2015-05-05_PR Comm Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Can Minnesota golf courses find the next generation of players? I MinnPost Page 6 of 8 Elsewhere in the state, roughly three dozen golf courses are run by municipalities as segregated enterprises. Of that total, only two earned money in 2013, according to the latest figures released by the Office of the State Auditor. Nearly a dozen—most of which are located in the Twin Cities metro area—lost six -figure sums for operations that year. Meeting the challenges Steve Wetzler is the publisher of Tee Times Magazine, a golf digest based in Prescott, Wis., that serves much of the Twin Cities area. "If you're just trying to maintain the status quo, every guy or gal that leaves, you've got to replace them with someone new," says Wetzler, assessing the current landscape. "If you want to get rounds up, you have to steal them from another course or introduce someone to the game." In a nutshell, he says golfs challenges are three -fold: It's an expensive sport, it's time- consuming and it's difficult to play. When Tee Times helps market golf courses, Wetzler says he tells staff at the courses that they're not competing against every course in the Twin Cities — some courses are better suited for beginners, others market to elite -level players. "You can't try to be everything to everyone. It's like a restaurant; you need to specialize," he says. To address the time issue, in 2013 golf associations and publications began a collaborative campaign called Time For Nine, which helps point golfers to courses that accommodate nine - hole rounds of golf rather than the full round of 18. Another innovation that Wetzler notes is a website called grouplooper.com, a social network that allows users to post times and locations when and where they plan to play, in hopes that friends will sign up to join them. Tweaks to the game itself also have been bandied about: larger cups for beginners called Big Cup, a game called TopGolf that meshes the appeal of a driving range with accuracy challenges and FootGolf, which blends elements of golf and soccer. FootGolf made its debut at Columbia and Hiawatha golf courses late last season. A Minneapolis Park and Recreation spokeswoman, Robin Smother, says that from its Aug. 4 opening through Labor Day, 648 rounds of FootGolf were played at the courses. Stephen Montemayor is the online editor and Andre Eggert is an online writer for Twin Cities Business. This article is reprinted in partnership with Twin Cities Business. Get MinnPost's top stories in your inbox http://www.minnpost.com/twin-cities-business/2015/04/can-minnesota-golf... 4/22/2015