The Business of Golf - What Are You Thinking? How to Maximize the Financial Return of a Golf Course (2012 Edition)

During the next twelve months, more than 58 million golfers will decide where to go play over 1 billion rounds of golf on nearly 33,000 golf courses. What influences their decision? They all have one thing in common: they are seeking value-based entertainment.

What does it take to attract and retain those decision makers? The financial success of a golf course is dependent on understanding those motivations and ensuring that the experience created exceeds the price charged.

In ground-breaking research based on hard economic data, extensive field experience, and numerous client case studies, eight key concepts that accurately predict the success of a golf course are revealed:

1.The age, income, ethnicity and population density within 10 miles of the course.

2.The number of playable days measured against the efficiency of management.

3.The integration of software to create actionable information.

4.Financial benchmarking facility performance against peers.

5. Continual "appropriate" investment in the course infrastructure, equipment and labor.

6.Ensuring the "assembly line" of customer touch points matches the desired experience intended: platinum, gold, silver, bronze or steel.

7.Understanding the golfer's habits and preferences.

8.Evaluating and developing customer loyalty.

This book sheds light on virtually every aspect of golf course operations--strategic, tactical and operational. You'll learn why some golf courses are successful while others flounder.

The Golf Convergence WIN™ formula taught in this textbook is an easy-to-follow method that has consistently increased the financial return of golf courses, and enhances the customer experience to the desired level.

In an industry that is struggling who can afford to ignore the findings of this book, and the formula for success that is presented?

Known to his friends as "Rain Man" because of his amazing recall of any course he has played, any person he has met, or any place he has traveled, James J. Keegan has a zest for golf and for life.

With a great heart and a quick mind, he has established a wide-ranging network within the golf industry, an industry in which there may be only one degree of separation from the management leaders who make a positive difference and those who don't. He leverages his educational background with his extensive experience in the golf industry to frame a vision that can be understood by all. He quickly "cuts to the chase."

With nine principals averaging 20 years of experience in the golf business, Golf Convergence provides common sense solutions founded on sound principals. With clients from Europe, to Asia, and across America, Golf Convergence has developed a unique process that is enhancing the profitability, the value and the investment return of today's golf courses. By judiciously balancing the doctrines of strategic vision, tactical planning and operational accomplishment into an eight-step executable formula, fiscal prosperity is being rekindled.

As Managing Principal of Golf Convergence, Keegan has traveled in excess of 2,250,000 miles visiting over 250 courses annually and meeting with owners and key management personnel at more than 3,000 courses. Having successfully combined his passion for golf with his business acumen, his experience makes him uniquely qualified to offer expert opinions on trends and issues facing golf courses today because of his direct knowledge and interaction with the golfing community.

An accomplished writer, Keegan published in July, 2010, "The Business of Golf - What Are You Thinking?"

Currently, he serves as a panelist for Golf Magazine's Top 100 Golf Courses. He is a member of the Club Manager's Association of America, the National Golf Foundation, and the International Network of Golf. Keegan is a former volunteer of the Colorado Golf Association and the USGA Sectional Affairs Committee. Jim has served as a course rater and rules official for numerous tournaments including the local and sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open and the World Club Championship.

A certified public accountant with a B.B.A. degree from Texas Christian University, Keegan earned an M.B.A. in corporate finance from the University of Michigan. He has also served as a captain in the United States Air Force and worked at KPMG as a computer audit specialist.