Price…it’s golf, not a bathroom remodel. What is the concern? Had a gentleman call recently looking for late September tee times for a group of 16. Golf Course Owner Guy had the day open and couldn’t wait to book him, but before that could happen, he needed to know to know what it would cost.
The Price Waltz
The “transaction dance”. I love how we gently tip toe around each other in this little waltz. I said “the price to play on weekends is $56, a great price for what you will receive.” Then he took the lead, “we were hoping to pay less”. Why would you be hoping to pay less, I thought, you clearly know the price is $56. What assumption did you make that the price everyone pays, is for everyone except you. I asked, “have you played here before?” He responded he had not. “then how would you know that the course is not worth $56, is it possible it’s worth more than $56?”. Now I had him back pedaling. I pushed again, “if it’s not worth $56, and you have never been here, what should I charge?”.
We both laughed and he booked. I told him, “when the day is over and all 16 of you are in the bar, and they are all patting you on the back for being so brilliant in picking a great course, not one will be sitting there thinking, I wish we could have played a course that was $7 dollars less.”
The Point Of All This
The point of this story is….your opinion of how low or how high you think my price is…is simply your opinion, often based on nothing. What is a fact is that golf is our area is very affordable, all of it. People across this country would love to be paying what you might think is over paying. I know RSPGL has awesome affordable golf, and I know the vast majority of our patrons appreciate that.
We played there last week Tues. True it’s a nice courses, we had a coupon for half off
($36 something), for retired guys like myself that’s a fair price. But at the same time there are also some pretty nice courses around our area that at a discount coupon are $20 to$25 bucks. Come September golf is on its way out, it’s Tues. the 8th and I’ll bet you you won’t have more than 20 guys out there today and most will be members. Just my guess but if you had a fall rate for us old guys like a lot of courses in the area you would have four times the golfers. Throw in a free drink at the bar after the round which would cost you 75 cents and I’ll bet you the old guys would have 2 or 3 more at full price. I got an email from the course today that’s why I’m throwing my 2 cents worth…..Bob
Thanks for the comments. I’ve heard this argument before. The idea… that when you charge 1/2 price you will be 4 times as busy is an absolute fallacy. Ask the courses who spend all day charging half price how that’s working for them? Where is this mythical course that does this? The facts are…you get the same amount of play, and you then collect half the money. Or under your theory, the course takes 4 times the pounding and the staff does 4 times the work for the same amount of money. You actually made my argument for me, as I think most people view $25 and $36 the same amount of money. Both are insanely affordable to play golf, compared to many places in the country.
You have a nice fish fry ( and other choices) at reasonable prices. A fun beer selection. I’m not going to ask for more. Golfcoursepwnerguy was home with the family when we arrived. Hope you are well.