a way “for friends and family members to share their love of skiing and snowboarding with others by helping them sign up for lessons from professional instructors”. As the website states, “No one wants to ski or snowboard alone”. Even better, this pay it forward endeavor even provides skiers a chance to participate in the ‘Bring a Friend Challenge’, where you can qualify for prizes or even be named Snow Ambassador of the Year.

Add Amenities

At most resorts today the skiing is only part of the overall experience.  Tube parks, skating rinks, horse and sleigh rides and even large, open fire-pits create a full winter vacation experience that is bound to tempt even the non-skier in the family. Also, as with golf, good ski operators understand that great food not only attracts more customers but it also can be a healthy source of revenue if done right.

And finally…. It takes dough to grow!

The ski industry have wisely developed their own funding mechanisms to support these grow the sport endeavors.

One great example is the Grade 5/6 Snow Pass, which provides free lift tickets at over 150 ski hills to any child in Grades 5 or 6. The lift tickets are provided by the resorts, and the administration fee of $29.95 raises more than a million dollars per year that can then be used for grow the sport efforts. Better still is that the program targets an age that research identified as the ideal time to get a child into skiing. Old enough that their muscles can maneuver ski’s but not too old so that they feel uncool when they eat wood (hit a tree!).

Another fundraising effort is the Corporate Lift Pass program, where ski lift passes are sold in bundles of twenty to companies for employee benefits and other perks.

Of course it’s much easier to donate lift tickets for industry-driven efforts when you have an unlimited supply, but you don’t have to be Jean-Claude Killey to figure out that it’s simply good business to fund programs that will ensure that your industry is healthy today, and the years to come.

FACE PLANT (aka ‘Falling on Your Face while taking risks’ aka THE GOLF INDUSTRY MUST DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY)

Is the golf industry dying? No it’s not. But it would be naïve to think that we are simply in a minor slump that will be corrected when Delaet wins a major.

As clearly shown in the recent NAGA driven Economic Impact Study, golf continues to thrive in so many areas, with a direct $14 billion to Canada’s economy.  Many would say that our issues today are simply supply and demand correcting itself.  Many others however are very worried about some the trends we are facing, such as the huge decrease in the number of kids taking up the game.

SO… IF WE COULD WAVE A MAGIC SKI POLE AND LEARN SOME LESSONS FROM SKIING… WHAT COULD THE GOLF INDUSTRY LOOK LIKE IN THE FUTURE? WHAT MIGHT OUR VERSION OF SNOWBOARDING LOOK LIKE?

Data Collection

All stakeholders would use the same POS software that would allow the industry to share relevant data.  With the belief that a bigger pie means everyone gets a bigger piece, technology would be created to maximize yield management, increase data collection and improve costumer relations. By using this advanced software the golf industry will better understand golfer behavior, which will allow operators to attract more new golfers, get golfers playing more and better yet, tells us why current golfers play less.

New Thinking

Forget about 9-holes or 12 holes! These are solutions created by golfers trying to put a square idea into a round cup. How about pay by the minute? Or pay by the day? Or instead of discounting to your current customers through third party resellers, how about we invent golf’s own buddy system that offers 2 for 1 lessons, green fees and equipment rental when you introduce a new or lapsed golfer?  For every operator that is dismissing FootGolf as a gimmick there is another operator making thousands of dollars of additional revenue. Foot Golf, PowerPlay Golf, 15 inch cups, FlingGolf and other inventions are not meant to replace golf or to be for golf what snowboarding was to skiing, but instead they are tools that get people exposed to the game and to your facility that might not be otherwise.

Ease of Entry

Creating a new method for rating course difficulty so that non-golfers can immediately identify where to go (and where not to).  Providing inexpensive or free equipment for beginners to increase enjoyment.  A national program every Saturday from 4 – 5PM, at EVERY golf course in the country, where brand new golfers can attend a Free Introduction to Golf Class that includes a tour of the facility and classroom instruction on how to buy a token, get clubs, basic rules and etiquette. Maybe the session ends with a few putts on the putting green and a glass of wine on the patio? If 1,500 courses held ten classes a summer, with ten new golfers in each class, golf would be exposed to 150,000 potential new golfers each year.

Grow the Game Funding

How about a nationally driven Kids Play Free Golf card, just like the Grade 5/6 Ski Pass?  Sell a pass to any kid under the age of twelve for a whopping $19.95. It allows that child to play any participating course in Canada for free with a full paying adult. There are roughly 5 million kids in Canada under the age of twelve. Many courses already offer the same benefit, but unless the entire industry gets behind it, no one will truly benefit from the mass marketing opportunities.

Change the Message

In Simon Sinek’s excellent book Start With Why, he describes how great organizations and leaders inspire others to take action.  These organizations have identified their WHY, or more specifically, have identified what they truly believe in and how that relates to the products and services that they offer.

For the golf industry, this means clarifying our message by answering these questions; Why should I play golf? Why should my kids play golf? What is the best way to learn the game? Where is the best place to learn the game?

It would be helpful if EVERYONE working in the industry had consistent answers to these questions. The golf industry needs to get everyone to sing from the same song-sheet, and for that song to be about the core values and benefits that golf can provide. The dominating marketing message seen by consumers should speak of the benefits of the game, such as quality family time away from electronics while outdoors with some fresh air and exercise. Having fun!  Why is it that most non-golfers are bombarded with ads about how to hit it 10 yards further, when what they really want to know is simply how to hit it 10 yards?

CHILL DUDE (aka ‘THE GLASS IS STILL HALF-FULL’)

Are any of these ideas possible? Maybe, maybe not! Are there other better ideas out there that we can take from the ski industry, or the tennis industry, or the widget industry? Of course there is, but our challenge as an industry is that too often we only look inward at our own issues. Maybe that’s because we have had many issues to deal with, and important ones such as equal access for women and creating environmental standards.  However, it also seems that we have had far too much dialogue on issues that are much less relevant, such as long-socks or short, should cell phones be allowed on a golf course or why square grooves should be banished so that god forbid, Mr. Jones can never spin-back a wedge.

Maybe it’s time that we change our conversation? Maybe it’s time to talk less about who should grow the game and more about how we grow the game? Maybe its time to ‘invent our own snowboarding’ by simply doing things differently then we did in the past?  Or maybe, we should simply put on our goggles, aim down the zipper line and not be afraid if we end up like a yard sale! Who knows, maybe one day in the future someone from the ski industry will be calling us asking, “Hey dude, how did you guys save the golf business?”

BIO

JAMES CRONK – Principle, Cronk Group

James Cronk is a highly regarded speaker and consultant and his work takes him around the globe, helping clubs and organizations improve their people, their products and their profits. His clients include private, resort and daily fee clubs of all sizes and also national and international organizations such as NGCOA, CMAA, CSCM, EGCOA, PGA and GOLF 2020. For more information visit www.cronkgroup.com or contact him at james@cronkgroup.com