Estate Living Magazine Issue 30 Smart Environments June 2018 | Page 27

The analysis was based on some hard intel and then supported
by an educated guess, as the staff at The Pro Shop had not been
keeping full records of the rounds traffic, and the club’s booking
system’s software was not able to store or cross-check this type
of information.
The average yield per round was R67.40 in the existing unlimited
rounds membership package. In this membership type, the
second levels of yield in terms of additional spend were estimated
to exclude golf carts revenues (given that 99% of members owned
their own carts), and halfway house revenues at about a 50%
uptake per round because many members are residents on the
estate so they bring their own water, drinks and snacks on their
carts. And, outside of official competition days, they would often
just play through.
The same 50% estimate was then applied to post-game drinks
consumption on the basis that, other than for official events and
competition days, most of the resident members went home after
their games, unless they were likely to feature in the prizes in
which case many still went home, and then came back to the
club for prize-giving.
Using this as a base, we then constructed an offer for a corporate
partnership. The package was designed to allow the four divisions
within this corporate group to interact with the club as corporate
members.
Pecanwood Estate
Each corporate member would be provided with four playing cards
and then offered 16 tee times per day (1 four-ball per playing
card), for use by their staff, customers and guests.
The cost per round was structured so as to offer the same rate
to the corporate partnership as the unlimited rounds fee for
individual members. The full potential of yield per round (yield 2)
was conservatively estimated as follows.
With halfway house at R75 per person, share of rental cart at R150
and R50 for two post-game drinks, the total revenues for yield 2 for
this membership type was R275 per person. This compared with
the yield 2 revenues for a single member with unlimited rounds
of R62.50. Converted over this particular corporate membership’s
maximum possible use per annum, this translates into additional
potential yield 2 revenues of just under R1.1 million per annum.
The Roman philosopher Seneca stated that 'luck is what happens
when preparation meets opportunity'. The opportunities to be
creative (discounting your club’s green fees more than the next
club does not count!) abound, but to be harnessed you will need
to have good intel as the base from which to build the solution
to match.
On that same theme, and to metaphorise Mark Twain’s character
Mulberry Hills’ original statement to ‘there’s gold in them thar tills’,
you will need to mine your till’s data effectively, and be prepared
to be innovative, so as to have good intel and be positioned to take
advantage of the opportunities that are available, thus removing
the influence of Seneca’s ‘Lady Luck’ right out of the equation.
Estate Living Golf Editor
By John Cockayne
www.estate-living.co.za | 25